cheesehed007
Well-Known Member
I made my first starter at 5:30 this morning for my brew day tomorrow.
kscarrington said:Worked up a starter with Wyeast Bavarian Lager for tomorrow's Oktoberfest, built a new wooden brew stand, cleaned out the keg that I converted into a mash tun, hooked up lengths of hose to camlock fittings, connected camlock fittings to my Chugger pump, took the pump and hoses for a test run. Tomorrow's brew day is going to be interesting!
I've never made a lager. Do you make the starter at room temp or does it need to be kept at lager temps?
Trippel-A said:Brewed my first all grain batch today. We'll, still boiling, actually. Kept losing temp in my new Rubbermaid 10 gallon MLT, and so ended up adding too much hot water for my boil kettle. It's really a turkey fryer, too small for these shenanigans, so I couldn't completely sparge and I've had some boil overs while working my way down to 5 gallons. Only 4 minutes of boil to go, though. My neighbor in our condo building thoughtfully brought out a work light and ran an extension cord out his window (which I'm brewing right under) so I can see to keep going.
Also, my 2 year old daughter helped me recirculate. Is that legal?
All in all, good brew day. :-D
I just hope I learn why I kept losing temp so I can avoid it next time.
Is the lid or walls dead air space?? Mine was, I fiilled the void in the lid with a can of foam insulation, now I can hold mash temp within a degree for two hours!!!
Trippel-A said:The walls shouldn't be. I used the amateur-standard Rubbermaid 10 gallon coolers. From what I've read, I should have heated my mash water about 10 degrees higher, let some of the heat be absorbed into the cooler walls and head space, and then just waited until it reached the strike temp.
Makes me think i should definitely add a thermometer to my mashtun with one of these methods.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/rubbermaid-cooler-thermometer-171517/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/remote-probe-thermometer-wort-proofing-26905/
Yeah, the walls of mine were insulated, but the lid wasnt, so I insulated that. Ive jus been using a floating type food grade thermometer, a cany thermometer I think. Real tight +/- tolerances in the 170 deg range. I mash in this big cooler. Can easily hold 30 lbs of grain.
Yellowirenut said:Its what beer did for ME today. Was a rough day no breaks, 10 min lunch and OT but we got the work done. Came home and had a nice glass of beer to recharge the body. Will have another one to relax with wile I am eating supper.
I bottled my Oberon clone...holding on to summer as long as I can. I hope to brew my next batch tomorrow or Thursday. I've tweaked my house IPA to have a deep red hue for the start of my Wolfpack's football season.
Cathedral said:Stupid autocorrect. I'm sure you meant a deep scarlet hue for the start of the Buckeyes football season. Good thing were on the same page. Go bucks!
Trippel-A said:A floating thermometer sounds easy, but I want to avoid opening the cooler. Also, how deep does the probe go when it's floating?
My boil kettle is really an aluminum turkey fryer, and above 7.5 gallons or so, wort leaks out the handle rivets, runs down, and gives the burner cause to flare up and around the sides... I'm going to have to do something about that.
But anyway, even the 10 gallon coolers are more than I need until I get a bigger kettle.
For you to get that, it means someone stopped homebrewin. And thats sad
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