Brew Dudes

Here are some videos that we took during the brew session last night.

This is the mash tun temperature reveal. Did the converted cooler keep a consistent temperature? Watch and see.

The grind on the malt was too fine. It made for a slow and sometimes stuck sparge. Check out why.

Some comments from Mike while the boil is going on:

You should always have tasty beverages around when you are homebrewing.

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7:47 PM – Crushing some specialty grains the old fashioned way – with a bag and a rolling pin.

8:38 PM – Heated water to 163 degrees to reach our strike temp of 152. Using 1.25 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain ratio (10.75 x 1.25 = 13.4375 quarts), we rounded up to 4 gallons just in case we need more hot water to make our strike temp.  We didn’t make the temp (145) so we add more water which made for a thinner mash. We did finally reach a strike temp of 150…which we were happy with.

We put boiling water into the tun to heat it up before the mash started.

11:17 PM – We batch sparged and it got stuck.  The mill they had at the homebrew shop may have grinded the malt a little too fine.  Stirring the bed and blowing back on the tube help us to collect enough wort.  23 minutes to go on the boil.

11:58 PM – The boil ended at 11:35 PM.  We have been chilling and chilling.  I have started the clean up and brought the yeast down.  I need to prepare the fermenter and we’ll be done.

Looks like the final gravity is 1.050.  Not bad at all.

1:04 AM – The brew session is done.  I have more photos and a few videos I need to post….but it will have to be tomorrow.

The brew session went well.   I’ll have a wrap up tomorrow (which is really later on today) to discuss what went right and what didn’t go so right.

Brew On!

Just an update on the process of the First All Grain Brewing Session happening this Friday night (tomorrow night). It’s the Chelmsforder or more technically the Chelmsford Pale Ale brewing session.

I washed my equipment this morning, both my fermenter and my mash tun.   The washing of the mash tun was also a test of the spigot.

I had tested it previously with cold water.  This morning, I tested how the spigot worked with hot water.

I found that there is a tiny leak on the front end.  The rubber gasket needs to be adjusted.  I will fix that tonight.

Other than that, I am off to the homebrewing shop today.  I need to get these items:

• 10 pounds of 2-row malt
• Magnum hop pellets (if they don’t have that, then maybe Galena or Columbus).
• Glacier hop plugs (not sure I have a backup plan if they don’t have them…probably Willamette)
• WLP 001 yeast
• Jug for a yeast starter
• 1/2 inch tubing
• Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW)

Update:

So I went to my LHBS and they were out of two items. No WLP 001 yeast and no Magnum hops. Boo!

I got Columbus hops for bittering. I had Simcoe hops in my hands, but decided to go tried and true instead of new.

I bought WLP060, which is their American Ale Yeast Blend. I am excited to try this strain.

More to come tomorrow.