beer =[ GM's 1st 16x Batches, and/or 10 mo. Brewing ]=

[tctenten]

Nice...u hit your mark. How long has that one been fermenting?

 

[grantmichaels]

Nice...u hit your mark. How long has that one been fermenting?

 
Barely making it, I think ... I think a lot of folks get upper 70's out US-05 ...
 
The gymnastics required to get efficiency out of the mash for big beers in that system is really suspect ...
 
I think there's a really uneven extraction of the grains relative to the location of the recirc return, and I'm going to see if some of my efficiency/attenuation problems don't resolve themselves once I'm not pushing the volumentric constrains of the mash tun, and sparging ...
 
I'm a little bit concerned that the length of time it takes to get between the end of the mash and true boiling might be adding a weird duration of time between the 150F's and 212F that reduces the fermentability of the wort inherently ... something enzymatic or who knows ...
 
I guess it could be temp swinging in the ferm chamber ... I might lower the hysteresis value and try to keep it more tight ... also, I was lazy and just probed the environment, I guess, and didn't probe the keg at the liquid level and use a fermwrap to have two stage control this time ...
 
So, 75% attenuation this time ... a lot better than JayT's batch =) ...
 
I'm sort of punting on efficiency/attenuation in this system, though ... and waiting to see how things go using the larger system before I get too worked up over it ...
 
Might just be one of those things about making < 5 gal batches ... too small a sample size of ingredients to get consistency ...
 
We'll keep working at it, though ...
 
Until I start ranching and counting myself, I'll never know how much damage is happening to my yeast in getting to me ... things might just improve for the coming months for that reason alone ...
 
Next year I'll place an order in April for the whole summer if need be, LOL ...
 
Anyways ...
 
Putting off brew day in favor or the jerk smoked lamb gyros and watching the DVR'd game ...
 
I'll brew during the work day tomorrow ... that will give the starter a chance to get a little more awesomer too ...

Nice...u hit your mark. How long has that one been fermenting?

 
Just under 8 days.

Pretty tasty without the ingredient that will influence it in 2nd!

But beyond this, super excited now for JayT's beer too ...

This, sans the bite from CO2, is similar to the Bhut Sub batch, and now I'm feeling pretty fucking good about that batch ...

It's a good afternoon in brewville, even without brewing ...

Time to prep the Akorn for smoking!

 

[grantmichaels]

Added an ingredient to the end of primary, gave it a few hours at 70F to infuse, dosed both the bhut sub and Wheebz stout batches with 2-3 droppers biofine clear, and swirled a little, purged the headspace w/ 10 psi CO2 and finally dropped the chamber temp to 30-31F (can't remember, lol) ...

I'm squeezing in an overnight cold crash before I need ferm temp's again tomorrow night after I brew ...

 

[grantmichaels]

Going to be a bit of a later start than I like for this beer tonight, but I need to knock it out for the sake of the starter's health!

Needed to change my focus earlier to try to solve a work problem, so I worked on a new recipe to brew next, after this one ...

 

[grantmichaels]

I tried to mash this round in the strainer basket without the bag ...
 
Not my best decision, for sure ...

Haven't used pH5.2 for a while, but used a little this evening ...

Different config tonight ... not plate chillin', using the IC ...

Overfilled basket ... fun times ...

 

[grantmichaels]

Racked to service kegs:

Bhut Subduction at Pitch Lake
Miyagi-Stout

I made a stout StarSan foam eruption ...

I'll have to improve the finesse of my liquid xfers

Anyways ...

Overshot gravity while putzing w/ xfers ...

I'll survive m/

Running the beginning of the boil ATM ...

Hops are ready ...

I'll whirlpool chill w/ those Citra and Columbus leaf hops at the end for 15 mins ...

Should be smooth sailing the rest of the way since the keg's pre-prepared in the chestie ...

Gettin' it done ...
If I tap my new kettle, I'lll install this bulkhead and elbow and trub guard so my cone's don't collapse as readily at the end ...

 

[tctenten]

Racked to service kegs:Bhut Subduction at Pitch LakeMiyagi-Stout

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1446518350.603154.jpg]

Grant what am I looking at here. There is a hose between 2 of the kegs and a blow off hose off one of them?
Grant...your first picture. What is the purpose of the hose connecting the 2 kegs and then the hose coming off one of them?

 

[grantmichaels]

The gray connection is the CO2 pushing the beer from the fermenting keg to the service keg through the jump (black to black)

I transferred them and purged the headspace of each with CO2 ...
 
I need to load up some extra kegs with water and work out the closed system transfers with the recipient keg sealed ... tonight just isn't that night =)
 
I slept 2.75 hours last night.
 
I am about an hour from a shower and some couch time to wrap up the day ...
 
Beer smells pretty good and there's only 1/4 of the hops in play so far ...
 
 
 
Excited to start working on the next recipe ...
 
Going to make a seasonal beer, next ...
Whirlpool hoppin' and chillin' ...
 
About to wrap this up ...
 
Not to bad tonight, except for being at capacity mashing, bah ...
 
Over that.

 

[grantmichaels]

phwew!

all set ... need to post the pics in a few ...

whirlpooled through the leaf hops, like a hop rocket ...

immersion chiller was a lot slower than the plate chiller ...

Then I poured in the starter

I hit it with some 4L/s Oxygen and put it into the chamber set at 67F ...

There's five gallons of beer in the thirties in there too, and I'm cognizant that will put the temp down ... perhaps too much ...

I placed the fermwrap on the new batch and probed it near the liquid level ...

Fingers crossed it all balances out nicely without yeast shock, or premature flocc'ing

Red-Eye, PA.

I guess it's bigger than expected, I'll need to tinker with some numbers in a sec and report back!
OG = 1.089

So ...

Let's see what things look like with 75% attenuation ...

I think I recall Safale's spec sheet mentioning 81% attenuationfor 05 ...

That would look like:

So, this looks it end up as an 9-10 ABV, which is a little big higher than I'd planned, like a point and a half, actually ...

I have a lot of hops around, I'll have to ask Wheebz if I should dry hop after primary ...

I didn't end up using gypsum, forgot ...

The other 'thing' was forgetting 8 oz CaraRed until the mash step from 145F to 155F, after 30 mins ...

Matters not, in the end ...



Ferm took off in the slightly warm wort ...

The starter had 30 hrs on the plate, and I bubbled in a bunch of pure oxygen before setting up the blow-off ...

Hope it all comes together nicely!

The single can of this OB treat my sister sent me was the inspiration for this ...

Man, I'd love to have another ...

 

[tctenten]

Looks like you will be set for awhile on the beer front. Now all you have to do is drink it.

 

[grantmichaels]

Looks like you will be set for awhile on the beer front. Now all you have to do is drink it.

 
Production isn't suspended until there's 4x kegs in both freezers where every beer is one I want to drink =)

 

[tctenten]

I am itching to get back at it, after the under attenuated batch.   Especially with the 4 week lag time from brew to drink.  Pretty sure I am going to do the maple porter and try Rocketmans mead this weekend.  

 

[grantmichaels]

I am itching to get back at it, after the under attenuated batch.   Especially with the 4 week lag time from brew to drink.  Pretty sure I am going to do the maple porter and try Rocketmans mead this weekend.  

 
If I was doing a single gallon, in fact - when I do single gal batches in the future ... I'll just put half a packet of 05 and figure on half the count dying and call it a day ...

 

[Ozzy2001]

 
If I was doing a single gallon, in fact - when I do single gal batches in the future ... I'll just put half a packet of 05 and figure on half the count dying and call it a day ...

Yeah, I'd rather over pitch than under pitch.

 

[grantmichaels]

Well, ferm seems to be carrying on nicely ... guess the temp's all evened out without causing too much trouble ...

Conditioning time is less for this type of beer, right? ...
 
I don't usually pay attention to the brewing of IPA's ... but I feel like I've read a bunch of times, that you drink them fresh ...

 

[Ozzy2001]

Fresh indeed. You doing any dry hopping?

 

[grantmichaels]

Fresh indeed. You doing any dry hopping?

 
I was thinking about possibly dropping the dry hopping cage down in there after primary ferm ends ...
 
I figure I'll get an idea where things are when I take the 1st gravity sample towards the end of the week ...
I think there will need to be some clean-up time, still, though ... especially since the gravity drifted up on me ...

 

[tctenten]

If I was doing a single gallon, in fact - when I do single gal batches in the future ... I'll just put half a packet of 05 and figure on half the count dying and call it a day ...

Ok. Would you go through hassle of stirplate etc.? Or pitch dry?

 

[grantmichaels]

Ok. Would you go through hassle of stirplate etc.? Or pitch dry?

 
You have to give us an idea what you are thinking about batch sizes going forward so the advise can be tailored to the batch size(s) you plan to execute ...
 
Are you planning to make 1's, 2.5-3's, 5's gallon batches? ...
 
The stir plate is overkill for gallon brewing ... for that you can just overpitch, rehydrate w/ GoFerm using the ratios in the Speed Brewing book and call it a day ...
 
But, for anything more than a gallon, the stir plate is $50 well spent ...

 

[tctenten]

 
You have to give us an idea what you are thinking about batch sizes going forward so the advise can be tailored to the batch size(s) you plan to execute ...
 
Are you planning to make 1's, 2.5-3's, 5's gallon batches? ...
 
The stir plate is overkill for gallon brewing ... for that you can just overpitch, rehydrate w/ GoFerm using the ratios in the Speed Brewing book and call it a day ...
 
But, for anything more than a gallon, the stir plate is $50 well spent ...

 
I have 3 more 1 gallon kits.  I hope to get the process down and get a drinkable beer by then.  After that I think I am going to go to 5 gallons.  That will last me awhile.  So for this weekend I will go without the stir plate.