[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Beer brewing pictorial 56K death (Page 2 of 2)
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Tomorrow is brew day at my house. Yesterday I spent some time cleaning a few kegs and my taps. Its amazing what kind of nasty shit can build up in the taps when you haven't used them in a while!
Tomorrow I'm doing a 12 gal batch of Flanders Red as my share of a club bourbon barrel that we've had going for 3 or 4 years. We started w/ an IPA, then did a mild brown, then a flanders red. The third brew (the red) has been in the barrel a year, so its time to drain and re-fill. We've got 11 brewers who have been keeping the barrel full. Its now got a nice sourness due to the natural bugs in the wood as well as a few different yeasts that we've innoculated with. Recipe for 6 gal... 6 lbs. Vienna Malt 1 lb. Carahell Malt 1 lb. CaraVienne Malt 1 lb. Aromatic Malt 0.50 lb. Special B Malt 2.5 lbs Corn Hops: 1 ounce Goldings – EK 4.75 Alpha (ok to be a lower alpha). Add at 60 minutes – no flavor or aroma hops at all WYeast WYeast 3278 B Yeast (Bret Bruxellensis) Mash w/ 1.33 Qts. Of water per LBS Grain Total 4 gallons Protein Rest 122o 20 minutes Intermediate Rest 145o 40 minutes Saccharification Rest 162o 30 minutes Mash Out Rest 169o 10 minutes Sparge Temp 169o 45 minutes Page 142 of the Wild Brews scanned states: 1. Mash corn and 10% of malted barley at 145o for 15 minutes 2. Dough-in grains and H2O to hit 122o and hold for 20 minutes 3. Add adjunct mash to main mash 4. Raise to 145o and hold for 40 minutes Raise to 162o and hold for 30 minutes Raise to 168o and hold for 10 minutes (mash-out) Sparge with 176o H2O The corn is critical for nutrients down the road for the Brett. One week fermentation @ 68o and then 8 weeks at 80o. It'll be a long brew day! K |
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Tomorrow is brew day at my house. Yesterday I spent some time cleaning a few kegs and my taps. Its amazing what kind of nasty shit can build up in the taps when you haven't used them in a while! Tomorrow I'm doing a 12 gal batch of Flanders Red as my share of a club bourbon barrel that we've had going for 3 or 4 years. We started w/ an IPA, then did a mild brown, then a flanders red. The third brew (the red) has been in the barrel a year, so its time to drain and re-fill. We've got 11 brewers who have been keeping the barrel full. Its now got a nice sourness due to the natural bugs in the wood as well as a few different yeasts that we've innoculated with. Recipe for 6 gal... 6 lbs. Vienna Malt 1 lb. Carahell Malt 1 lb. CaraVienne Malt 1 lb. Aromatic Malt 0.50 lb. Special B Malt 2.5 lbs Corn Hops: 1 ounce Goldings – EK 4.75 Alpha (ok to be a lower alpha). Add at 60 minutes – no flavor or aroma hops at all WYeast WYeast 3278 B Yeast (Bret Bruxellensis) Mash w/ 1.33 Qts. Of water per LBS Grain Total 4 gallons Protein Rest 122o 20 minutes Intermediate Rest 145o 40 minutes Saccharification Rest 162o 30 minutes Mash Out Rest 169o 10 minutes Sparge Temp 169o 45 minutes Page 142 of the Wild Brews scanned states: 1. Mash corn and 10% of malted barley at 145o for 15 minutes 2. Dough-in grains and H2O to hit 122o and hold for 20 minutes 3. Add adjunct mash to main mash 4. Raise to 145o and hold for 40 minutes Raise to 162o and hold for 30 minutes Raise to 168o and hold for 10 minutes (mash-out) Sparge with 176o H2O The corn is critical for nutrients down the road for the Brett. One week fermentation @ 68o and then 8 weeks at 80o. It'll be a long brew day! K Sounds like a nice brew! But I have to tell you, an eight hour day is one of the things that keeps me from going all grain. Sure, I'm retired, but I can make a decent IPA with late extract and steeping grains in a couple of hours. |
I did an all grain big porter on friday. I snapped a few pics along the way.
This is the manifold I built for my MLT. 
This is my MLT with the 13 pounds of grain needed for this beer. 
This is the mash. 16.5 quarts of water at 165 degrees added to the grain gave me a mash temp of 154F. This sat for 1 hour. 
All this work means I need to take a break. Here's a gratitous break pic. That's a Leininkugel amber. 
The first runnings 
The sparge 
Beginning boiling. Coming up on the hot break. I got busy after this, and didn't have enough hands to brew and take pics. I boiled it down for 90 min., and pitched in on a Nottingham yeast cake left over from a pale ale. The OG was 1.068. I had airlock action in less than an hour, and had to install a blow off tube about an hour after that. It will stay in the primary for 2-3 weeks, and then go to a secondary for a week. I hope to be drinking it for Christmas. |
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My brew on Saturday went flawlessly. I've got 6 gal bubbling happily in my kid's bath tub (they have to use my shower when I brew!). Its going to be difficult to keep the temp up where I need them for this brew. Hopefully I can. I may put it in a water filled, rubbermaid container w/ an aquarium heater that I bought for that purpose.
No pics. I'll have to remember to do that next time. My system is a 3 half barrel system w/ a single March pump and a micro-processor controlled heater to maintain temps. I'm an engineer, so for my senior design project I teamed up w/ some electrical and computer guys and we made the system. K |
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Sounds like a nice brew! But I have to tell you, an eight hour day is one of the things that keeps me from going all grain. Sure, I'm retired, but I can make a decent IPA with late extract and steeping grains in a couple of hours. I can pull off a normal AG session in about 4 hours and that includes clean up. |
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I can pull off a normal AG session in about 4 hours and that includes clean up. Yep, me too. My partner and I pulled off a 4 batch day a few years back. Two extract/partial grain batches and two all grain batches. Set-up to clean-up we did it in 6 hrs. I'll never do that again, but it can be done! 
This weekend's brew was started around 11 and finished up around 5 or so. That was w/ an extensive mash schedule and a 90 min boil. K |
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I have joined the home brew club. I picked up a used set up yesterday and did my first kit today. A Brewer's Best American Amber kit. Wasn't what I wanted, but the brew shop was really low on stock, and I couldn't wait!
It went well, however, I am worried about it. The brew pot that came with it, is huge, probably 8 gallon. I had a really hard time with it on my stove doing the boil. I had to keep it covered, and then take lid off and stir, recover, etc. I am going to order a 4 gallon stainless steel pot, as it will be lot easier to handle on the stove. I had a great time with it, and look forward to continuing with the process. I was planning to transfer it to a glass carboy in 4 days and let it finish there for two weeks then. Is that adviseable? Thanks in advance, and I appreciate any advice you want to share on this topic...I am definitely a newbie at it! |
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Ok, so transfer it to the carboy in a few weeks? I know I can just leave it in the plastic pail the whole time too as another option. Yeah. If you want to brew another batch right away, just get another primary bucket. They don't cost that much. $10-12 with a lid. |
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How much cheaper were the pellet hops compared to fresh hops? Or why did you decide to go with pellets? Also I noticed your from OH and any links to where you bought your ingredients would be great. I live close to downtown Cincinnati. Myself and Ak74man have purchased the same brewing kit. I know Listermann's is near Xavier University. I've used a few of his manufactured products, but cannot vouch for his service or store. Since I'm from Michigan, I shop at Adventures in Homebrewing. I know that they also mail order. The owner is a friend of mine, and I can vouch for the quality of his ingredients and service. What I can't vouch for is his shipping since I go to the store, pour a beer, and get what I need. K Listermann's is pretty good. They guys in the store are friendly and knowledgeable, or at least were the last time I was there a couple of years ago 
And believe it or not, Party Source in NKY has a limited brewing section (in the back next to the beer cave). There's even a mini fridge with a few cold ingredients. Their prices aren't as good, but the convenience factor is hard to beat - they're open a lot later than Listermanns. |
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Ok, so transfer it to the carboy in a few weeks? I know I can just leave it in the plastic pail the whole time too as another option. Yeah. If you want to brew another batch right away, just get another primary bucket. They don't cost that much. $10-12 with a lid. Thanks. I actually have two buckets and two carboys, so I was thinking about starting another batch in a few days. I can tell that this could become an addictive hobby! |
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BTW, if you plan on doing this to any real extent, order your hops in bulk from this place. http://www.hopsdirect.com/. Their shopping cart doesn't calculate shipping, so you may have to call if you're concerned about that. Huge savings! |
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Brewers: What are the start up costs you experienced? Second question, once you've purchased the necessary equipment (boilers, buckets and whatnot), what does it cost you per batch on average to make? Thanks in advance folks. Really enjoying this thread. I don't have much money in it, since saving money was a big point of brewing (for me). I use a turkey fryer, a cooler to mash grain and plastic buckets to ferment in. I did buy a grain mill, but that let me buy 50lb bags of uncrushed base malt for about 1/2 of the cost of buying smaller amounts of crushed (which doesn't keep well). I buy bulk hops at a huge savings and reuse the expensive liquid yeast a couple of times. You can save some $ on cleaning supplies if you get the big tub of oxyclean. That leaves you just buying something like starsan at a brew shop. I go through a lot of cleaning supplies since that's the only thing I'm anal about when it comes to brewing. I've probably got less than $300 in it. I'm under $20 for most 5 gallons batches now. You can spend as much as you want on it though. They sell a lot of shiny things for brewing. 
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Brewers: What are the start up costs you experienced? Second question, once you've purchased the necessary equipment (boilers, buckets and whatnot), what does it cost you per batch on average to make? Thanks in advance folks. Really enjoying this thread. I don't have much money in it, since saving money was a big point of brewing (for me). I use a turkey fryer, a cooler to mash grain and plastic buckets to ferment in. I did buy a grain mill, but that let me buy 50lb bags of uncrushed base malt for about 1/2 of the cost of buying smaller amounts of crushed (which doesn't keep well). I buy bulk hops at a huge savings and reuse the expensive liquid yeast a couple of times. You can save some $ on cleaning supplies if you get the big tub of oxyclean. That leaves you just buying something like starsan at a brew shop. I go through a lot of cleaning supplies since that's the only thing I'm anal about when it comes to brewing. I've probably got less than $300 in it. I'm under $20 for most 5 gallons batches now. You can spend as much as you want on it though. They sell a lot of shiny things for brewing. Thanks Waldo, that's exactly what I was looking for. $20 for a 5 gallons of beer? Even with the start-up costs, the total costs will pay for themselves before too long. |
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You can save money on brewing by:
- Buying malted grain in bulk. - Buying hops by the pound (vacuum seal ounces) - Washing and reusing yeast (so easy, I am kicking myself for waiting so long) Do all three and you can get your cost down to $15 a batch for small beers, less than $20 for big beers.
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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Beer brewing pictorial 56K death (Page 2 of 2)
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