Homebrew

[Fosgate]

It's fall and that means making Apfelwine and meade for me. Takes a lot of work to pick, prep, press, pasteurize apple juice but the reward is worth it. Downside is between that and making mead stops my beer making for a few months. I have a Russian Imperial Stout with two years down and another year to go in the secondary before bottling. Two brews I want to try is a 34% ABV Eisbach in January when I can use the natural cold of the outdoors to freeze off the water and lager the batch for me. Second is a clone of Buffalo Sweat Stout.

I learned brewing by going through the University of Nebraska's startup brewing program while I was in business school. They started us out with basic pots and pans and worked up to some fancy setups. I don't get into it enough that I use any automated electronic stuff. I prefer to use a Blichmann 15gal pot, pair of Igloo commercial 15 gal coolers to get things done. I'm fortunate I have never had a bad batch but I think that is because i followed what was taught to me as the three biggest factors I worry about. Water, Sanitation and Thermals. I always filter, test and correct the chemical composition of my water, Sanitize my equipment with brewers wash and lots of star sanz and treat everything like I'm performing surgery to keep things sterile. Last Thermals, apply teachings to maintain my thermal temps when I want them to and to quickly cool the wort when I want to. Aside from never boiling with the lid on the pot, everything else is subject to trying different techniques to find slightly different outcomes.

First, I'm a firm believer in all grain brewing to get that full flavor. My Hot liquor and Stepping coolers are the same Igloo Commercial grade coolers linked together with high temp hoses wrapped in insulation. Both have temp guages cut and planted into the bottom side to observe temp changes. The stepping tank has a copper stepping pipe in the center and coiled on the inside of the lid. I calculate my water heat figured I need from the time I heat it in the pot and transfer it to the hot liquor tank, to the stepping tank. Once in the stepping tank I loose 1.5 degrees F in 72 minutes which is the longest protein rest I do which is for Hefeweizen if I don't do a decoction mash. I calculated it out once and confirmed with my professors and Beersmith 2 that my brew house efficiency was at nearly 94%. I was happy just to crest the 88% mark after having one batch of Hefeweizen come in at 50% efficiency on a hefeweizen. Granted, everyone liked that beer at the testing and said it had a lot of citrus characteristics. To me it had all the yeast flavors but little of the grain. That is what caused me to really chase my thermal control for efficiency, Also reduces my grain bill when I am figuring out recipes which is always welcome.

Another thing I do that many do not is I bend my own copper tubing into a wort chiller and instead of running cold water through it and dunking it in the wort (causing negative result of aerating your beer), I set the wort chiller in a bucket of ice with a little bit of water and run the worth through the chiller and put a glove on to dunk that chiller up and down in the bucket to keep fresh cold water on the coil at all times and have someone beside me adding ice as needed. Goes in hot as hell and comes out cold to the desired temp.

First day of Lab

Entry to the Sparging Tank

Sparging Arm

Heat Guage

Straining the grain and debris from the wort coming out of the sparging tank.

Boiling the wort and hopps

Wort Chiller

[Fosgate]

Growing yeast

An imperial stout I did and put on Nitro...awesome!

Relaxing while things cool after pasteurizing apple juice.

[Fosgate]

I really want to master the decoction mash method when brewing hefeweizen (Wheat Beer). I know flavor difference is like a roast to a hamburger. I've seen some people over complicate the mathematics on controlling the thermals through this mash method and others under simplify it. I would like to try it more often on my wheat beers.

[SmittyinAZ]

Cool info and pics bro. 94% efficiency is incredible. I'm happy when, and if, I crack 75! I only do Brew in bag (BIAB). One vessel, easy.

Brew on!

[Fosgate]

Here is a link to my some of the class files for anyone who wants it.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8yft9xcdhdj7pjf/AACyox_1g1Cs5aZOcHZa7jP2a?dl=0&s=so

The books we used.

http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445191040&sr=8-1&keywords=designing+great+beers

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Joy-Homebrewing-Third/dp/0060531053/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445191155&sr=8-2&keywords=the+joy+of+brewing

I would have liked to have had a higher grade but the reality was that 2 people got caught early on smuggling beer out of the classroom so the professors (5 of them) cranked up the class to a higher level of standard. The class was already a time suck with 3 class sessions a week and a 3-5hr lab a week. I had more difficult classes that Pertained to my major than this and rather than trying to focus on how to draw a schematic of sugars, light refraction etc and come crying to class with other students. I had more of a "F-This" over complex crap and grasp the most important fundamentals of brewing and creating beer, gather and study the material later so I can brew at home after class. Didn't do bad in the labs. Final didn't help to select a wheat beer with one of the five professors having an absolute hatred of wheat beers and there was no satisfying the guy. Final exam was an absolute horror that I refused to study for. Overall I think I got a c+ and no one got higher than a b+. All the professors had been home brewing since Jimmy Carter legalized it so I honestly believe no one was getting an A in that class unless they were premed and had been brewing for 10+years. (My lab partner was pre med and we got the same lab scores.) It was probably the 2nd toughest class I took in college.

[SmittyinAZ]

Tis the season.......first attempt on a pumpkin ale currently fermenting.

And here it is. Delish!