Near-Beer-Engineer
Well-Known Member
I've been brewing for a few years now and made the switch to all grain about 6 months ago, however I don't have anyone to brew with and so haven't been exposed to many other processes/ideas (other than the stuff shared on this site). My beer is pretty good, but my philosophy is there's always room for improvement.
I'm hoping you guys can take a look at what I'm doing on brew day and let me know if there's anything I haven't thought of or can improve. This also might be a good resource for others to compare their process to mine. Here's how I make beer:
First I heat up mash water (Calgary tap water) to the proper temperature in a 10gal Blichmann boilermaker outside on a Blichmann burner.
Once the water is at the right temperature I drain the kettle into a 10gal rectangular Coleman cooler mash tun (clean but not sanitized) through a few feet of silicone tubing. The mash tun has brass connections and valves, but unfortunately the washer I used was not stainless steel and has started to rust a bit. I'll have to replace this soon but am having a real hard time finding stainless steel washers.
I then load in the grain slowly, stirring with a large plastic spoon until the temperature stabilizes and all the malt clumps are out. I'll usually put a thermometer in at this point with a 1 hour timer and let the mash go. If the temp drops, I'll add in a bit of boiling water and stir to regain the temp. While the mash is going on, I'll heat up sparge water the same way I did the mash water. Sometimes I'll check conversion of the mash with iodophor by monitoring colour change.
After 60 minutes of mashing I drain the sparge water into a bottling bucket (food grade 5 gal plastic bucket) through the same silicone tubing. To sparge I put the bucket on the table, the mashtun on a chair and the boil kettle on the floor. I crack open the mashtun valve slowly and vorlauf 2 or 3 litres until the wort runs fairly clear. Then I connect the silicone tubing to the mashtun and drain slowly into the kettle. To sparge I syphon the sparge water from the bucket with a plastic auto-syphon and choke the flow by pinching the tubing. I'll wave the tubing around to fly sparge evenly while maintaining about an inch of water above the grain bed until I reach my target volume. I record the final volume and take a hydrometer reading here.
I boil the collected wort vigourously outside on the burner with no lid usually for 60 minutes. 10 minutes from the end I'll add a tsp of irish moss, and 5 min I'll add some yeast nutrient. If I'm using dry yeast I usually rehydrate while the boil is going on in warm tap water in a sanitized bowl. For liquid yeast I make a starter a day or two before in a sanitized growler using boiled and cooled DME.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1aAsKHjHAY&feature=youtu.be[/ame]
The boil is also when I sanitize some stuff. I fill that aforementioned bottling bucket (also my fermentation vessel) with starsan solution half way (swirling occasionally to cover all surfaces) and soak the airlock/bung. I'll put my immersion chiller in there for 10 minutes to sanitize as well.
When the boil is complete I put the kettle on the counter and put the immersion chiller in with cold water running through it. I take a volume reading before and after cooling. The lid sits loosely on top to limit contamination. It usually takes about 30 or so minutes to cool it down to around 70F. When it's cool I put the sanitized bucket underneath and open up the valve to let it drain by gravity and aerate simultaneously. I'll also grab a hydrometer reading from this stream. Sometimes the first couple litres are loaded with sediment, if so I discard (I make about 5.5 gallons so I can do stuff like this). When the bucket is full I put the sanitized lid/bung on and shake the living hell out of it for about 5-6 minutes for further aeration. Sometimes I add the yeast before or after shaking.
...
I'm hoping you guys can take a look at what I'm doing on brew day and let me know if there's anything I haven't thought of or can improve. This also might be a good resource for others to compare their process to mine. Here's how I make beer:
First I heat up mash water (Calgary tap water) to the proper temperature in a 10gal Blichmann boilermaker outside on a Blichmann burner.
Once the water is at the right temperature I drain the kettle into a 10gal rectangular Coleman cooler mash tun (clean but not sanitized) through a few feet of silicone tubing. The mash tun has brass connections and valves, but unfortunately the washer I used was not stainless steel and has started to rust a bit. I'll have to replace this soon but am having a real hard time finding stainless steel washers.
I then load in the grain slowly, stirring with a large plastic spoon until the temperature stabilizes and all the malt clumps are out. I'll usually put a thermometer in at this point with a 1 hour timer and let the mash go. If the temp drops, I'll add in a bit of boiling water and stir to regain the temp. While the mash is going on, I'll heat up sparge water the same way I did the mash water. Sometimes I'll check conversion of the mash with iodophor by monitoring colour change.
After 60 minutes of mashing I drain the sparge water into a bottling bucket (food grade 5 gal plastic bucket) through the same silicone tubing. To sparge I put the bucket on the table, the mashtun on a chair and the boil kettle on the floor. I crack open the mashtun valve slowly and vorlauf 2 or 3 litres until the wort runs fairly clear. Then I connect the silicone tubing to the mashtun and drain slowly into the kettle. To sparge I syphon the sparge water from the bucket with a plastic auto-syphon and choke the flow by pinching the tubing. I'll wave the tubing around to fly sparge evenly while maintaining about an inch of water above the grain bed until I reach my target volume. I record the final volume and take a hydrometer reading here.
I boil the collected wort vigourously outside on the burner with no lid usually for 60 minutes. 10 minutes from the end I'll add a tsp of irish moss, and 5 min I'll add some yeast nutrient. If I'm using dry yeast I usually rehydrate while the boil is going on in warm tap water in a sanitized bowl. For liquid yeast I make a starter a day or two before in a sanitized growler using boiled and cooled DME.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1aAsKHjHAY&feature=youtu.be[/ame]
The boil is also when I sanitize some stuff. I fill that aforementioned bottling bucket (also my fermentation vessel) with starsan solution half way (swirling occasionally to cover all surfaces) and soak the airlock/bung. I'll put my immersion chiller in there for 10 minutes to sanitize as well.
When the boil is complete I put the kettle on the counter and put the immersion chiller in with cold water running through it. I take a volume reading before and after cooling. The lid sits loosely on top to limit contamination. It usually takes about 30 or so minutes to cool it down to around 70F. When it's cool I put the sanitized bucket underneath and open up the valve to let it drain by gravity and aerate simultaneously. I'll also grab a hydrometer reading from this stream. Sometimes the first couple litres are loaded with sediment, if so I discard (I make about 5.5 gallons so I can do stuff like this). When the bucket is full I put the sanitized lid/bung on and shake the living hell out of it for about 5-6 minutes for further aeration. Sometimes I add the yeast before or after shaking.
...
