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The first chore is to set up a day to brew. That may sound
silly, but it takes about 5 to 8 hours to brew up a 15 to 20 gallon batch,
depending on whether there is new equipment involved or not. If it's just
a routine brew, then the normal time is about 5 to 5-1/2 hours total. It's
always best to be able to devote a full day to the brew session, just in
case something happens along the way.
The first move is to start the strike water for
the mash. Once the water is heating, I begin measuring the grain
bill.
While the strike water is heating up, I begin grinding the grain. In this case, 30 lb.. of grain will be used to create a brew with an ABV of 4.3 %, typical for the style.
Once the grist is ready, the mash session begins.
I usually step mash, meaning there are 3 distinct temperature ranges that
must be reached during the process. The grain is added to the pre-heated
strike water, at which time the temperature will level off to the desired
target. In the case of using a protein rest to help clarify the brew
and improve the yield when using certain types of grain, that temperature
would be 122F for about 30 minutes. For this brew session I skipped the
protein rest and went straight to the main mash temperature of 156F.
The grain I used was a highly modified malt, therefore negating the need
for the rest, although it can still be considered beneficial to the process.
I chose not to simply to save time, so I could get done a little earlier.
Having remained at about 156 for 70 minutes to complete the conversion
of the sugars in the grain, it's time to heat the mash to 165F, which will
cancel out the enzyme activity, and complete the cycle. This is done by
both raising the temperature using the burner and sparging the grain with
pre-heated sparge water at 170F. This water will carry the sweet
liquor created during the mash into the brew pot, where it will be boiled
with the hops to become the fermentable wort.
In the center of the brew pot you can see the mesh screen
that's used to prevent the hops from clogging the spigot after the boil.
Clogged filters, hoses, false bottoms, and other sections of the brewing
equipment can account for the majority of the problems when all-grain
mashing.
Any time spent to ensure they work well is well spent!
A hose carries the liquor to the bottom of the brew pot to help prevent
oxidization which could later damage the beer as it ages.
In general, the amount of sparge water required is equivalent
to that of the desired batch size. In order to create an 18 gallon batch,
I used a bit over 18 gallons of sparge water to allow for the loss of steam
during the boil. During the boil, water is lost at the rate of about 2
gallons per hour- quite a loss when you think about it! But, it's all factored
in to the recipe, and just part of the process, along with the loss
at the bottom of the kettle to dump the spent hops, along with the hot
and cold break. (There is a lot of protein, bits of husk, and bits of hop
left to settle out during the cooling of the wort, and the more that's
removed immediately the better the brew will turn out; the bigger the batch,
the more one must allow for these factors. In a batch this size, the loss
is normally about 1.5 to 2 gallons.)
After chilling the boiling wort from to about 70F (a VERY time-consuming feat if you don't have the right equipment!), it's time to add the sweet wort to the fermenter and pitch the yeast. In this case the batch was too big for the single 15 gallon fermenter, so it was split into 3 glass fermenters.
This particular batch was formulated to yield 18
gallons, and ended very close to target; The larger the batch size,
the more wort must be sacrificed along the way, especially during the initial
boil, as mentioned above. I like to keep my batch sizes in increments
of full (5 gal.) kegs, it's easier to work with.
However, it's NOT a problem if you end up with a partial
keg, it can be bottled OR kegged!
The head space left over can simply be purged with C02
from the tank, so there's no need to worry about oxidation.
In this case, I ended up with about two gallons
of beer, not enough to waste time kegging, but too much to toss out- so,
I decided to dry hop it, and use it up later. If it's not overpowered by
the couple ounces of Willamette hops I tossed in, I'll drink it- if it's
too strong (HAH!), I'll simply blend it in with another batch later on.
Somehow I think it's gonna be just fine... ;-)
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