Monday, November 16, 2009

Porter Brew Day

A bunch of photos, but I'll add a bunch of comments this time. A lot of firsts for the this brew.....

Mini Mash this time. Here the grains ready to go in.... Chocolate malt and Black malt help give the porter it's great color.

This is the first brew I did on a an outside burner. It is also the first brew that I did a full boil. I boiled the full 5 gallons instead of a half boil with additional water in the fermenter.

This is the first mash I did. It is a mini mash in a "cooler". This is a 3 gallon cooler. Just enough for a small grain bill.
This is the first time I used my new chiller. I built it myself. This is the second edition. The first one was not as neat. I soldered the elbows. I used a "form" to tighten it up and it worked great. From boil to 70 degrees in 12 minutes!

New 7 gallon carboy for my primary fermenter. Can see all the action during fermentation. Nothing wrong with plastic, but it needs replacement every 6 batches or so. Glass...not so much.

Listening to The Brewing Network during the brew day.
A mini mash at 158 degrees.
The current brewhouse. New and old equipment.

The Robust Porter is a "bigger" beer. It needs extra sugar for alcohol production. Dark Brown Sugar in this case. It adds sucrose and flavor.

The new epoxy floor made it easy to clean up.

First brew. Added all the mash liquid, the dry malt , etc.

I have used liquid malt in all my previous beers. Dry malt this time. BIG boil to start off.
Hops bag in the boil.
Big boil.
One problem brewing in the gargage....BEES! I had one splash down, before I covered the pumpkin ale. Drink beer while you brew beer...that's what they say.
The chiller has to be sanitized...so in it goes for 15 minutes before the end.

A mini submersible and an ice bath chill the wort down in 12 minutes. Compared to most of an hour. It cools it fast, speeds the process and lets me pitch the yeast sooner. (plus it makes the beer clearer....cold break thing)

Heres the siphon into the carboy. A new process for me...I used to just poor it in....less sediment.
Yeasted up and aerated. Ready for the fermentation closet. Tasted good. Starting Gravity 1.069. Hope the new equipment pays off.... :)

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