re: All-Grain Brewing Step-by-Step

Once the beer comes to a boil and you're sure it won't boil over, it's time to sit back and relax. I'm reading A Clash of Kings.



First hop addition is at 60 minutes left in the boil. It's 1.5 ounces of Fuggles. Second hop addition is at 15 left in the boil. It is 0.5 ounces of Hallertauer.



After 90 minutes of boiling I kill the flame. I give the wort a good swirl and let it sit for a minute to whirlpool. What this does is concentrate the particles and protiens in to a cone in the middle of the kettle. As I drain the wort off, most of the junk is left behind in this cone.



Cone of junk after draining.



So here's where I differ from a lot of brewers. Most brewers will rapidly chill the beer within 10-30 minutes and transfer the beer directly in to the fermentor. The beer is usually chilled with an ice bath, an immersion chiller (essentially a metal coil that is dunked in the kettle and has cold water running through it), a counterflow chiller (A double layered pipe where beer flows one way as cold water flows the other), and a plate chiller.

I don't chill my beer. I started doing this when I started all-grain brewing when I was in my old apartment. As we know in the deep south, groundwater gets hot in the summer. This makes cooling beer hard unless you are able to pre-chill the water in a seperate container before it goes in to the wort chiller. Well my apartment was tiny and I didn't have the space or money for another cooler, chiller, and pump. I had read an article about how, due to water restrictions, Australian brewers in the outback didn't chill their beer. I decided to give it a go.

Instead of quickly chilling and transferring to a fermentor, I drain my kettle in to a food and heat-safe container where it cools at it's own pace overnight. I am essentially canning the wort. I can transfer it to a fermentor at my own pace. I usually brew one day, make a yeast starter the next day, and then start fermentation on the fourth day.

Here's my draining the hot wort in to the storage cube.



After that it's clean-up time.

This is my first time doing one of these picture/step-by-step thing. Hopefully it's clear and all the pictures come through.

Finished product several months later: