Well, you couldn’t ask for a better brew day than today. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
There was a little chill in the air when we got started ~10AM but the sun was bright and warm still.
I bought the RV water filter this week and used it for the first time with this brew:
We got the grains together including the smoked malt and some munich malt:
I did a single infusion mash and was able to keep the temperature around 154°F for the whole hour. After the mash, we got to the boil right away.
Since Rauchbier is basically an Oktoberfest with some smoked malt in it, it had a nice amber color. We popped open a beer while the boil was going.
It was a bottle of the pomegranate red ale. Yep, still tastes experimental. After the boil was done, we had to chill it down to lager fermentation temperatures. With a wort chiller and a kiddie pool, we got close….to around 52°F.
I think I will stay with brewing lagers in the dead of winter or until I get a better wort chilling solution. It took a long time to get this beer down (close) to the temperature I wanted it to be. It’s in the fridge for the next two weeks. We shall see how things progress.
Mike
And no sparge issues I take it???
John
Yep, we didn’t have any sparge issues. I let the mash tun drain very slowly for each batch. Nothing got stuck.
platypotamus
excellent. glad to see the RV water filter worked out for you, too.
John
Yes! Thanks for the tip!