What I did for beer today

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Waiting for a boil on a pale and trying to avoid adding any leaves to it
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Yesterday- Brewed a best bitter that got split in half to fermented with two different yeasts. It was nice day but a little windy, weatherman(woman) predicted a nice day. Turned gray as the boil started, 5min left light mist on on my neck, 1min left light sprinkle, 10min into chilling big azz drops and small hails, 85F and break was forming so called it early. Ran in and out between surges to finish cleaning, stopped about when I was done. Not much rain just enough to make everything real wet, did get some thunder and lightning which is not too usual around here.

Today- both halves bubbling happily.
 
Yesterday- Brewed a best bitter that got split in half to fermented with two different yeasts. It was nice day but a little windy, weatherman(woman) predicted a nice day. Turned gray as the boil started, 5min left light mist on on my neck, 1min left light sprinkle, 10min into chilling big azz drops and small hails, 85F and break was forming so called it early. Ran in and out between surges to finish cleaning, stopped about when I was done. Not much rain just enough to make everything real wet, did get some thunder and lightning which is not too usual around here.

Today- both halves bubbling happily.

Yesterday I was hoping to brew since Saturday was rain and wind, but we had 50mph gusts again and avocado-leaf stout is not on the Good Eats list. Made some honey-ginger priming sugar for the 12 Beers of Christmas swap, though.
 
Brewed a batch of Racer 5 clone on Sunday; yesterday came home to a clogged airlock and crazy fermentation. Cleaned out the airlock, refilled, and installed again (yes I know I should have used a blowoff, but couldn't find the right carboy cap and I was tired and in a hurry). Tonight, came home to more beer in the airlock, but krausen fallen like a rock. Now have to get the dry hop ready faster than originally intended. Might be able to keg this one this weekend. Never had fresh Notty go that fast on a 1.065 beer, at 66 degrees by the controller. This recipe is my 'bogey' beer; I've attempted it 5 times to date, and only got good batches twice, once bottled and once kegged. I did have to change up the hops since I don't have any centennial (I can't stand that hop, don't ask why) and will have to sub in cascade with a smidgen of crystal.
 
I kegged my Sabro Riwaka Pale ale thats been sitting in the fermenter for two months due to health issues and a complete lack of motivation on my part. About 6 weeks of cold crashing so it was super clear. It's for a wedding next week so should be carbed up just in time.
 
Finally bottled the Christmas dubbel and kegged a milk chocolate stout. Pretty happy to have a lot of beer on hand.
 

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Stopped at Total Wine and bought a sampling of Scottish beers because I am about to make @Brewbuzzard's Scottish Export recipe for my sister and need to know what I am shooting for.

Oh damn, I have to drink beer. :rolleyes:

Oh, I also took a taste of the DIPA I kegged the other day. More malty/sweet (too much crystal I think) than I expected, but also came in at 9.2% which is way over the mark.
 
Rebuilding the mash tun; the valve on it was crappy plastic, bulkhead was too loose, and my false bottom (on 3" legs) is what I think may have been contributing to less than optimum efficiency. Bought a new 12" domed false bottom this week, and stopped at HD on the way home today to get the hardware. Replaced the 3/4" bulkhead with a 1/2", and a solid brass ball valve to replace the crappy plastic one; but bought the wrong size MIP to barb fitting for the hose from the bottom to the bulkhead. No matter, will get another one tomorrow after brewday; I'll just tip the tun up when it's time to drain as I've done in the past. Now my bag will go all the way to the bottom of the tun, I'm losing that 3" of dead space that I'm about 98% positive kept my efficiency down. Or that's what I'm telling myself. It's also fun to build things; doing a leak test now, and it's got just a tiny one that will go away once it gets gummed up with wort. I'll provide pics when it's all done. Gonna be a double brew weekend, doing a WF lager tomorrow and some IPA on Sunday. For anyone who hasn't seen my setup before, my mash tun is a repurposed 16g blue extract barrel with a sparge arm built into the lid, wrapped in two layers of thermowrap; love that thing. I can do 10g batches in it, just choose not to, because hefting that much wet spent grain is just a bit too much. And I like variety.
 
Rebuilding the mash tun; the valve on it was crappy plastic, bulkhead was too loose, and my false bottom (on 3" legs) is what I think may have been contributing to less than optimum efficiency. Bought a new 12" domed false bottom this week, and stopped at HD on the way home today to get the hardware. Replaced the 3/4" bulkhead with a 1/2", and a solid brass ball valve to replace the crappy plastic one; but bought the wrong size MIP to barb fitting for the hose from the bottom to the bulkhead. No matter, will get another one tomorrow after brewday; I'll just tip the tun up when it's time to drain as I've done in the past. Now my bag will go all the way to the bottom of the tun, I'm losing that 3" of dead space that I'm about 98% positive kept my efficiency down. Or that's what I'm telling myself. It's also fun to build things; doing a leak test now, and it's got just a tiny one that will go away once it gets gummed up with wort. I'll provide pics when it's all done. Gonna be a double brew weekend, doing a WF lager tomorrow and some IPA on Sunday. For anyone who hasn't seen my setup before, my mash tun is a repurposed 16g blue extract barrel with a sparge arm built into the lid, wrapped in two layers of thermowrap; love that thing. I can do 10g batches in it, just choose not to, because hefting that much wet spent grain is just a bit too much. And I like variety.
When I went from a stainless braid to a domed false bottom I was no long able to tip the mashtun to get all of the wort. I also needed to drain slower to keep from losing a vacuum and end up unable to recover all of the wort.
 
When I went from a stainless braid to a domed false bottom I was no long able to tip the mashtun to get all of the wort. I also needed to drain slower to keep from losing a vacuum and end up unable to recover all of the wort.
I'm thinking I might be okay, since I use the ball valve to keep the flow to what the pump/bag can handle; if it starts to stick I'll just ramp down more on the valve. Since I won't have the bottom connected to the valve tomorrow, it should be okay? Only way to tell is to try....
 
I'm thinking I might be okay, since I use the ball valve to keep the flow to what the pump/bag can handle; if it starts to stick I'll just ramp down more on the valve. Since I won't have the bottom connected to the valve tomorrow, it should be okay? Only way to tell is to try....
If it is not hooked up seems like it should work like it was. If you lift the bag then also probably not issue with over running and losing vacuum, but if you leave the bag in place while draining then the flow will matter more. If you draw wort from below the level of your valve then you need to make sure you don't draw too fast as you get near the bottom.

I use a pump during the mash, then gravity feed into the boil kettle.
 
If it is not hooked up seems like it should work like it was. If you lift the bag then also probably not issue with over running and losing vacuum, but if you leave the bag in place while draining then the flow will matter more. If you draw wort from below the level of your valve then you need to make sure you don't draw too fast as you get near the bottom.

I use a pump during the mash, then gravity feed into the boil kettle.
That's what I was thinking. Bag is just long enough to hit the top of the new false bottom, and I might just tighten it up a bit so it doesn't flab out all over the place (if that makes sense). I use a pump for everything, from adding the strike, lautering, to running in the sparge, recirculating, and draining. For tomorrow's brew I'm going with a lighter grain bill than I usually do (10lbs) so if things go sideways I can always heft the bag out and put the old false bottom in there. It's gonna be beer, I do know that. Thanks for the input! I'll be updating tomorrow, sure of that.
 
You always seem to get great clarity in your hydro samples.
Thanks, but, to be honest, that might have as much to do with knowing how long to let the sample settle out before taking the picture as anything. :cool:

The sample in my previous post is a true lager, not a WF lager. It had been at 55° for almost 2 weeks before I kicked it up to 70° for a couple of days, so it was pretty clear.
 
Vague plans for a brew this weekend so I got some RO water going and opened the freezer to check the Hop situation. It is not good. Should be able to put a Wit together for the work xmas do though.
 
Finished the work on the mash tun; got the right hose/barb combo from Amazon after paying to have it delivered same day. Today's brew (before the fix) didn't go as well as I thought it should, but it will be beer; tomorrow's brewday should be better. Here's a couple of pics of the new ball valve and what the inside looks like now (the mash tun is actually cleaner than it looks, trust me, also preboil so who cares).

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I suppose I should also note, if the new improved mash tun/false bottom combo works, I have a very nice 12" false bottom on 3" legs that I would be willing to part with....paid $65 for it about 1.5 years ago. Just sayin.
 
I suppose I should also note, if the new improved mash tun/false bottom combo works, I have a very nice 12" false bottom on 3" legs that I would be willing to part with....paid $65 for it about 1.5 years ago. Just sayin.


i never had luck with the false bottoms. went to a stainless braid, and it got crushed eventually and now have a bazooka tube. way better.

and honestly, you mash tun looks cleaner then mine? but i don't know why it's blue? lol
 
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