Third time's a charm

Monday evening we were back at it. I got to Dave's and started to get ready to heat water for the mash. I was rinsing pots and filling buckets and then checked the mash tun. There was hot water all ready and waiting. Sweet. I summoned Dave to c'mon back down and we added the grain to the water and then added some more hot water to bring the mash up to the desired temperature.

We all had done some extra research after Saturday's session and had a better idea of how to make this work a little more smoothly. This time we added the grain to the water rather than pouring the water over the grain. It's supposed to be less lumpy that way and therefore you get better saturation. Better saturation? It's either saturated or it ain't, so who knows which is better?

We had time to kill so I went home to grab some grub. Mike and Dave were already back at it when I got back. They were doing hydrometer readings on the two batches completed on Saturday. They used a tube and extracted a few ounces of "beer" through the air vent hole. Dave's readings were pretty low so our poor sparging plus the boil over hit hard. We'll see where we're at post fermentation. We're not giving up hope.

when it was time to extract the wort from the tun we moved much slower and this time recirculated some of the liquid before draining to the pail. We were finding that some big grains were still coming through so we used a screen over the bucket to catch stray chunks. We regulated the flow also and after the mash settled some the grain particles decreased to almost nil. After the initial drain off we sparged with heated water through a strainer.

I transferred the wort to the stock pot and applied heat. I added the hops after it hit boiling and then we paid attention to the pot to ensure there would not be a boil over. We may be old, at least I may, but we can still learn from our mistakes.

We boiled for the proscribed time and now time for the chilling.

Dang, I forgot to add the Irish Moss with fifteen minutes left on the boil. Oh well, we'll see how that effects the beer. I'm not too worried. I've got the four key ingredients - water, malt, hops and yeast - called for in the German brewing purity law book so I think the brew will survive without it.

Tonight we added a cooler full of cool water to dunk the wort kettle into in addition to using the chiller coil. This cut the cool down time considerably. Mike and Dave were shooting for ten minutes and we got it down to under 80 degrees from boiling in around fifteen. the transfer to the cold fermentation bucket dropped it a few more degrees and we added the yeast. The lid was applied and the airlock attached. The airlock allows CO2 to release without letting any bacteria enter the bucket.

Mike and Dave got most of the clean-up done while I had to run home and walk the dog so we were pretty much done after the lid was closed.

Now we wait. Beer takes time. In a few long weeks the yeast will have done it's job, assuming we have three lively strains of yeast, and we'll be sampling our own concoctions. Superb or lousy, it doesn't much matter. Although I'm hoping for something at least right in the middle.

But we're not done yet, there are bottles and kegs to clean. I've got to make room in the cooler for lagering the Kolsch. we need to pick out recipes for the next batch. Do more research, get more supplies, scrounge more equipment. Over the next few weeks we'll be almost as busy as the yeast. It's infectious.