Any other early morning brewers out there? My son wakes up between 6:30 and 7 am every day, so no sleeping in on the weekends for me. I doughed in at 7:45 this morning, I'm attempting a KBS clone that I'm going to age in my 5 gallon whiskey barrel. I'm using a new mash-tun today as well, upgraded from my 10 gallon water cooler to a 17.5 Igloo Extreme.... The 10 gallon couldn't handle beers this big, and now I can easily do 10 gallon batches as well if I want to. I nailed my initial target temp so off to a good start so far. I'm hoping this tun works out well!
Almost always in the morning. The water is at strike temp - bucket heater on a timer. Can be done early, around noon or 1 PM and have the rest of the day for whatever. To early for me to have a beer, so the brew session goes to plan.
Eh, usually to early for me to have a beer as well... However, my wife is taking the kiddo and heading up to the farmers market, so I think a FBS is going to make an appearance here shortly.
oops I lied, the new mash-tun is a Coleman, not an Igloo... My next project is going to build a foam float to put on top of the grist to reduce the dead space and hopefully hold the mash temp more steady (not that it really needs it, it only dropped 1 degree in an hour, and that was with me stirring a couple times). Lots of goodies going into this beer It says it's for breakfast, right?
I also use a Coleman Xtreme. It holds temps so well that I have never seriously considered any type of 'float' or anything else (like insulating the lid) to improve it. But it seems to me like it would be a not particularly elegant solution to a non-problem.
I have heard of this trick before, those that have tried it like it. I have a 72qt Xtreme as well. If I made a 5 gallon low gravity batch I would lose 2-4 degrees over an hour. I usually mash low so frankly I don't give a fuck if it drops a bit. And I rarely make 5 gallons anyway unless it is the last of my grain or something new I am trying. On topic, I usually brew in the morning. I can be cleaned up and done by noon. Although it was supposed to rain today go I got mine in last night. Glad I did, buckets of rain out there.
Yeah, my concern is for smaller batches... But I guess for smaller batches I'll just use my old smaller 10 gallon cooler, so no worries I guess. I'm cooling now, it takes a while here in FL this time of year since my 'cold' water is about 85 degrees. I run regular tap water from the garden hose through my immersion chiller until I hit about 100, then I use a pump to recirculate ice water to get it down to pitch temp... I'm going to have to hold the beer for a while longer before I pitch as well, I made a 3-liter starter for this brew and the yeasties aren't dropping out as quickly as I'd like, I put it in the fridge first thing this morning but it's probably going to be this evening before they drop out enough to decant some and pitch.
