Great Brewday - Just wanted to share...

[Jimbo]

Man oh man... What a nice day for brewing... Rain, rain and more rain; you don't even have to pretend that you need to be outside (working in the yard, enjoying the day, pretending to work-out!)

Vienna Lager for the day (see below- oh, yeah... It's JZ's...)

If you'd like to follow along with my pics; here's the http://picasaweb.google.com/jlbates4/BrewdayPics?feat=directlink:

So, bright and early (6am ish), I crank up the heat on my HLT and get my mash water to just the right temp...

Cup of coffee, 1st child off to high school...

Mash water ready - mix my grain and water in the mash tun and I'm pretty close to my mash temp.

Turn on my PID and pump for recirc; I'm also looking at the wort flowing though my shiny new sight glass (see pics). Hmm, seems like a lot of husks flowing through... Oh well...

15 mins later; HEY, NO RECIRC!!! What's the deal? Looks like the grainbed has plugged up the sparge ring - dang... I have to rip off the sparge ring and just let it drop strait to the MT.

Oh well, gotta have at least 1 "glitch" during your brewday - I'm hoping that's it... Get the sparge water up to 170*F and ready to go.

2nd child off to middle school

60 mins of mash is done; hit the PID to 168 and wait 15 mins for my mash out time.

3rd child off to elem school

Begin sparge, another cup of coffee - I like it to take a while; fly sparging works great for me when I do it nice and slow (60 mins or so)

Sparge complete - effec into my boiler was a cool 93%; shameless plug for Sabco - I love their false bottom - just awesome.

Begin boil; wait some more; ahhh, the wonderful smell of DMS kicking off

Start my 90 min boil; drop hops in @ 60 mins; put immersion chiller in @15; put hops, whirlfloc, and Wyeast nutrient in @ 10 mins... Hey, I remembered everything!

Boil done; start chilling - WOW, where is that fine mist coming from? ARGHHH, tiny, tiny, tiny leak with my chiller - ok, glitch #2... Not much I can do about that now - note to self...

Mostly cool wort now (80 *F ish); switch over to ice water and get the wort down to 50*F (I'd prefer to get to mid 40's, but no go...)

Whirlpool and wait 10 mins; move the wort to the fermenter in the fridge; pitch my yeast and smile... Pretty much went as well as could be expected...

Cleaned up my mess; took a shower; my wife asked if I was done brewing for the day (around 1:30 or so) - I smiled and said yep. She thought that the day went quick - Excellent - note to self (brew early)

Anyway, even though not everything goes perfectly, I must say that I really enjoyed the journey.
Brew Strong!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recipe: Vienna b1
Style: Vienna Lager

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 42.00 L
Pre-Boil OG: 1.046
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 10.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 82.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.55 kg Vienna Malt (2008 Harvest) (3.2 SRM) Grain 41.52 %
2.60 kg Pilsner (2008 Harvest) (1.8 SRM) Grain 30.41 %
2.30 kg Munich II (2008 Harvest) (10.2 SRM) Grain 26.90 %
0.10 kg Carafa Special II (2008 Harvest) (430.0 SRGrain 1.17 %
74.00 gm Liberty [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 23.7 IBU
28.00 gm Liberty [4.50 %] (10 min) Hops 1.8 IBU
1.00 items Immersion Chiller (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
4.40 gm Wyeast Beer Nutrient Blend (Boil 10.0 min)Misc
4 Pkgs Weinstephan Classic Lager (Fermentis #W-34Yeast-Lager


Mash Profile:
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 27.00 L of water at 165.4 F 152.0 F
10 min Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 16 min 168.0 F

Sparge Water Volume: 32.64 L

[Mylo]

Nice equipment. You should probably mount the PID and gas valve, eventually. I like the idea of re-using the thermocouple inline with the JZ chiller. I will be "borrowing" that idea. That chiller looks a lot like mine - did you get some ideas from wortomatic?


Mylo

[Jimbo]

Thanks for the kind words

Yeah, the PID & valve - as well as a lot of other parts, really do need to find more of a "permanent" home. The problem is that what I have kinda "works" (for whatever that's worth) and I can take it down for storage without taking up additional/valuable garage floor space. I've already pushed my luck with SHMBO - I've got a full size fridge for fermentation control and a large chest freezer (9 kegs) for lagering/serving in the garage. Picking up a brew stand (I've really been considering the Sabco frame - I can't weld and it seems to be what I'd lean towards) would take up MORE of that precious space... I'm not sure how much "luck" I should/would use up with that!

As far as the IC - oh yeah - Wort-O-Matic & JZ... No intellectual credit for me! In fact, I had/have (I'm donating it to my club (James River Homebrewers)) a Blichmann Therminator - I'm done with it... Get's clogged... I'm not gonna start a flame war here; I'm just saying... The way I use it, it performs poorly.

I also love the tri-clamp fittings; I gave up on male/female quick connects 'cause I never seemed to have the right combo when I needed another hose Besides, TC are just kinda cool (shameless plug).