Quick Update

Well the two brews are happily chilling out in the fermentation freezer!  Brew # 1 is in the secondary and is Lagering, I am not sure how long its supposed to stay there for.

As you can see the beer is clearing up nicely.  I used both Irish Moss and Gelatine Finings and it seems to be paying off. In the carboy it looks red in colour, but in a glass the beer is a nice pale golden color.  I am lowering the temperature to 32f to get rid of any yeast that may still be in suspension, then I will transfer to a corny keg, where the beer will continue to lager for about 2 months.

  One thing I did not do with the first batch is a Diacetyl Rest.  From what I understand this involves warming the fermenting beer to room temperature to allow the yeast to become more active and eat the diacetyl.  Diacetyl would otherwise cause a butter/butterscotch flavor in the finished beer.  Here is batch #2 warming up for the Diacetyl Rest!

   

The First Brew

Brew # 1 August 4, 2011

With my yeast starter and all equipment prepared the night before, I was ready to tackle my first all grain brew. To begin I heated my water to my "strike water" to 163 f.

I added the water to my mash tun first, followed  by the crushed grains. I stirred for about 5 minutes and the temperature settled nicely at 152f.  After an hour I had only lost about 3 degrees thanks to my Rubbermaid Cooler Mash Tun!

It was now time to collect the wort from the Mash Tun, I opened the valve in anticipation and......

This is all I got!!!  I tried back-flushing with air and with water, I tried quickly shaking the mash-tun, I stirred the mash some more and I added about 1 gallon of my heated "sparge water" to thin the mash.  Nothing worked.  After about 1/2 hour of trying to collect the wort, I had to just dump it all through a strainer.  Adding  oxygen to hot wort is bad, and this amount of splashing added LOTS of oxygen.  I did collect my wort though, and began my boil.  Everything else went pretty smooth, and after the boil was complete, the wort was cooled and added to the fermentor.

After a couple of hours I realized I forgot to add the Brown Rice Syrup to the fermentor, so I boiled it along with some water, cooled it, and added it to the wort.

After about a week, I transferred it to the secondary fermentor, where it continues to bubble away!  I also added gelatin finings, and the beer has cleared up quite nicely!

It does seem to have a taste that may be described as "stale beer" or "wet cardboard" which is caused by the aeration when the wort was hot.  Hopefully that taste dissipates a bit with age.

Cheers!

....in the beginning

My first experience making beer came after buying a can of malt extract, that would supposedly make great tasting beer in 4-6 weeks.  At the time I was naive enough to believe that all I had to do was add water, boil, and  let it sit for a few weeks, and voila, good beer! I let it ferment for about 3 weeks before bottling, let it sit for two more weeks, and than opened a bottle with great anticipation!  I was terribly disappointed.  What I had was a watery liquid with a faint, beer like taste.  I dumped out every bottle.

Still convinced that it was possible to make great beer at home, I began searching for a better method.  It wasn't long before I discovered a new type of beer kit from my local home-brew shop.  These kits included malt extract like the previous one, but also included some grains and hops, and gave me the option of using liquid yeast.  The cost was a bit more than the first one, but the final product was guaranteed to be much better.  I steeped the pound or so of grains in about 4 liters of water as per the directions, then added the malt goo, and set it to ferment.  At this point I was also introduced to two stage fermentation, 1 week in the primary and 2 weeks in the secondary.  Again I followed all directions, bottled and waited a few weeks.  The final product was a bit better, with a bit more flavor,  but still very watery and not something that I could enjoy drinking.

I made a few of these "extract with specialty grains" kits and managed to come up with a process that produced an enjoyable beer, with good flavor and body.  But I wanted more.  Still determined to make a better quality beer, and get more in-tune with the brewing process and science, I have decided to tackle "All-Grain" brewing.

After a lot of research into the brewing process, and the purchase of some quality equipment I am finally ready to take the plunge into All-Grain brewing.  I would also like to document the process from the start, and hopefully share my adventure with others.

Welcome to my Blog