First Brew- All Grain (Modem Burner)

[smurfe]

Well, my buddy and I did our first all grain brew yesterday. He has done 2 extract kits in the past and this was the first beer for me. It was quite a learning curve experience but overall, pretty easy.


We had a few mishaps like a stuck sparge and we missed our SG on the low side a bit but we were prepared for that and was able to hit the target SG by adding a little DME. I think welautered and sparged too fast. It should of took 90 minutes and it only took 60 minutes for us.


I took a few pics during the brew but didn't really take enough to show a step by step process as we were a little busy. I will try to shoot a step by step on our next brew or the one after when we have a little experience under our belts. We have grains for 2 more batches on hand.


Here is a few shots of our home made setup that worked pretty good IMHO.


Here is our setup. The kettles are beer kegs and the mash tun is a cooler.

Since we both have well water we added a filtration system that filters sediments and cysts.

We bought an adjustablegrain mill to mill our own grains. I got a 3 roller Monster Mill.

We built a crude hopper and base for it. We are going to motorize it soon instead of using a drill to power it.

Some 2 row maltgrain in the hopper.

The crush and final grains ready to mash

The Mash Tun and Manifold. I forgot to take more pics of this. There are slots cut in the bottom of the pipes. We are going to redo the slots as I think we have too many which attributed to our too fast lauter. Only the elbows are glued. It will disassemble easily to clean.

The Mash. We ended up filling the cooler to the brim getting temps right. One other issue we had was a malfunctioning digital probe thermometer. We probably hit our strike temp on the money to start but the thermometer said we were high so we added water and ice to cool it. We then found out we were low and had to add more hot water.

Our home made sparge arm/device. This worked well but will probably reconstruct it with loss holes drilled in it. It will disassemble like the lauter manifold for easy cleaning.

Sparging

Collecting the Wort

Boiling the Wort after hops added.

Cooling the Wort with a Wort Chiller

The yeast. We used the Wyeast pitch-able liquid but we went ahead and made a starter to get it going good. I had fermentation going 2 hours after I pitched the yeast.

I didn't get any pics of the wort in the primary as we were running out of time to get back to my house for Christmas dinner. We were an hour late for dinner. Wives were not pleased.


Here is a few shots of my beer fridge and kegs. I bought this off a local guy off Craig's List for $300. it is 3 months old. This was the guy that gave me most all of this equipment I guess to entice me to buy the fridge after I had contacted him.I need to get this over to my house. It is in buddy's garage right now.


In about 4-5 weeks I hope to be enjoying some fresh kegged beer. I am going to add two more faucets to the fridge, one being a stout faucet. I plan on trying to keep a Wit Bier, Dunkel or other lager, and either a Guinness or otherStout on tap.

Edited by: smurfe

 

[grapeman]

Great pics Smurfe. Looks like quite the setup. When are you going to open the brewery? You need to get some ready for springtime there.


I will have to point my nephew to your post. He makes beer with Lake Placid Craft Brewery in Plattsburgh. They make a lot of award winning beers there. He makes so much there that he doesn't even feel like making it at home anymore.

 

[Wade E]

Very cool setup!

 

[Dean]

Nice setup!!!! Do you have beer gas powering your kegs or just CO2? I'm switching my setup to beer gas, which is 80% CO2 and 20% Nitrogen. Supposed to give better smaller bubbles and a creamier head. You should also get a carbonation stone, and fit it to another connection point on the keg lids. This way, you can carbonate in about 30 minutes, just for testing mind you , and then switch back to a top push of the gas. It works quite well.

I love your setup!

 

[smurfe]

Nice setup!!!! Do you have beer gas powering your kegs or just CO2? I'm switching my setup to beer gas, which is 80% CO2 and 20% Nitrogen. Supposed to give better smaller bubbles and a creamier head. You should also get a carbonation stone, and fit it to another connection point on the keg lids. This way, you can carbonate in about 30 minutes, just for testing mind you , and then switch back to a top push of the gas. It works quite well.

I love your setup!

I just have CO2 for the moment. I'll have to look into the 80/20 mixture.I was going to get a nitrogen tank with 75% Nitrongen and 25% CO2 (Guinness Gas) and a stout faucet as I plan on keeping a stout on tap as well.


I have thought about the carbonating cap. I will probably wait until I get some new kegs. The ones I have are pin lock and my buddy has ball lock. I havn't looked around here yet to see what is available. Coke is the big soda here though so most are pin lock locally.


Just an update on my first batch, it is fermenting quite nicely and smells out of this world. I hope it tastes as good as it smells. Will rack it to glass Saturday or Sunday.

 

[grapeman]

Hey Smurfe I got a tour of Lake Placid Craft Brewing where my nephew Dan works. He gets to do everything there and showed me the works today on my birthday. Here are a few pictures. If you would like more I have some that show just about every step of the way, but alas they weren't brewing today.

Where they brew the mash and wort.

Dan showing me the controls for the brew pots run by steam heat.

A few of the storage tanks. Some are chilled and pressurized-note the frost on some in bands. The equivalent of your kegs with the gas added.

The labeler machine. That's a bottle for Ubu Ale- one of their best selling award winning beers.

The bottler-not running. That would be cool to watch sometime.




Anyways there are a few pictures. I got a lot more if you want to see more some time. He showed me their stacks of specialty grains and boxes of Hops. Edited by: appleman