The ingredients for my Irish Red Ale arrived last weekend. I took a photo of some of them.
I had Midwest crush the grains for me since I am trying to save some time around this brew session.
Also, as a brew session time saver, I am debating on steeping the grains in cold water overnight to see if that method works.
Partially because I want to get to the boiling/chilling/pitching part of the session…and partially because it was a tip I read about steeping roasted barley.
What does the term Vorlauf mean?
Vorlauf is the process of pulling the initial runnings from the mash tun prior to the sparge. Wort removed from the lauter tun is added back to the top of the mash. This process of recirculation helps to set the grain bed around the lautering/seperation device (e.g. false bottom, pipe manifold or stainless braid.).
Vorlaufing the wort helps remove large grain particles that may have slipped through the lautering manifold. The process also aids in wort clarity by trapping large coaggulated proteins that may have formed during heating in the grain bed.
Vorlaufing can be perfomed simply through using a pitcher to collect wort and pour it back on the surface of the mash. It can also be as elegant as using a pump to pull wort out and return it to the top of the mash via a return hose and manifold.
The primary thing to keep in mind when performing a vorlauf is to not add the wort to quickly to the top of the grain bed. As this may disrupt the settling of the bed that vorlauf is meant to create.
For a couple references check these links below:
Homebrewtalk Wiki
RealBeer.com Discussion
BREW ON!
I came home today from work hoping to see some ingredients for the Irish Red Ale, but I found some hop rhizomes instead.
Yep, 2 rhizomes. A Mt. Hood one and a Magnum one. They were sent from Freshops in an envelope with a shipping permit label on it from the state of Oregon’s Dept. of Agriculture.
When I went to the Freshops site, they had Magnum listed as a recommended beginner variety. What a lucky guess.
Now I just have to read up on how to plant these things.
At long last, the lagering stage is almost over. This weekend, if I get enough prep work done, I plan to prime and bottle up the Maibock that was brewed back in January. It seems way too long ago. When you are used to the turn around time of an ale, 10 or so weeks feels like a lifetime.
When it comes to priming, I am used to boiling 3/4 of a cup of corn sugar in a pint of water and adding that to my bottling bucket. I have been looking at charts and seeing that if my beer is at a colder temperature than room temperature, then the theory is that the beer should have more CO2 in it and will not need as much priming sugar as a beer at room temperature.
Talking to Mike, I think I am still going to prime as usual. Maybe as a safeguard, I can take the carboy out of the fridge and let it warm up slowly to cellar temps and then prime it.
After bottling is done, I am going to store the bottles in my front hall closet to let them carb up. No need to keep them at lager temps when they’ll carb up faster in the 60° range.
Next weekend, I’ll brew up the Irish Red Ale as long as all the ingredients get to my house on time.
Starting up a brew log for the next session. This time around, I’m brewing up the Irish Red Ale based on the extract recipe that I posted last week.
I bought my supplies from Midwest Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies. I had some money sitting in my PayPal account because of some weird returning of merchandise refund.
Sorry you didn’t like the gift but refunds = money for brewing.
So, I found out that Midwest accepts Paypal so I went to their site and put in an order for my specialty grains, my yeast , and some malt extract.
I didn’t have a big enough refund for the whole lot so I will go to my LHBS and pick up the rest.
I am probably going to mess around with the recipe a bit. Not sure about how much roasted malt to use. I am trying to get that nice red color and I am hoping I can learn the trick with this first attempt.
Not likely, but I can try.
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