Today we bought a kettle thermometer and a hydrometer. The kettle thermometer is a new gadget
and obviously the most exciting of the two purchases. This means we can get a better read on the grains and tea
during the extraction. The hydrometer means that we can make a more
reproducible beer (and I get to be all scientific bout it).
So the grain bill for today’s beer was:
½ lb debittered
½ lb chocolate
5lb German Munich
5lb 2 row
1lb flaked oats
1lb 60 Crystal
1 ¾ oz cascade hops
1oz Centenial hops
With this beer we wanted to try something a little different. We wanted to try and cold steep our
dark grains. So, the day before
the brew process started we drew a full bucket of water and allowed it to sit overnight
with the ¼ campden tablet. Then we
took our 1lb of combined dark grains and sat them in just under a gallon of
water overnight in the fridge.
On brew day; we took around three gallons of water and
heated it to 150F and added the remaining grains.
We turned up the heat to bring up the kettle up to 160F for our extraction. As the kettle was approaching the temperature it jumped suddenly to around 200F (we know this because our shiney new thermometer told us so) so we gently turned the grains over which helped the temperature drop and added a splash of cold water. The beer was saved! Once the kettle had stabilized we extracted at 160F for 1 hour.
We turned up the heat to bring up the kettle up to 160F for our extraction. As the kettle was approaching the temperature it jumped suddenly to around 200F (we know this because our shiney new thermometer told us so) so we gently turned the grains over which helped the temperature drop and added a splash of cold water. The beer was saved! Once the kettle had stabilized we extracted at 160F for 1 hour.
Then, we transfer the liquid to the bucket and sparge the
grains to wash the last of the extracted sugars into the beer; our final volume
was about 6.5 gallons.
We then wash the kettle and get rid of the grains and siphon the liquid (wort) back into the kettle. And now to boil! At the beginning of the boil we add 1oz of centinial hops.
After 45 mins we add ¾ oz cascade hops, the cold extraction liquid and the chiller to the boil.
We paused the timer here because the temprature dropped and we lost our boil. Once the boil was back, we restarted the timer.
We then wash the kettle and get rid of the grains and siphon the liquid (wort) back into the kettle. And now to boil! At the beginning of the boil we add 1oz of centinial hops.
After 45 mins we add ¾ oz cascade hops, the cold extraction liquid and the chiller to the boil.
We paused the timer here because the temprature dropped and we lost our boil. Once the boil was back, we restarted the timer.
Once the hour was up we attached the cooler to the water and
chilled the beer to room temperature (check the yeast package for exact measurements). At this stage everything is sterilized
prior to use and the yeast is pitched into the bucket with the cooled beer. The yeast wasn't as active as usual probably because it had sat in our fridge for a couple of weeks however, the package did swell indicating active yeast.
Our hydrometer reading was 1.06 at 81F with a volume of 5.25 Gal. If we can achieve complete conversion we expect a beer in the 8.5% alcohol range.
At bottling our hydrometer reading was 1.014 at 77F.
