Ingredients
At first we were contemplating doing a ten gallon batch, since we know we can with our new system size. But we figured that, in case something goes horribly wrong, we would do a five gallon batch so as to not lose as much money. Also, doing a ten-gallon batch would have necessitated purchasing or otherwise acquiring another 6.5 gallon carboy. And, after spending close to $500 on this system, we're both a little strapped for cash.
We weren't able to exactly recreate the recipe, because the brew shop had no Chinook hops. They also had no possible substitutes (Columbus, Target, Galena, Northern Brewer). But they had Centennial, which had the next highest AA%, which was all we were really looking for anyway. Had to do a little on-the-spot number crunching to figure out how much we needed, but then we were off.
| 7.5lbs. Pale Malt |
| 1.0lbs. Crystal 40°L |
| 4oz Centennial (9.1%AA) |
| 1oz Cascade (4.6%AA) |
| WLP008 East Coast Ale Liquid Yeast |
Mash Method
May 10, 2008
Ok. Here we go. We opted for a 1.5:1 quarts of water to pounds of grist ratio. 8.5lbs → 3.2 gallons of water. So we started heating up our water in our HLT, added our grain to the mash tun, and once the water reached 175°F, we opened our valves with our pump on and pumped the water over the grain bed. Hooray! It works!
Unfortunately, we didn't pre-heat the mash tun. So after we finished striking, our mash temp ended up being 133°F. Not very good. We filled the HLT back up with water and turned the heat WAY up. Started circulating the mash to bring the temp up. Very, very VERY slowly it raised. The HLT water got to 200°F, and in a split second, the mash temp went to around 165°F. Completely overshot our desired temp. Turned the heat on the HLT way down, took the cover off, tried to cool it. Didn't work so well.
So our mash temperature was both inconsistent and spent most of the time outside of the range of temperatures conducive to enzymatic reaction. Crap. Well, after about an hour and twenty minutes of constant recirculation (providing crystal-clear wort, mind you!), we lautered into the boil pot.
As that wort sat in the boil pot, we began sparging. Sparged with 3 gallons of 175° water. Recirculated that for twenty minutes over the grain bed, then lautered into the boil pot.
Brew Method
May 10, 2008
From purely eyeballing the pot, we think we wound up with about five gallons in the boil pot. After turning the burner on, it took only ten minutes to create a violent boil. The hot break was humongous. The wort filled the bottom third of the kettle, the hot break foam filled the rest. It subsided, and we began with our hop additions. At one point during the boil (time not noted), we added an extra gallon of water due to water lost from boil. This should have instead been an extra gallon of sparge water.
T=60min
Added 2.5oz Centennial (9.1%AA)
T=30min
Added 1.5oz Centennial (9.1%AA)
Note: we forgot Irish Moss!!!! DAMMIT!!!
T=0min
Turned off the burner, stirred the pot to allow stuff to settle conically in the center of the pot. Hooked up our new counterflow chiller (rather shoddily), and proceeded to dump into the fermenter.
The bad news is that our connections on the chiller weren't secured very well, and as a result, one came loose and we lost a good amount of beer. The good news is that the chiller works amazingly well. The wort was the perfect temperature coming out the end into the fermenter. Used the airstone to aerate the wort as it was filling the fermenter.
Fermentation
May 10, 2008
Our OG ended up being 1.044. Same as last time. That's a bit discouraging actually, because we were really hoping that this system would improve our mash efficiency greatly, what with better temperature regulation and longer sparge times. But we noted that it might be partly due to the fact that our temperature regulation was actually way off.
Anyways, pitched the yeast and stored in the basement for fermentation. Only looks like about 4.5 gallons. Oh well. Learning experience.
May 24, 2008
Racked to secondary, added ounce of Cascade in a nylon hop bag for dry hopping.
Bottling
June 14, 2008
Didn't bottle - kegged. Our FG reading was 1.006. Kick ass. 4.9% abv. Not too shabby.
Tasting
Notes
- Pre-heat mash tun (creating better temp control)
- Don't forget the irish moss
- Secure chiller connections
- When filling HLT, fill to spigot level, then add desired water amount.
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