It weren't pretty, but its gonna be alright.

[Zymurgrafi]

Well, despite excellent advice to the contrary (sorry folks, I apperciate the advice i am just wicked stubborn! although I did go with the safale s-04)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23139

I went ahead and tried my first "real" partial mash (i have done some teeny tiny stove top experiments) in my new constructed, very rigged mash tun.

It was UGLY! What a #$%^in' mess!!! Effeciency? Yeah right! :cross:

Much problems with getting the right temp. Stuck sparge right off the bat (I tried to darin so I could reheat at the beginning... several times) Basically I stuffed way too much grain in my little 2 gallon cooler. Why so small? I had one already. Not enough room to have a good water to grain ratio. Plus my hose/drain setup was wicked cheap and sketchy. I did not end up collecting all that I could have gotten out of the grains. Oh well. Much anti-worry lubricant was applied as the mess grew bigger My notes got sloppier... the word mess was used liberally (plus some other adjectives) In the end though, I think it will be just fine. It is bubbling away happily as I type. 6 points off of my target oh well... Still okay for an oatmeal stout 1.048. Dark and tasty.

Here is what I tried cramming in there.

3 lbs. 2 row Pale
.63 lb. Roasted Barley
.325 Black Patent
.50 lb. Crystal
.25 Chocolate malt
1 lb. Quick oats
.15 lb. flaked barley

What water ratio did I end up with, um, er, your guess is as good as mine.

Then to brewpot
3 lbs Dark dme
.50 oz N Brewer 7.5% aa
.40 Kent Golding
.25 Fuggle 4.0% aa
(all boiled 60 minutes) Why the crazy hop combo... Leftovers

.50 Tettnager 4.5% aa 15 minutes
Irish moss

Well, I will take the simplicity advice next round. Had to get that out of my system first though. Maybe a nice pale ale with a small amount of grains... Or a bigger mashtun!

 

[onecolumbyte]

The partial mash I did ended up with a packed cooler as well. I had to buy 2 gallon because I couldn't find a 3 gallon for the life of me and 5 gallons was to big (and much to close to all grain ) My water ratio was less than 1:1 for sure. I think I ended up getting ~50% eff. I didn't even have enough DME to hit my TG. But it was fun! I'll be tasting the beer soon. Denny's Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter. I have high hopes.

How did you end up with a stuck sparge when batch sparging? Did you use the SS tube for a filter or PVC bed? I had no troubles with the sparge but I didn't use any oats just malt.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

I have a ss braid. What happened? I do not know. Too many oats in too small a space? I tried precooking them somewhat too... I sort of tried to do a beta-glucan rest at about 125 F for the oats but went over that temp then realized I had very limited room left to add water to bring the temp up to 155 which is what I was aiming for. So I scrapped that and just added hot water. Ended up about 145 F so I tried to drain some to heat and bring the temp up. Only about a pint came out. I ended up dumping it all into another pot with a straining bag (MESS!!!!) and then straining, heating, and then I put another grain bag in the cooler and added the grains back in... :cross:

YIKES! Repeated the draining/heating sequence a couple of times til I got close enough to the temp I was aiming for. It drained better with the extra grain bag in there but not great. I probably did not use enough sparge water either but I filled my brewpot (only holds 3 gallons) and another pot which only holds about 1 gallon. There was still sweet wort coming out slowly every now and then as the two pots boiled but I wondered how good it was as it had sat so long. I have much to learn, but I agree. Despit the utter chaos it was fun!

To note, my setup does not have a valve. It consists of the ss braid clamped to a piece of bent racking cane, jammed into a piece of siphon hose, jammed into a wider diameter hose, jammed into the original outer section of the cooler spigot. Yes, very rigged! It does not leak, but it does not drain too well either. How much the oats had to do with it I will have to find out. I was trying to just work with what I have for now to give it a go. As long as there is beer, I'll make it work...

 

[Sean]

I think you need to add some of the mash water before the grains. That way the dried grains are not in the mesh, when the water hits them, and they expand, clogging the plumbing. Best of luck.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

Hey thanks Sean.

Yeah, I did add mash water first and then a little grains, and stirred, added more. I think I just had too much grain for the small space I had. I kne it would be tight going into it, just did not know how much so. It is slowly coming back to me what actually happened. Like I said, it was pretty ugly.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

So the safale s-04 is pretty quick. Major activity was done in about 2 days.

Nothing like a really dark beer to show you just how much is going on in there. I could really see all the debris swirling and churning around. Not too appetizing to watch...

Temp is holding steady (nice change) nothing left to do but wait.

That is truly the hardest part of brewing I think.

 

[BierMuncher]

Temp is holding steady (nice change) nothing left to do but wait.

That is truly the hardest part of brewing I think.

That and trying not to sample your brew away before it is finished.

Sounds like a 1048 stout is perfect. Stout should be IMHO, a form of session beer and not too heavy on the alcohol.

I hope this tastes like your good ole days. Chalk up that run of bad beers as "your turn". From here on, they'll be perfect.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

That and trying not to sample your brew away before it is finished.

Agreed! Of course it is much easier to resist sampling bad beer!

Hey thanks BierMuncher, I hope you are right...

I am thirsty!