re: Looks Like a Fine Night to Brew some Beer....Updated Bottling

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Online calcs are so nice

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You use the Brew365 mash and sparge calc tool? That is the only thing I use to determine my mash/sparge volumes and temps. It's money every time. I use Beersmith for recipe calculations, then Brew365 for mashing.

During the 30 min mash, Ive stirred the grist thoroughly with my spatula two times taking care not to splash. From here on out, splashing is a no no as it could cause oxidation of your beer down the road. I always cause some minor bubbling and I don't know how to avoid that.

Now that our 30 minute mash time is up, I place my tubing into a glass pitcher and fill this pitcher up. You'll see grains floating in the wort (liquid). I pour this pitcher of wort back into the mash tun slowly. Then repeat 3 or 4 times till you don't see any grains floating.

Would love to learn how to homebrew. This all looks like a great hobby and awesome way to learn about the "science" of beer.

Keep the pics coming man

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This all looks like a great hobby and awesome way to learn about the "science" of beer.

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So now its time to sparge....or rinse the residual sugars still on the grains that we left behind when we drained our original mash water, now called wort, into our kettle.

My sparge water temp is at 190....damn hot so be careful. I drain 3 gallons of this water into the mash tun (orange cooler w/ grains in it). This hot water is too hot to convert anymore sugars from the grain and actually stops any of the enzyme activity we started with the original mash water temp of 165. I'll let this 3 gallons sit for 15 minutes after stirring it well.

The way I tell how many gallons I am draining from my hot liquor kettle...which has 5 gallons in it, is I have a pvc pipe with 1/2 gallon increments marked on it. So if I start with 5 gallons in the tank and drain 3 that will leave me with..................I need a beer.



Sparge water into the mash tun

Now I have 5.5 gallons of sweet, sweet wort. And I have 2 gallons of sparge water remaining. I need to end up with a total of 7.5 gallons of wort before I start my boil and add hops. Gonna be tight.I drain this into your mash tun and let it sit for 15 minutes.

All the wort is now in the boil kettle. By my....365online....calcs I needed 7.5 gallons.....



7.55 gallons.....I love when things go right......But Mr. Zappa......did you hit your gravity target (collect enough sugars so your final beer will be the alcohol % you designed things for)?

Let me take out my refractometer (this is a rifle scope looking thingy that can read the sugar content from just a drop of wort). Place a drop on the glass, flip the cover and look through one end into a light. There is a grapg that shows in the viewfinder......I was shooting for 1.041 gravity....I get 1.049! Awesome! That means my efficiency of extracting sugars from the grain is 83%....maybe the best Ive ever done. I design and assume 70% but have been as crappy as 50%. But 83% deserves a pat on the back......and with a 30 minute mash my friends.

This summer will be the summer of brewing beer and learning charcuterie. It's going to be glorious, then I'm going to retire in August.

I have a feeling I'll bear a striking resemblance to him in about 8 years. Better get laid while I can. Sigh.

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I have a solution......

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