Electric brewing is fun for sooooo many reasons! First, the setup and take down are simplified now that everything stays in one place. Second, the control I have over mash temp and when the boil begins makes it more flexible. Lastly, I like not carrying heavy volumes of liquid as far. Ten feet across my basement beats the crap out of going up stairs from outside and then lugging the carboys downstairs to the basement.
Yesterday I brewed a chocolate porter. Hooking up the four hoses to the kettles and pumps was quickly done and I was ready to calculate my water needed for the days brew. Based on grain absorption, equipment loss and boil off I calculated that I needed 9.5 gallons of water. I filled up my boil kettle with water and started heating it to 158 degrees to reach my desired mash temperature of 153. I added two camden tablets to get rid of the chlorine. I mashed in at 152 and was quickly up to 153. The range of mash temps on the day were between 152.5 and 153.6. Mostly the mash hovered between 152.8 and 153.4. Today I did something different and used my kettles basket in addition to the grain bag. That was a great idea! My pick-up tube was not getting clogged trying to suck up the bag of grains. I mashed for 90 minutes, raised my temp to 170 to stop the conversion and then took my initial gravity reading. My gravity reading was 1.040. I was targeting 1.059, so i needed to collect 8 gallons of wort to hit my final gravity. I collected the wort and began boiling. Because I had more wort than would boil off in 60 minutes, I boiled for 20 minutes first and then started my 60 minutes of boiling for my hop schedule. Once the boil was underway it was simple to add in my hops, lactose and whirlfloc tablet.
Chilling was a breeze with the counterflow chiller. I was able to get the brew down to temp in about 7 minutes. One thing I tried this time was getting my hosing low in the kettle for recirculating and kicking off a whirlpool. It was a great idea! The hops caked in the middle of the kettle and I put less debris in my fermenter than I have historically. It was a beautiful brew day!
Recipe:
9lbs 8oz 2-row
8oz chocolate malt
8oz chocolate wheat malt
4oz Crystal 30
2oz black malt
Tettnanger 1.5oz (60)
Tettnanger 1oz (20)
8oz Lactose (10)
I plan on kegging this one on top of about 8 ounces of cocoa nibs. This should be tasty and reminiscent of Bolder's Chocolate Shake Porter. Happy Brewing!
Yesterday I brewed a chocolate porter. Hooking up the four hoses to the kettles and pumps was quickly done and I was ready to calculate my water needed for the days brew. Based on grain absorption, equipment loss and boil off I calculated that I needed 9.5 gallons of water. I filled up my boil kettle with water and started heating it to 158 degrees to reach my desired mash temperature of 153. I added two camden tablets to get rid of the chlorine. I mashed in at 152 and was quickly up to 153. The range of mash temps on the day were between 152.5 and 153.6. Mostly the mash hovered between 152.8 and 153.4. Today I did something different and used my kettles basket in addition to the grain bag. That was a great idea! My pick-up tube was not getting clogged trying to suck up the bag of grains. I mashed for 90 minutes, raised my temp to 170 to stop the conversion and then took my initial gravity reading. My gravity reading was 1.040. I was targeting 1.059, so i needed to collect 8 gallons of wort to hit my final gravity. I collected the wort and began boiling. Because I had more wort than would boil off in 60 minutes, I boiled for 20 minutes first and then started my 60 minutes of boiling for my hop schedule. Once the boil was underway it was simple to add in my hops, lactose and whirlfloc tablet.
Chilling was a breeze with the counterflow chiller. I was able to get the brew down to temp in about 7 minutes. One thing I tried this time was getting my hosing low in the kettle for recirculating and kicking off a whirlpool. It was a great idea! The hops caked in the middle of the kettle and I put less debris in my fermenter than I have historically. It was a beautiful brew day!
Recipe:
9lbs 8oz 2-row
8oz chocolate malt
8oz chocolate wheat malt
4oz Crystal 30
2oz black malt
Tettnanger 1.5oz (60)
Tettnanger 1oz (20)
8oz Lactose (10)
I plan on kegging this one on top of about 8 ounces of cocoa nibs. This should be tasty and reminiscent of Bolder's Chocolate Shake Porter. Happy Brewing!