Brew Day: All-Grain Russian River Pliny the Elder clone

[Gatorchip]

Still waiting on the mash to finish, so it's time to continue transferring that Saison into the secondary. But first, I need to know the final gravity to determine if it was fully fermented and what the final ABV will be.

Hydrometer and beer thief ready to go in

Reads 1.004. Good for 6.2% abv. The recipe was supposed to get up to only 5.7%. Homebrewing isn't perfect.

Auto siphioning into secondary (which was cleaned and sanitized)

 

[Gatorchip]

While it is siphoning, I head back out to the brew area and start heating up my mash-out water.

While heating up, I head out to check on my attempt at getting some hops growing. It's not doing so hot, but perhaps it will be better next year.

Mash-out water boiled, so I dumped it in to the mash-tun and stirred to distribute heat.

Goal is to get as close to 170F as possible. I hit 165F which is pretty good. Most people don't do mashouts, and I used to skip this part. However, I found that my efficiency drastically increased when I use a mashout.

 

[Gatorchip]

I prep a couple sheets of aluminum foil to minimize channeling. I just poke holes in two sheets together.

Vorlauf several pitchers of wort until clear.

Now that it's clear, I start moving the wart to the boil pot

 

[Gatorchip]

While the first runnings are going to the boil pot, it's time to finish up that secondary transfer of the Saison

Gunk and old yeast at the bottom of primary

Secondary finds two new friends to age with (mead and barelywine)

 

[Gatorchip]

Back to the brewing

First runnings are done.

I measure the volume with a spoon that I notched. Each notch is 1 gallon. It shows me I have 5 gallons in the pot. For this 90 minute boil I need to collect 8 gallons. This tells me how much more water I need to add to the mashtun.

I heat up another 3 gallons to about 180F and dump it in to the mashtun. target is 170F.

Mix, Vorlauf and drain into brew pot.

...and get 9 gallons (target was 8). I suck at measuring water apparently. An easy fix though.. just boil it down to 8.


Boil over!

 

[Gatorchip]

Finally have it down to 8 gallons and now I take a gravity reading using a refractometer. I had planned on using this instead of the hydrometer going forward, however, I've found that hydrometers tend to give more consistent readings. Now I only use the refractometer when measuring hot water because I don't need to correct for temperature changes.

Came out right about what I was expecting it to be at 8 gallons pre-boil

 

[Gatorchip]

Got it to a boil again, dropped in the first bittering hop addition and started the 90 min timer.

Almost another boil over, but I saved it this time.

Added the corn sugar

 

[Gatorchip]

I have 45 minutes until the next hop addition and the boil is stable so that it's not going to boil over again. I head back inside to get some more things done.

Clean out the carboy used for the Saison:

Then I head down to fill up some bottles to share of my last brew (German Hefeweizen)

I had it carbing up at a higher pressure.

Reduced the pressure to make it easier to fill

Stuck a bottling want in the picnic tap with a drilled #2 stopper.

Bottles and caps are ready and sanitized. When filling, you just need to occasionally burp the stopper since the bottles build up pressure and stops the flow. Once full, it doesn't gush out like you would expect. The back pressure kept the CO2 in the beer.

Capped the bottles

 

[Gatorchip]

Second hop addition.

Didn't take a picture of any of the other hop additions during the boil.. looks the same.

Preparing immersion chiller. Testing hoses for leaks.

Testing air pump (with filter and stone) that will be used later to add O2 to the wort when done. Keeping it in sanitizer.

Dumping out the spent grains from the mashtun

Hydrating the yeast

Target temperature is 27 +/- 3 C. I got lucky here because I forgot to check the temperature. Just a bit out of range.

 

[Gatorchip]

15 minutes left in the boil. I drop in the immersion chiller and pause the timer.

After several minutes, I see it's still not back to a boil. Then I discover I left the water on from the leak test... damnit! Lost 50F

 

[Gatorchip]

Back to a boil so I start the timer back up.

Add 1/2 tab of whirlfloc. it's irish moss and something else that helps clarify the beer. Something to do with precipitating the proteins. Not really needed for this style, but what the heck. it goes in.

5 minutes left in the boil. I add in a few scoops of yeast energizer. I believe all this really is is dead yeast. The purpose to is ensure a good start to fermentation by giving the live yeast some things they need. I've found that this has helped my beers get to their target final gravity.

Boil is done. Water on. Flame out. Added a few more hops and pulled out the hops used during the boil to drain out back into the pot.

 

[Gatorchip]

In case you noticed the rock in my garage... this is the purpose.

More clean up. Just use a garden hose and green scrubby

Wort is cooled down to about 74F. Gravity is 1.066. Target was 1.071, I don't have a accurate measurement of final volume, but it's somewhere between 5.5 gallons and 6 gallons. The number is impacted by my system efficiency and water volume.

Transfer wort to the primary fermenter using the same technique I showed for the secondary transfer of the Saison earlier in this thread. I normally use clear bottles, but I need more volume for primary fermentation due to the larger batch size.

Aerate the wort. yeast need 02

Pitch (add) the yeast.

 

[Gatorchip]

With his new friends

I check the airlock this morning and it's chugging away.

The last few things are to transfer this to a secondary in a few weeks (after checking gravity), then dry hopping in two additions over a two week period.

 

[NCChiFan]

nice pictorial

 

[757Hokie83]

great thread.

my buddy who brews at Sudwerk came to visit recently and brought me some grains and hops straight from the brewery. I just finished my brew free or die keg, so i'll be getting a batch going here soon , maybe this weekend