Michael's Stout

[Beer Snob]

It has begun. Early... this way I stay saine.

The method I am using can be found here at Socks Monkeys and Beer.

http://www3.telus.net/sockmonkeysandbeer/beer/HowIBrew/howIbrew.html

Here it is at the start...

This time I am hoping that this connection will hold... high temp tubbing and 2 stainless steel clamps.

1 gal in.... you think the paddle will stap this time... damm... did not get a second one.....

2 gals in.... paddle still in one piece!

At 3 gal I started the timer and hit 157 degrees! (ProMash RULES!)

 

[Beer Snob]

Had to add a few cups of hot water....

 

[david_42]

I think we have the same stove.

Looks like future beer!

 

[Beer Snob]

I think we have the same stove.

Looks like future beer!

It's not a terrible one for brewing actually... even the small burner can get a slow boil of a 3 gal wort.

 

[Beer Snob]

Here is the sparge. It is done with the steel pot and is almost done with the enamal one. I ran into a problem cause the cooler that I used for a HWT refused to do anything but leak. So I thought I could do it with the pots I had... I did... but was not the safest thing bringing a pot of boiling water up a ladder to dump in the mash.

Remember what happened when I tried to put this sh*t through the garbage disposal.... eh... I think not today.....

Tubing held perfectly!

This is my plan to keep things cool.... I'll keep you up to date if it works....

 

[Beer Snob]

Chiller brought it down to temperature in 15 minutes flat!

Talk about active yeast... this is at 10 minutes with some DME.

This is what happens when you use that kick a$$ whip attached to your drill for 20 second intervals for 2 minutes.

 

[Beer Snob]

My mash began at 158 degrees and when it was done came down to about 152 degrees. At about 68 degrees the boil gravity was 1.050 for the steel pot. I kinda screwed up in figuring efficiency thinking this would be it, but this was just 3 gallons of the wort. I did not get a gravity reading of the second pot (the other 3 gals).

The chiller worked great. After I pitched the yeast my OG was a bit lower then ProMash told me and I was to wraped up in things to add DME to bring it up. OG is 1.032.

Taste test was very nice. I did not use a lot of hops. 1oz of Northdown Pellets at 8.0 AA.

Two questions really.... is there any way to calculate efficiency using the gravities I do have?

Any thoughts on why the gravity came out 12 points lower then ProMash estimated?

 

[Beer Snob]

Hey forgot to mention, but the ProMash Batch Calculations were really great. Was wondering how acurate they would be cause I kept having to do them over for various reasons

 

[Beer Snob]

I've got active fermentation all the way to the top... we're talking 3 1/2 hours here