Sunday Brewday

Sunday was an awesome brewday!   My wife, as well as my father in law and his brother in law came out and helped all throughout the brewing process.  We set out to brew a pale ale with all cascade hops and a relatively simple grain bill consisting of 2-row, Munich and some crystal for color.  The estimated ABV is just over 5%.  We should have about 41 IBUs and about 6.4 SRM for color.

Once I began the mash I stared measuring out my hops.  I will note that when I was picking up the ingredients I measured and milled the grain while the guy behind the counter measured my hops.  Anyways the recipe needed a total of 8 oz of cascade and all I had was five.  Luckily I know another homebrewer nearby who i suspected might have some Cascade or Centennial hops.  I text him and he informed that he did but was out on a bike ride and wouldn't be able to bring any over.  My father in law and his brother in law volunteered to do the hop run across town to get some more cascade hops.  I continued to sparge and start the boil with the first hop addition.  Realizing they were going to take a bit longer than I had hoped I turned my 60 minute boil into a 70 minute boil and adjusted the second additions accordingly.  When the hops arrived they were leaf hops with a higher alpha acid content so again adjustments were made to keep the IBUs close to 41.  The final additions were made and this time the chilling of the wort went smoothly thats to some quick disconnect fittings I picked up to allow me to connect the hose to the wort chiller.  The yeast was pitched and the clean up began.  Currently they are bubbling away in the fermentation room and are looking good!

The First Brewday

After running test and calibrating the system we had the first brewday on the system last week. We brewed an IPA tentatively named Test IPA.  This particular IPA uses several of my favorite hop varities including Citra, Mosaic, Amarillo, Nugget, and Simcoe.  The estimated Abv. is 6.8 estimated IBUs are about 84 and the SRM should be about 9.3.  The malt bill is pretty basic and includes 2-row, C-40, and Cara-Pils.  We used American Ale II yeast 1272 by Wyeast.

Everything went smooth until I got ready to chill the wort and realized i didn't have a female coupler to allow me to connect the hose to the chiller.  I had to get super creative real fast and ended up making a coupler with foil tape that I used to make the MT and HLT jackets.  I worked but leaked a bit so I held it in the HLT to avoid flooding the room.  While holding the improvised coupler together and trying to get the right flow of wort running through the chillers i lost about 4 gallons of wort into a clean yet unsanitized bucket.  After I filled my first two carboys I realized I was going to be short on wort and dumped the wort from the bucket back into the BK and finished filling the last carboy.  I pitched the yeast and labeled the carboy with the suspect wort so we will see what happens with that carboy.

Final Major Equipment Arrival

I received the last of the major pieces for the system today that will allow me to brew a full half barrel.  The final order from Northern brewer included:

  • 2 30 gallon Megapots with weld-less ball valves and thermometer
  • False bottom for the mash tun
  • Hop blocker for Boil Kettle
  • Autosparge arm
  • Blichmann Burner (still on the way)

Wow, 30 gallon brew pots are big! In the next couple weeks I will  set everything up and do some tests to make sure everything is working and ready to brew.  I still need

  • A mash paddle ( I will make)
  • 10ft Silicone tubbing (ebay)
  • Camlocks fittings (online supplier)
  • Plate Chiller (ebay)
  • Refectix material for HLT and MT jackets (Home Depot) 

Equipment and More on the Way

So far I have been able to source equipment for the brewery via craigslist thanks to the fact that I am in the Pacific Northwest and used equipment is posted in abundance daily.  Due to the fact that I like the simplicity of the Blichmann top tier system but mainly due to the fact that I was able to find one locally on craigslist cheap and nearby this will be the base of the half barrel brewery set up.  This was quite the bundle as Jeff, the guy I bought this from, was quitting brewing altogether.  Along with the basic top tier setup, including a mounted March pump, Blichmann burner, and large shelf I was able to get a bunch of other stuff including:

  • Two corny kegs
  • A basic sit ontop sparging Arm  
  • 14.5 gallon conical Fermenator with leg extensions and casters
  • Co2 tank with Micromatic regulator 
  • Immersion chiller 
  • 10 gal cooler mash tun with false bottom and thermometer
  • 15 gal Polar Ware kettle with ball valve and thermometer
  • Hydrometer with graduated cylinder
  • Basic set up for a kegorator
  • As well as a bunch of quick disconnects ant tons of other various odd and ends

I was also able to find on craigslist, six 6 gal brewers plastic carboys as well as a five gallon to use for the extra wort that wont fit in the conical for less than half price on craigslist.  This will allow me to have three batches fermenting at once.  With this setup I can brew up to 10 gallon batches but I will be ordering more equipment that will allow me to brew the full half barrel.