As my contribution in teaching a friend to homebrew, I invited my friend Lyle over for the Brown Porter brew session. With some passing showers in the morning and colder temperatures rolling through, it didn’t look like great homebrewing weather. In the afternoon, the clouds broke a little bit and the winds were tolerable…so the brew was a go.
I read Chris Colby’s article in BYO about partial mashing dark beers and treating your water with baking soda to keep the pH in check for optimal mashing and brewing. From what I read, the dark grain make the wort more acidic and it could affect your mash efficiency and mouthfeel. So, I followed some of the tips in the article.
I did not mash my dark grains. I steeped them in my brew kettle while my lighter grains were mashing.
One thing that I am embarrassed to admit, but because we set out Brew-Dudes.com to be truthful and a place for learning I will admit, is the fact that you cannot mash a small amount of grain in a 5 gallon cooler. I bought a 5 gallon cooler with the notion that I would be all-grain brewing soon enough. The purchase was a mistake in terms of using it for partial mashes. There is too much head space in a 5 gallon cooler to maintain mash temperatures. I insulated my cooler this time with a really big blanket. I still lost a lot of heat in the hour mash time….so please…learn from me:
- Use a 2 gallon cooler if you are going to follow a partial mash procedure in your homebrewing endeavors.
I poured the liquor from my mash tun into my boiling pot. We did have a bit of a boil over after the first edition of hops, but we pulled the heat down in time before a huge mess was made. The rest of the boil was fine. We drank Wachusett Black Shack Porters while we kept an eye on the pot.
The chill went well. Visible cold break appeared and I was happy with that.
Here are some pictures:
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So, I am hoping the brew comes out ok. Lyle is getting half of it. I hope it’s worth his time and effort.
The move to all grain is next. I need to modify my cooler a bit and then I will take the plunge.
Mike
Did you try pre-heating the tun with hot water?
LB
There’s something magical about standing around any kind of fire or kettle. This session was no different. It smelled great, like a massive, churning pot of coffee with maybe some chocolate thrown in. Awesome time.
John
For pre-heating the tun, I didn’t. I don’t really have any excuses outside of being too busy trying to coordinate the steep, the mash, and the mashout with each other without adding another pot to the mix to heat up water to pre-heat my mashtun.
It bears an experiement though. I should be able to add some quantity of hot water to my cooler and swish it around to pre-heat it. Then add 1.5 gallons to the cooler, take a temp check, wrap it in a blanket, close the cover, and then let it sit for an hour and see if the temp drops any.
LB – Thanks for joining in. Maybe we can get you homebrewing yourself.