Open another rye so dark and it's great.
Soooo frustrating.
I just can't give them away knowing someone could get a dud like I experienced.

173 bottles of beer right now.

Reminds me of the tripels I mailed down south. No contamination issues but I didn't know how long they'd take to bottle condition.

Babywilleatyou is three days past due. House is super clean. Homebrew shop has 20% off everything. Last minute brewday.

BLACK FRIDALE
Fermentables
9 lbs Briess Pilsen
1 lb Briess Organic C-60L
1 lb Flaked Oats
.5 lb Weyermann Dehusked Carafa III
.25 lb Weyermann Chocalate Rye

*Spilled some!!

Hops & Flavorings
1 oz. New Zealand Pacific Hallertau @ 60 – Alpha:4.5% “Citrus and Floral”
1 oz. Cascade @ 15 - Alpha:6.2%/Beta:6.2% - “Med. Floral, Citrus and Grapefruit”
1 oz. New Zealand Pacific Jade @ 0 – Alpha:14.2%/Beta:7.5%

1 oz Cascade @ Dryhop for XXX Days
1 oz ???? @ Dryhop for XXX Days

Yeast
Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728
Day of brewing made a 1L Starter made with warm water and ~1 oz of honey and ~2 oz of agave nectar.

Additions
1 campden tablet added pre boil
1 tablespoon of Mash stabilizer 5.2 at dough in.
1 teaspoon of Irish Moss @ 15


Goal is a black ale with the smooth silkyness of a scottish ale. Something that will continue ferment if my basement drops in temperature. I'm sitting at 60 still.

I spilled nearly a pound of grain on the god damn porch. It's hard to say which grains. I was just moving from my store bag to the brewbag. Gust of wind got the best of me.


It was chilly out. I don't know how chilly but there was no melting and the gusts of wind blew out my flame twice. I didn't want to look at the thermometer because I only wanted to care about the brewpot temp.


Pretty slick though. There's a shed I could be in to but that's another 40 feet I'd have to carry 6 gallons of boiling wort. So I go with safety over my own comfort.

It was really hard to keep a steady temp during the mash. It ranged from 148-158. It's like when I turn the heat up just a tad it gains momentum and keeps rising after I turn off the burner. Did a 90 minute mash. Followed by me trying to raise the temp for about 10 minutes and then panicking about the possibility of a scorched bag and lifting it out. Bag still fine.


Lesson learned from last batch. Used a cookie drying rack to let my bag drip. Used a clip from a light to keep the bag shut. This worked really well... most of it dripped in the kettle. If I could find a large 13" round deep fry basket that would work better.

When it was about done dripping I rinsed it with 1.5 gallons of near boiling water that I had heated up inside. This worked great and I got my volume up a to about 7 gallons. A little farther than I wanted to be.


A murder of crows showed up precisely at full boil. Literally, about 15 crows circling and freaking out.
I have a video of that too but I don't feel like uploading. It smelled great and I had just ditched my grain to the compost. I've seen this attract racoons within minutes so I was not too surprised to see crows show up. Plus it seemed appropriate... black brew, hot kettle boiling, my two black cats hanging out, black friday. I was a super witchy wizard.


I crack open a "Reverse the Curse Ale". It's a scottish ale I brewed with some Willamette and "Maybe Mt. Hood?" hops that were grown on the plaza the Twins ballpark. If you don't follow the team you wouldn't know, but a lot of locals are suspicious that removal of the spruce trees in centerfield has put a curse on the team. Their home record since the tree removal is great evidence of this curse.

I talked the grounds crew into picking them for me, and I dried them myself and brewed this up. Extract batch of Pils LME, Some crystal 40 steeping grains, those hops, scottish 1728 yeast. This has been in the bottle for three weeks and it's fucking delicious. Very simple taste, englishy hops with a carmelly malt. Very clean too. I'll have to give some to the grounds crew now.


At the end it was dark and I had to hold my brewcat near to keep us both warm. You probably can't see him. He's black too.

I ended up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. So I think I'll rinse with less grain next time. Refractometer reads 1.051. According to the free browser software of brewersfriend.com means I had efficiency of 65%! This also does not account for the mystery grains I spilled. This is great news. I could really work on water adjustments and eventually I could buy my own grain crusher and crush a bit finer than I do at the store.

I also used a bastardization of Cap'ns yeast starter method. I really want to believe in it.. I think it does get the yeast fired up..my fear is that it won't increase the volume of yeast any quicker than a beer starter. It seems that yeast would reproduce at whatever rate they can. The more I think about it, it seems like this method is really just the same asa smack pack...probably gets the yeast excited but they'll still need time to multiply. Anyways I still gave it a shot, I poured a smack pack into 1 liter of warm water with about an oz of honey and about 2 oz of agave nectar in it at the start of my session. I swirled it every time I walked by. It will be hard to tell if it worked or not since I think just the smack pack a lone would have gotten to the end of this batch. Scottish yeast is pretty tough. Though, I would typically make a stir plate starter a day ahead of time..as I do for anything over 1.045. If this doesn't work out I blame capn.

From set up to having everything cleaned took me 4 and a half hours. I don't really know where I can shave off time...cooling with a copper coil/ice bath still took more than 30 minutes. Though, I can't turn my water on full blast or it will start to spit out where the hose clamps on. Kind of bummed I wasn't able to get it done in 4 hours flat.

My brother in law was showing me pictures of the wort cooler and some other contraptions he's been building for brewing. Dude is an engineer and it shows.

Awesome. I wish I had more of that background myself. Tell dude if he invents something that doesn't need water flowing through it I'll buy one.

Essentially I want an icepack I can submerge into boiling temps. I would think if it was filled with a liquid that maintained it's freezing temp better than water that would be great. I'd be shocked if something along those lines doesn't already exist for the shipping industry.

From my understanding of thermodynamics, flowing water is the best option. Of common substances, liquid water has the HIGHEST ability to absorb energy without increasing its temperature (i.e, specific heat). And with a frozen object (water, glycol, etc), the outside layer will melt to liquid acting as an insulator to the underlying frozen solid which is ONE reason the frozen form of any substance generally has a lower ability to absorb energy than a liquid (water ice has a lower specific heat than liquid water).

The other efficient component of the wort cooler is surface area. With water flowing through small tubing, in theory, every cool/cold water molecule is exposed to the hot fluid and absorbs a maximal amount of energy before being discharged from the system. With the thermodynamic properties of liquid water in conjunction with the significant increase in energy transfer allowed by flowing water through small tubing , I don't think you're going to find a better way to cool rapidly. Using a different metal conductor may help, but copper and aluminum are the best easily obtainable conductors available. The key would be finding a water flow rate to maximize energy transfer before being lost from the system.

Word. Without a doubt my copper coil works. I would estimate that just refilling the sink with ice a few times would take four times the time. The plate chillers where you're simultaneously pumping water through at the same time you're pumping wort through probably work a little better yet. http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/shir ... iller.html ... It's just a ton of water down the tube. In my current setup, I'm upstairs for the cooling, otherwise I'd run it into the wash machine. In the summertime I'll probably try to run it through my sprinkler and water my flowers.

Just get one of those rain barrels and make it dual use -- rain and waste water.

Another thought about a way to reduce water usage and increase cooling of water would be to use as small as diameter copper tubing as possible while increasing the number of coils. Again this emphasizes the same principles of increased surface area for cooling effect, but with lower water VOLUME overall.

Just a quick search revealed this set-up which seems optimal for a home set-up if you want to dick around with hardware. Cooling the water to a maximum temp in an ice-water bath before being introduced into the wort maximizes the energy transfer in a fixed volume. And in conjunction, submerging and slowly rotating the pot in an ice water bath would enhance cooling dramatically. If you read the comments, a guy got his batch down to 75 degrees in six minutes with this setup.

http://www.olderascal.com/?page_id=13

I highly doubt that reader comment dude was cooling a full volume batch. Just would never believe it until I see it. I always use a chiller for extract batches too.. and then I can get it done in about 10. That would make sense if the prechill method gets it down to six. I really like the idea of having another coil in ice to get the water colder on it's way in, it should help quite a bit.

This sounds kinda awesome. I remember that cooped-up feeling for the last month of pre-baby time. And then I remember it ratcheting up to a screeching violin note in my head for the full ten days she went long. Like, where the fuck is my kid already, let's do this. Felt like I couldn't really commit to anything because any second now chaos was coming. "I'd love to go to lunch with you guys, but ... you know..."


I have that issue inside to a lesser degree, much less outside when it's cold as fuck. I vacillate between 150 and 160 unless I stand there and watch it like a hawk. So between that and my desire to go all grain, I have decided I’m going to move the brewing ops up to the roof deck and go for the big Gott cooler setup, and brew all grain. I had friends visiting all week from St Louis and Madison for Thanksgiving, and was bitching about how little room I have to “do it right,” and one of them said “what about the roof deck?” Never really considered it, but I have a hose up there and plenty of space. And you can’t beat the view – shit is tree top level. So ASAP I am getting a big false-bottom insulated mash tun, and moving the burner and propane up there. It will take some figuring, as there’s no proper sink, just a coiled hose, but it’s close enough and it gets me all grain, local grown organic goodness. With one of those coolers, from what I read, you pour in water around 165F, then dump in your grain, and you’re at 155F or so and you just close it up and wait. Shit holds temp. Feel FREE to help me with ideas about this… picture a 10 x 18 roof deck, a coiled hose, and a 7 gallon steel kettle / burner setup.


Word, I wanna find something like that, and quickly.


That’s not “bad” but it does mean a long-ass boil or a thinner beer. So which do you lower… mash volume, or sparge? I’m guessing a little of both.


It looks so much more wintry there, Boston is like 3 weeks behind you. Some leaves still turning / hanging on here.


THIS is awesome. Can't believe you got hops from the stadium... and the recipe sounds simple and really good. I need to crank out an easy-drinker like this next.


The pug wants nothing to do with me during brews. He just sleeps.


More time would help with numbers, yeah, but the real value of this method (such as it is) is that you can buy cheap dry yeast and still have a rowdy, angry yeast party to pitch without planning your day 24 hours in advance. You buy several types of dry yeast, keep them in the fridge, and then when you suddenly realize “oh shit I could brew” you’re not up the creek waiting on your yeast starter to get going. And when you're making a high-gravity batch, you use 2 packets of dry yeast... so then for very little money and in 30 minutes you have a LOT of yeast, up and ready to party. Cheap, easy, and no planning whatsoever. This method and its charms may hold more appeal soon, when you’re getting 4 hours of sleep a night.

So in my closet:
Gluten Free Breakfast Beer… STILL fermenting 15 days later. Bubbling has slowed, but it’s still burping once every 10 seconds or so. Confused / happy. Somewhat amazed as well – never had anything go this slow and steady. Smells good, no off flavors in my nose, so I assume that’s all yeast and they’re just doing their shit. I’ll wait to bottle til it settles for days.
Smoked Porter… This is the one that exploded all over the closet and was 100% done fermenting in about 5 days. I bottled it a week ago, and I’m now just biding my time to let it condition. The anticipation is killing me… I almost opened one last night “just to see.” But playing the “just to see” game is like playing “just the tip.” It’s never just the tip. Invariably I drink 85% of the batch before it hits its prime, then curse when it gets REALLY good and I have 5 left. Must wait.
Scotch Ale… the other one I used smoked malt in, beechwood here and peat in the porter. This one I racked to a secondary last week, and it began to slowly ferment again. I then added the remainder of my charred oak soaked in bourbon, and it’s in there sloooooowly bubbling, almost done I guess. Smells fantastic, like caramel.

Oh and I had some killer beers for thanksgiving, but I’ll post that where it goes.

This sounds awesome. I think your going to want to pour your water in a little hotter than that. I always lost 5-10 degrees pouring into the cooler. The walls of the cooler just suck it up. But good news is that it does hold the temp like a dream. Like maybe you'll lose 2 degrees over an hour...if you open it to check a few too many times. I would pour in at 172 and hit it just about right. If it landed hotter than 165 you can just add ice. My first time I poured in at 165 and then I had to pour it right back into the kettle to heat it.


Next time I would just lower the sparge volume. Just easy to control it on that side. The mash is sort of a mash/sparge combo in this method anyways.


Yeah. We are a small enough company where everyone gets to know everyone pretty well. I just asked someone in passing if they knew where the hops were going and like an hour later I got an email asking if I wanted them. Hopefully they make it an annual thing.


I'm scared this didn't work well. It's had about two days of fermentation and it never got to be more than 1/2 inch of krausen..it appears to be dying down already. I will check gravity at end of this week and maybe pitch another pack if it's stuck. It was really my bad...I should have thought about what I needed a bit more. I really needed twice the yeast of a pack. Shoulda waited a day. Fortunately, it only needs to get from 1.050 to 1.015. So maybe it will still be fine. From what I've read, the scottish ale yeast is a tough yeast.


I just got good at waiting three weeks. But I have abundance now which helps a lot.

I moved that first BIAB pale batch to secondary last night. I think it's done fermenting. brewersfriend says it will finish at 1.015 and that's where it's sitting. Going to let it sit another week and then dry hop it for a week. It tasted great.

I also made homebrew ginger beer yesterday. It should be done in a few days... Since it does use yeast and I think it technically has a tiny amount of alcohol I will post all about that in this thread if it worked.

1.050 is NOT a high OG... one pack should do it for sure. Damn. Check that grav and report back. ALL of my batches ferment differently - some gangbusters at first and some a steady trickle. I can never tell til I do a reading.

Mine have all been different too. I've had some sit for two days before blast off. I've had some pick up and go at it again in the secondary. It's pretty fascinating. I just like to check on them frequently and smell the airlocks. I've always used the mr. malty calculator to see if I need a starter/additional pack. I think they typically suggest it once you go above 1.047? This is right on the edge but I don't doubt it'd be fine.

So I just need this, then, right?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/delu ... allon.html

Actually I would just do the 10 gallon size.

that is cool. I don't understand why you need two coolers... i'm sure there's some efficiency gain but it's probably small.

this is what I use.
www.donosborn.com/homebrew/mashtun.htm

Ok so a cooler that already has a spigot, then some metal chinese fisticuffs, some tubing, some clamps, and a valve...

The two coolers... second cooler is for you to boil up your sparge water to temp, then dump it in there and hold it at temp til you're ready to use it. And when you're ready, you have a hose coming out and you can just spray it on the spent grains after you've collected the first wort.

I just have my sparge heating/waiting in a smaller 5 gallon kettle.
The kettle will hold the temp reasonably well with the lid on.
Not as good as a cooler but it's also not super hard to quickly bring it up a couple bucks.

Will they let you build a little storage area on the roof?

"They" is a really nice landlord who wouldn't notice or give two shits, but I won't be here long enough to justify the trouble. Right inside the deck is a "shop," which is where the guirars and amps and tools are. It's clean and organized, and the floor is open enough to have folks sleep there on an air matress. What I'm saying is, I can't like Take It Over more than I have because the space is useful when it's open and clean, but I could store one big orange cooler in there somehow.

Ok that Dennybrew page he linked is great. Balls-deep in it now.

i really like denny and don o. i was ready to spend a bunch of money until i stumbled into their stuff. they are both extremely generous and helpful with questions over the internet too.

I am pondering going to the hardware store right now.