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Started By
Message
re: Homebrewing: In-Process Thread
Posted on 4/13/14 at 6:18 pm to LoneStarTiger
Posted on 4/13/14 at 6:18 pm to LoneStarTiger
A summary of the days events:
Adventures in Homebrewing
Today is the first all grain batch I've made. I knew it would be a learning experience, but I had no idea just how much.
I heated the strike water to 168, just like Beersmith said. Added it to the mash tun, then stirred in the grain. Set my timer, and waited.
With about 10 minutes left I started heating the sparge water. When my timer went off(60 minute mash), my sparge water was just about right. I then realized that it might be a little too soon because I still needed to drain the wort. I opened the drain valve on my homemade mash tun.
Nothing. Not one drop.
I grabbed the end of the drain hose and blew into it. Bubbles came up. That's good, right? nothing drained still. I stirred. I added sparge water. Nothing.
I dumped the entire mash into my 7 gallon fermenting bucket. I pulled out the false bottom, made sure it wasn't gummed up. Something didn't look right in the nipple. put everything back together. Dumped the mash back in. Stirred. Opened the drain.
Nothing.
hit it with the air compressor.
Nothing.
Dumped everything a second time. Pulled out the false bottom. Found a steel braid hose I bought for something lying around. cut off the connections on the ends, pulled out the rubber hose inside the braid, and made a new false bottom.
We have flow!
let the wort drain out, (I did remember to recirculate some to avoid the grain getting into the kettle) and started taking apart the non-working false bottom. As I looked inside it, I noticed that where a hole should be in the 90, there was only a small crack. The hole had not been drilled out completely!
I will back up here a bit to say that B was trying to help me through this, and he asked "You did check the tun with water before using it, right?" to which I replied just to make sure there were no leaks. never checked the false bottom.
I drilled out the 90 degree nipple, re-installed it after completing the sparge with the remaining water I needed, hooked everything back up, and we have flow!
Meanwhile, I manged to get a little over 9 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.045. Target was 9 gallons at 1.043.
Proceeded with the boil as usual, and at 60 minutes, the OG is 1.057. Target was 1.056.
Money
I think it is safe to say I wont forget my first time with all-grain for a very long time.
Adventures in Homebrewing
Today is the first all grain batch I've made. I knew it would be a learning experience, but I had no idea just how much.
I heated the strike water to 168, just like Beersmith said. Added it to the mash tun, then stirred in the grain. Set my timer, and waited.
With about 10 minutes left I started heating the sparge water. When my timer went off(60 minute mash), my sparge water was just about right. I then realized that it might be a little too soon because I still needed to drain the wort. I opened the drain valve on my homemade mash tun.
Nothing. Not one drop.
I grabbed the end of the drain hose and blew into it. Bubbles came up. That's good, right? nothing drained still. I stirred. I added sparge water. Nothing.
I dumped the entire mash into my 7 gallon fermenting bucket. I pulled out the false bottom, made sure it wasn't gummed up. Something didn't look right in the nipple. put everything back together. Dumped the mash back in. Stirred. Opened the drain.
Nothing.
hit it with the air compressor.
Nothing.
Dumped everything a second time. Pulled out the false bottom. Found a steel braid hose I bought for something lying around. cut off the connections on the ends, pulled out the rubber hose inside the braid, and made a new false bottom.
We have flow!
let the wort drain out, (I did remember to recirculate some to avoid the grain getting into the kettle) and started taking apart the non-working false bottom. As I looked inside it, I noticed that where a hole should be in the 90, there was only a small crack. The hole had not been drilled out completely!
I will back up here a bit to say that B was trying to help me through this, and he asked "You did check the tun with water before using it, right?" to which I replied just to make sure there were no leaks. never checked the false bottom.
I drilled out the 90 degree nipple, re-installed it after completing the sparge with the remaining water I needed, hooked everything back up, and we have flow!
Meanwhile, I manged to get a little over 9 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.045. Target was 9 gallons at 1.043.
Proceeded with the boil as usual, and at 60 minutes, the OG is 1.057. Target was 1.056.
Money
I think it is safe to say I wont forget my first time with all-grain for a very long time.
2
Posted on 4/13/14 at 6:26 pm to LoneStarTiger
Not surprised at all. Had issues like that the first time and never experienced things like that again.
Posted on 4/13/14 at 6:32 pm to LoneStarTiger
quote:
Adventures in Homebrewing
I blame myself for not putting your brew bag in that package
Posted on 4/13/14 at 6:43 pm to rds dc
quote:
I blame myself for not putting your brew bag in that package
you bastard
Posted on 4/13/14 at 7:12 pm to LoneStarTiger
You can really screw up and still end up with pretty good beer at the end of the day. Glad it ended well.
Posted on 4/14/14 at 9:56 am to BottomlandBrew
Other tidbits from brewday:
I planned to make a 7 gallon batch so I can easily get 5 or 5.5 gallons into the fermenter without having to screen out the gunk in the kettle. Worked like a champ this time. I had plenty of wort to go in the fermenter, almost too much even. I didn't account for the starter volume (first time using a starter), so the fermenter is damn near full. Had quite a bit of krausen coming out of the blowout tube this morning. I started using a milk jug to put the blow off tubing in to control "splatter" during the first couple days of fermentation, and that is working well. Last time I used a small bucket, it got a little messy. No worries now though.
The starter worked out well. Not sure when the magic started but I know it got up to speed much faster. Don't see any reason not to use one from now on. Maybe one day I will get a flat bottomed flask and a stir plate, but really wasn't any trouble to swirl around the growler when I passed by.
I planned to make a 7 gallon batch so I can easily get 5 or 5.5 gallons into the fermenter without having to screen out the gunk in the kettle. Worked like a champ this time. I had plenty of wort to go in the fermenter, almost too much even. I didn't account for the starter volume (first time using a starter), so the fermenter is damn near full. Had quite a bit of krausen coming out of the blowout tube this morning. I started using a milk jug to put the blow off tubing in to control "splatter" during the first couple days of fermentation, and that is working well. Last time I used a small bucket, it got a little messy. No worries now though.
The starter worked out well. Not sure when the magic started but I know it got up to speed much faster. Don't see any reason not to use one from now on. Maybe one day I will get a flat bottomed flask and a stir plate, but really wasn't any trouble to swirl around the growler when I passed by.
Posted on 4/14/14 at 10:00 am to LoneStarTiger
quote:
I didn't account for the starter volume (first time using a starter), so the fermenter is damn near full. Had quite a bit of krausen coming out of the blowout tube this morning.
You can cold crash the starter the day of brewing and pour off the liquid on top of the yeast cake.
Posted on 4/14/14 at 10:05 am to BottomlandBrew
quote:
You can really screw up and still end up with pretty good beer at the end of the day. Glad it ended well.
I think this is pretty much what I texted him when I ran out of ideas for the issues. I assumed a stuck sparge, didn't realize he never ran hot water through the system to make sure everything worked right.
Posted on 4/14/14 at 10:29 am to s14suspense
quote:
You can cold crash the starter the day of brewing and pour off the liquid on top of the yeast cake.
I thought about that the morning of when I saw how settled it had become over night, that I should pour out the extra liquid. Will do so in the future.
Posted on 4/14/14 at 10:31 am to BMoney
quote:
didn't realize he never ran hot water through the system to make sure everything worked right.
lesson learned
the next new step will be filling and pressurizing and getting the second keg going
I'm sure I can find an interesting way to complicate this too
Posted on 4/14/14 at 10:42 am to LoneStarTiger
quote:
I planned to make a 7 gallon batch so I can easily get 5 or 5.5 gallons into the fermenter without having to screen out the gunk in the kettle.
I brew 7 gallon batches for the same reason...
Only 'issue' I've run into with this is sharing recipes with others isn't as easy as when I brewed 6G batches.
I've sent a couple BeerSmith recipe exports and gotten "WTF is wrong with your numbers??" responses bc they fail to look at the batch size.
Posted on 4/14/14 at 10:51 am to LSUGrad00
I set all my batches for 6.1 gallons. Once you know your system, you know what to plan for.
Did y'all ever hear if Nola Revenue is accepting state non-profit status to waive the vendor fee?
Did y'all ever hear if Nola Revenue is accepting state non-profit status to waive the vendor fee?
Posted on 4/14/14 at 11:07 am to BottomlandBrew
quote:
Did y'all ever hear if Nola Revenue is accepting state non-profit status to waive the vendor fee?
I have a call in to the contact that Sharon from WYES put in our participant letter to get some clarification on the non-profit exemption.
Both his email to me and the exemption application mention exemption for state non-profits, but both also requested IRS 501c paperwork be included.
I'll let everyone know what he has to say when I hear back from him.
This post was edited on 4/14/14 at 11:09 am
Posted on 4/15/14 at 10:03 am to LSUGrad00
Saw first round scores from NHC's Nashville site.
Looks like a couple BR brewers are advancing to the final round.
Category 3: European Amber Lager
3rd Charles Milan Bayou Fest 3B: Oktoberfest/Marzen Redstick Brewmasters
Category 12: Porter
2nd Charles Milan Piwo Porter 12C: Baltic Porter Redstick Brewmasters
Category 18: Belgian Strong Ale
1st Tyler Broussard Joxer’s Golden Coat 18D: Belgian Golden Strong Ale Brasseurs a la Maison
Looks like a couple BR brewers are advancing to the final round.
Category 3: European Amber Lager
3rd Charles Milan Bayou Fest 3B: Oktoberfest/Marzen Redstick Brewmasters
Category 12: Porter
2nd Charles Milan Piwo Porter 12C: Baltic Porter Redstick Brewmasters
Category 18: Belgian Strong Ale
1st Tyler Broussard Joxer’s Golden Coat 18D: Belgian Golden Strong Ale Brasseurs a la Maison
Posted on 4/15/14 at 10:12 am to LSUGrad00
Look at Charlie and Tyler doing work. Serious question, does Charlie submit the same Marzen to every competition?
This post was edited on 4/15/14 at 10:13 am
Posted on 4/15/14 at 10:13 am to LSUGrad00
That's awesome! 
Posted on 4/15/14 at 10:22 am to SouthOfSouth
Does anyone know this guy:
1 7B Gregory Sclama of New Orleans, LA Manifest Destiny
And a 4th LA winner:
2 25C Bobby Don Johnson of Baldwin, LA Dead Yeast Society
1 7B Gregory Sclama of New Orleans, LA Manifest Destiny
And a 4th LA winner:
2 25C Bobby Don Johnson of Baldwin, LA Dead Yeast Society
This post was edited on 4/15/14 at 10:24 am
Posted on 4/15/14 at 10:26 am to Fratastic423
quote:
Serious question, does Charlie submit the same Marzen to every competition?
If he's mailing beers to a competition then it's almost always one of a few styles that he enjoys.
He will tweak the recipe in between competitions based on feedback from judges, but it's almost always Bock / Alt / Baltic Porter / Bier De Garde / Oktoberfest.
Posted on 4/15/14 at 10:28 am to LSUGrad00
He just always seems to bring home the hardware from the Marzen category.
Posted on 4/15/14 at 10:31 am to Fratastic423
quote:
Does anyone know this guy:
17B Gregory Sclama of New Orleans, LA Manifest Destiny
Yep, Greg drove up from New Orleans and helped out with the Louisiana Club Competition. Super nice guy.
He's was one of the brewers from NOLA who was looking for an alternative to Crescent City.
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