Brew #28, #17 Revisited

Brew date: January 26th, 2014


Brewing is so much easier using Uncle Jim mash tun and the new 9 Gallon boiling pot. Even though I stuck with a 5 gallon batch, I didn't have to worry about boiling over because I had 6 inches of free space in the pot.

Mashing

I started with around 4 gallons of water at 170 deg F. After mixing in the grain I added about one quart of tap water to bring the mash temp down to 150 deg. Then I boiled around 3 gallons for sparging. By the time 90 minutes rolled around the wort was down to about 4 gallons. I could have used a little more rinse water or watered up during the boil but I prefer to leave free space so that I don't have run a blow off system. I will make up the extra gallon during the trub rinse.

  

Draff

 Draff is what you call the spent grain. I need to see if it's OK to feed to horses, and if so, does it need to be dried.

Hoppy Clouds

Happy Yeast

Batch number 28 is Porter #17 revisited. The plan was to follow the recipe fairly accurately, however, this is easier said than done. When we were weighing out the barley we found several ounces of some mystery grain in the weigh bucket. I told Chris to just leave it in there. If it's 2-row then there will be little influence. If it is 6-row then this beer could end up with some more caramel notes. But, being a porter with a fair amount of roasted malts, it's likely to go unnoticed.

10 lbs 2-row
3/4 lb crystal 80L
1/2 lb roasted barley 300L
1/4 lb chocolate wheat 500L

1 oz saaz @ 4.9%
1 oz tettnang @ 4.8%
1 oz kent golding @ 4.5%

Safale US#05 dry yeast


Hop schedule
1/2 oz saaz t=0
1/2 oz saaz t=20
1/3 oz tett t=40
1/3 oz tett t=60
1/3 oz tett t=80
1/3 oz Kent t=90
dry hop 2/3 kent after active fermentation settles down 

 Trub rinse:

Added ~1.5 Gallons of Water

 When Jesus added water to the vessels, it turned to wine in a moment. When I added water to the trub, it took about a day and a halt to turn to beer.

Presto Magic! Beer Appears

Even so, I am still amazed at the miracle! Now the secondary fermenter has 5 gallons of beer in it. 

It is amazing how much volume 3 onces of hops and on packet of yeast expands to. The bottom of the fermenter is a giant sponge holding about a half gallon of wort captive. I have previously posted my theories on how this  works but I state it again. I am thinking the fresh oxygenated water revitalizes the yeast to give it a second wind, allowing it to chew through the sugar stuck in and between the blanket of hops resting on the bottom. Even if my theory isn't correct, that's the story and I'm sticking to it.