The TBR Homebrewing thread

My 3rd batch was close to a full boil. Its a bit tight in the pot at 7.5 gallons for a 5 gallon batch.

Below was my process.

Grain Bill
8 lbs. 2-Row Pale Malt
2 lbs. Vienna Malt
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L Malt

I am using a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer.

1. I measured 5 gallons of water into the pot and brought it up to around 160 with my paint strainer lined seafood strainer in it.

2. I then slowly stirred in my grain with the flame on low. The temp dropped to right around 150F

3. I ran the gas flame on low for about 5 minutes until it hit 152F, then turned it off and covered the pot for an hour.

4. I stirred the grain 3 times and had to run the flame for a couple of minutes about halfway through. It only had a 2-3 degree swing the entire mash period. With the strainer basket in I only had about 1.5 inches from the top. With that much volume covered it held temp very well

5. I then lifted the strainer basket out and let it drain into the boil kettle for about 5 minutes propped up on the lip of the pot. I also pushed down on the bag with my spoon a couple of times

6. I pre heated 1.5 gallons of water on my stove in a canning pot my wife had to 180F during the Mash and sat the grain bag in that for 10 minutes while I heated the wort to 170F.

7. I then poured the smaller kettle into my big one. That gave me about 6.5 gallons for my boil.

8. When the temp of the wort hit 170 I tea bagged the grain bag out of the strainer a few times, twisted it a few times, let it drain and started the boil. I sat the bag in my other pot and poured any liquid that collected into the pot

9. I took a gravity reading before the boil and it was dead on 1.050 at 80F after cooling off a little

10. I cooled the wort by placing my covered brew pot in a square igloo cooler with the garden hose stuck in the cooler turned on so it overflows onto my deck. It cooled my wort down to 65 in about 45 minutes. I dumped it into my bucket, stirred it with a slotted spoon hard enough to raise up a bunch of bubbles and pitched dry Safale O4

I wound up with 4.75 Gallons of wort at SG 1.060. Thats about 76% efficiency. 13 days in primary and it at was at 1.020 when I bottled.

 

Ability is what you're capable of doing, Motivation determines what you do, and Attitude determines how well you do it

 

cool. For what you're doing you can cool with an immersion chiller in about 15 mins.

 

Yeah I probably should get one of those. I am up to about batch 6. Beer is getting better.

I started putting the fermentation bucket in the igloo cooler and using plastic ice packs to keep fermentation temps in the low 60's during the heaviest period.

I may just upgrade my kettle to 15 gallons, do 10 gallon batches and no chill in 5 gallon plastic cubes. I would probably be doing that now if my brew pot had a valve on the bottom. Supposedly wort can be stored for weeks if it goes in the cube at boiling temps. Makes it easier to use yeast cakes for multiple batches.

 

great time with lots of success at summertime brews festival

 

where was this?

 

gso

I think there's a Winston fest but haven't been to it.

 

gso

I think there's a Winston fest but haven't been to it.