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

tctenten said:
 
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.  
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It'll be easiest if you do two batches at once ...
 
So ... leave the packet of yeast on the counter on brew day ...
 
Boil some (a coffee mug or something similarly moderate in size) tap water and then let it cool down (covered with some foil or something) to 70F-90F ...
 
Dump the 05 into the water and stir w/ a sanitized spoon when you start to chill the wort ...
 
Then split the liquid into the two fermenters as equally as possible, but without going crazy since you are double pitching ...
 
That'll work for now ...
 
You'll be adding a pinch (1/4 tsp) of yeast nutrient at the end of the boil this time ...
 
Hopefully between quality yeast, nutrient, rehydration, and shaking the container longer to oxygenate the wort - you'll get it it all the way this time!

tctenten said:
 
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.  
Click to expand...
 
You'll get beer.
 
I'm telling you, those generic yeast packets into those kits are suspect as hell ...
 
It looks like your recirculating the mash water during the mash process and then sparging, would that be correct? Also, you mention that you're getting greater extraction from one side of the mash tun than the other. How are you returning the water to the Mash Tun, is it being distributed evenly or is there a decidedly greater amount of it going to one side? The electric brewery has a silicon tube that lays on top of the grain bed and the recirculating water flows onto the top of the grain bed so I can see what you mean by over extraction from one side. Seems like a sprinkler attachment that would spread it out over the entire grain bed would be a better idea but then Brew boss did this:
 
brewboss_zpswjq8aykl.png

 
which looks like it would really give you great extraction. Then again, wheebz does remind us that it's a rest so, I'd probably run it for 5 minutes and then let it rest for 30 minutes or something like that.
 
I've seen that, and yeah, that would help ...
 
If you recall, I have the sprinkler/sprayers, and had planned to implement them ...
 
I'm going to try using the big cooler-based mash tun without automation/pumps, but I have it in mind to setup PID/recirc/sprayer, and false bottom manifold if need be ...
 
The epiphany happened last night ...
 
Here's how I think it works ... and, it gels w/ what Wheebz has said, which is always a good sign ...
 
When you do multiple redundant mashes, it's well know that it takes 2-3x longer to get extraction from the 2nd batch of grain going into the hot liquor ...
 
Hot liquor doesn't extract the sugars as well as water ... that's what's not written in the books, but is true ...
 
So, recirc'ing liquor doesn't work the same way as sparging the grain bed with sparge WATER ...
 
I retained one gallon to verify this last night, but I had to use half of it right away just to get my grains wet - that 24 qt pot and the size of the basket doesn't even allow for 3 gallons of high-gravity brewing without serious hassle ...
 
It's kind of infuriating, I have to admit ...
 
Anyways ...
 
I've been propping up the basket and recirc-sparging to leverage the grain bed for clarification of the liquor, really ...
 
The two quarts of plain water, although not heated to 170F or whatever, that I sparged with after, though, raised the gravity ... because plain water will rinse those sugars off much more readily than liquor, and that's the subtle lesson in all of this, I know realize ...
 
Recirculating mash water is not sparging because hot liquor is not a solvent of the capacity of water (which, isn't surprising really) ...
 
Experiences of Drew from Experimental Brewing or whatever with regard to reiterated-mashing seem to confirm this as well.
 
Wheebz was right again.
 
In fact, so far, Wheebz' has been right always ... you just have to teach yourself a bunch of shit before the little one liner's make sense, is all ...
 
I know you already know that, though ... I'm just documenting it for the others =)
 
:cheers:
 
TL;DR - If your aren't sparging with plain water, you aren't sparging ...

* In case it wasn't clear (it wasn't)  ... I'm positing that I overshot gravity last night because I sparged with 2 quarts of plain water after recirc'ing liquor through the grain bed ... that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Water - the universal solvent ... just like they teach you in grade school ...
 
basically yea
 
there is no reason to recirc your wort through your mash tun while you are in your mash phase, unless you are doing a HERMS system to do step mashes in a cooler style mash tun, and even then I am wary of that method as you are drawing from a single point in your mash tun instead of multiple points collected in some sort of grant style thing and then pumping it back through
 
creates trenches and unevenly heats your mash unless you are constantly mixing your mash while you are stepping up the temp
 
and, that correlates w/ John Palmer putting blue tracer dye and studying the flow through the different styles ...
 
he confirmed that it's worth making the copper manifold type apparatus for the cooler mash tun by showing the bazooka setup doesn't allow for much extraction of the bottom of the grain bed across from the spigot ...
 
the only thing i'm keeping from brew-in-a-bag is the bag itself, otherwise i'm moving to classic sparging on the big system ...
 
i figure the $500 or so i spent on the little eBIAB system taught me the lesson that's going to save me from having spent(/wasted) $10-20,000 on a RIMS/HERMS/3V or whatever, like a lot of folks buy after their cooler/turkey fryer ...
 
Yep, I always looked at it figuring there was going to be a point where the water in the Mash Tun was going to be Saturated and it was going to take additional water to get any more of the sugars out of the grains. 
 
I kept the bag because it helps to keep the grains with the grains and allow only the raw wort to come out. Well that and it makes cleaning the Mash Tun a whole heck of a lot easier.
 
RocketMan said:
Yep, I always looked at it figuring there was going to be a point where the water in the Mash Tun was going to be Saturated and it was going to take additional water to get any more of the sugars out of the grains. 
 
I kept the bag because it helps to keep the grains with the grains and allow only the raw wort to come out. Well that and it makes cleaning the Mash Tun a whole heck of a lot easier.
Click to expand...
 
I brewed last night w/o the bag ... and it sucked ... LOL ...
 
90 mins after swirling in a little Fermaid K ...
WARNING: dogs start barking at UPS at the end ...
But hey, at least I remember to turn the phone 90 degrees for the 1st time =)
 
grantmichaels said:
i figure the $500 or so i spent on the little eBIAB system taught me the lesson that's going to save me from having spent(/wasted) $10-20,000 on a RIMS/HERMS/3V or whatever, like a lot of folks buy after their cooler/turkey fryer ...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the lesson lol.  I still might go eBIAB/C at some point.  I might even get a pump.
 
I never understood the need for RIMS/HERMS/3V.  I could see a 2V gravity/pump to make spent grain disposal convenient.   I might convert a cooler after you ginny it.
 
I guess people wanted to emulate big brew ops.  If the big guys could pull out the grain efficiently/cleanly and save big bucks on extra V's they probably would.    
 
Even the most advanced BrewPi, Boss Pid vids spend as much time adjusting valve flow as I do babysitting. 
 
Brew boss make sense because I'm already using phone/PC for recipes, quantities and timers.
 
I think there will be a flood of Adrino knockoffs flooding the market soon.  I am clueless on that subject. 
 
RocketMan said:
Does it smell of hops?
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1st beer that smells of hops, yes ...
 
Actually ... I think I was close to passing out ... I leaned in to shoot a little blow-off vid and got a little tiny bit woozy in there w/ all the CO2 ...
 
Today I learned that breweries will often produce a series of batches throughout a 24 hour period - in this case they turn 10x/day - and blend the batches to fill much larger fermenter, correcting on the fly to end up where they want ...
 
There's enough blow-off activity still happening that I felt comfortable popping the lid and doing another little sprinkle & swirl with a little bit more Fermaid K ...
 
I don't think an under-attenuated IPA-style beer sounds drinkable, so finger's crossed it finishes out nicely for me ...
I'm not brewing this weekend, but this is a seasonal recipe that I'm tinkering with ...
 
Fall Guy

3 gallons at 55% efficiency

64 oz maris otter (35.3%)
64 oz pale malt (35.3%)
 8 oz melanoiden malt (4.4%)
 8 oz special b (4.4%)
 8 oz victory (4.4%)
 4 oz caraaroma (2.2%)
 4 oz blackprinz (2.2%)

Mash for ~13.5 Plato

1/4 oz 12.5% AA Galena Pellet Hops @60mins for <19 IBU's

Whirfloc @15mins
Yeast Nutrients @15mins
Trader Joe's Pecan Pie Filling In A Jar @15mins (previously posted)

Consider Apple Pie Moonshine Spices (previously posted) in 2nd, or via vodka tincture from siphon.
 
I hope this turns out. I really love pecan pie and if it turns out I'll definitely be copying it. I would ponder putting a little bit of coffee in it. A slice of pecan pie and a good cup of coffee are hard to beat.
 
Ozzy2001 said:
I would ponder putting a little bit of coffee in it. A slice of pecan pie and a good cup of coffee are hard to beat.
Click to expand...
 
I have considered that too!
 
I'm going to make the beer using the pie filling, and then see what it's like from the hydrometer jar sample and go from there with it ...
 
 
 
My theory is that 'Thanksgiving' is a collective aroma from all of the food, not one in particular ... the maillard of the turkey skin, the sweet potato casserole, the pie crust etc ...
 
I have the apple pie moonshine spices, which I can either drop in dry, or steep, or extract into vodka using the soda canister ...
 
 
 
I won't brew 10-12 gal batch or anything, having pulled the recipe out of my ass, but I might sneak in one more batch on the current rig just to have put a seasonal into the keezer, before I graduate from it ...
 
:cheers:
 
Just a thought here, you might want to check out the ingredients list on that jar of pie filling. Seems like they put a lot of oil into those things. I know the jars of cookie butter have a great deal of oil in them and oil and beer don't mix very well.
 
Like I said, just a thought.
 
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