A long overdue brew
August 2nd, 2008I passed on my usual Saturday bike ride today to indulge my older hobby — I brewed. And boy, did I brew. 15 gallons total, five gallons of a nice strong Belgian dubbel, 10 gallons (more like 8 after miscalculations) of dunkel-weizen.
I started at about 9:00am getting my kit together. First order of business was cleaning out the Therminator. I’d been doing the suggested backflush with hot water after every brew session, but hadn’t done much other cleaning. So, I made a nice strong hot PBW solution, and used an autosiphon to pump it through the chiller.
Boy, did that chiller need cleaning. What came out was green, full of chunks and … bleah. I’d chalked up the odd flavor I perceived in my last few batches to the usual brewers’ anxiety, but now I have another plausible explanation…. I think it’s clean now, but I may start looking at the whirlpool/immersion chiller approach again. That would have the advantage of being pellet-hop-friendly — the hop shortage has meant extremely limited availability of leaf hops.
In previous brew session, I’d spent a lot of time running back into the house for things, and wound up leaving large vessels of hot liquid over open flame unattended for longer than I’d like to. This time, I made a point of getting everything out and assembled ahead of time. That was enough equipment that on the second-to-last trip, I grabbed the camera:
From near to far:
- Buckets of crushed grains (top has Dunkel-Weizen, bottom has Dubbel; 16 pounds each)
- Coolers for mashing: top one is a dual mash/lauter tun, bottom is for mashing only.
- Random pots (on ground): big stockpot for moving and sometimes measuring liquids, the one with the handle is for moving mash around.
- On table: Medium-size pot (6 gallon) for moving liquids, mash paddle and thermometer, retired mash/lauter tun for storing/moving/measuring hot liquids.
- Sanitizing bucket (on ground). Siphon tubing, sanitizer, and squeaky-clean Therminator are inside bucket.
- Dual propane burner with 10 gallon pot for 5 gallon batches and converted 15 gallon keg for 10 gallon batches.
- Stack-o-fermeters
Yes, I did use every last bit of this equipment. Yes, the pots did wind up boiling over. Yes, it went quite well, somehow. No stuck mashes, no screw-ups (like not heating enough water), no snags at all. When I started chilling the last bits of wort, I could barely contain my happy dance. I mostly feel like a homebrewer again! (You can’t really feel like a homebrewer until you reach the “too much” beer phase and volunteer beer for parties, random passers-by, etc. — I won’t be there before today’s bounty is ready.)
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
That’s quite a set up. I go crazy enough doing just one batch at a time. Brewing two at a time is almost inconceivable for me. What were you using for hops? Did you get them from Northern Brewer, or somewhere else?
I’d like to do some brewing again one of these days, but the last couple batches I did have had some issues and I don’t know that I want to pay the premium for hops at the moment.
August 3rd, 2008 at 11:32 am
I go crazy enough doing just one batch at a time. Brewing two at a time is almost inconceivable for me.
I had done it before back in my rather ambitious brewing heyday, or I wouldn’t even have thought of it. All told it was enough of a juggling act that I’m still feeling a bit scatterbrained from it (note the lack of a title on this post; that wasn’t intentional
). I nailed it, though, which feels damned good.
The hops were from NB (I do all my homebrew shopping there). The prices are still elevated, but the selection’s gotten better since the beginning of the year. In leaf, they have a variety or two appropriate for American, British, and Continental beers, so I’m good. The pellet selection is even better. The price means I’m not going to do any big IPAs anytime soon, though….
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
w00t! I’m totally jealous of a) your stash of equipment and b) getting out brewing.
It’s getting to the point where it’s becoming critical for me to brew again; I have less than a half-keg left of the IPA I did last. I want to make the leap to all-grain, and I think I know pretty much what I need to do, but I have a question for you re: combo mash/lauter tuns: I’m thinking about building a copper tubing manifold in the bottom of a cooler I have ala a few different sites/books I’ve read, and I’m wondering how the hell you clean all the solder from the joints you make — especially the inside joints. Can you shed any light?
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:49 pm
aj: nope, I’ve never soldered, so I can’t help you there.
I’ve seen several manifold designs that were just press-fit together; the fittings are almost snug enough, and the whole point of the manifold is *not* to be watertight, after all…
If you’re batch sparging (which I’d recommend; it’s theoretically less efficient, but I’ll spend an extra pound or two of grain in return for not having to babysit a fly sparge), the manifold design isn’t critical. It just needs to hold back the grain and let a lot of wort through. That can be done with one length of slotted copper pipe or a loop of slotted soft copper with a cap or stopper on the end. No soldering necessary.