Who's Brewing 8/14-20?

Brewed 10 gallons of wort in advance of racking the 3-year-old lambic style ale from the barrel. 5 gallons went onto peaches that I was given last week, and the other 5 went into bottles. I am really looking forward to tasting it carbonated.

 

Aargh. I'd have that mash tun up on a coffee table or a set of chairs so that I could rack it into a kettle without having to do any heavy lifting...until the kettle gets full. I'd use a stock pot to catch gallons 4, 5 and 6. The main kettle can get to the flame sooner this way.

Maybe you have a back like a pirate!

 

@inchrisin I never liked making things easy lol. Actually I don't think my better half would want me incorporating the decor in my brewing. She already is doing me a favor letting me brew indoors.

And yes, hoisting the cooler with the strike water and mashout water is no fun for the back and is the main motivation for me doing pull ups every day

 

I'm brewing for the first time since March. I'm aiming for a Bender-y, brown ale-y, Fall season kind of thing. That is what happens when I visit the lhbs without a recipe.

 

Adding to my sour pipeline:
pLambic
70% pils
30% wheat
Aged hops
Belgian Lambic #3278
One year from now I will add 10 pounds of native peaches

 

Mashing in on my annual imperial Sweet Potato spiced ale outside. Also heating some water on the stove top for a 2 gl biab batch of 1.040 Saison using 3724, I'm going to use the cake later on for a big biere de garde and a Brett Saison.

 

Thats precisely why I bought a pump. Lifting a cooler of 170 degree water to chest level seemed.... well.... stupid.

 

Prepping the strike water for the chocolate milk stout kit that I got during a NB sale. Nice looking grist -- pale ale, carafa II, pale chocolate, dark crystal -- I scooped up a handful and it tastes like coffee and cocoa. This batch represents a few "firsts" for me -- lactose, nibs, and possibly the first time using regular Carafa. I'll ferment with Nottingham and the nibs are supposed to go in during secondary, but I plan to put them in toward the end of primary and skip the secondary.

 

At the very least, Curt, consider adopting my low tech approach of using a 1.5 quart sauce pan to move hot strike water to the cooler. Your less likely to hurt your back and burn yourself with several gallons of hot water.

 

All hot water is moved through the spigot on the kettle. I then lift the cooler on the counter to collect the wort after mashing out. Still is easier than letting the grains drain for BIAB brewing

 

Spigots on kettles! That's high tech, as far as I am concerned!

 

I do this too, and I find it works well. I heat to about 10 degrees above strike temperature, then start scooping. When the weight of the HLT becomes easily manageable, I check the mash tun temperature to decide whether to keep scooping or just to pour in the rest of the hot water. I've been hitting my strike temperatures much more precisely since I started doing this.

But I am thinking about switching to the spigot and pump approach soon. I want these for a whirlpool chiller, and I might was well use them for other purposes.

 

No brewing this weekend. Helped my son bottle his porter and dark saison yesterday. Making plans for a rye saison to brew on Labor Day weekend.

 

I generally overheat my strike water intentionally, add to cooler, and then monitor until it is at the right temp. Then I stir in the grains. Seems to work well as long as I do greatly overheat the water, in which case I have to wait longer to stir in the grains. I'll probably upgrade to system that makes for smoother transfers, too. This low tech approach has worked for me for 10 years, but age will eventually catch up to me.

 

I'm actually doing the same thing. PLanning a Brett IPA, I have the yeast in starter, probably planning on brewing maybe Tuesday.
14 lbs 2-row,
1 lb Crystal 40
bittering using homegrown Newport hops
everything else will be Cluster (unusual I know, but everything I've read shows this should be interesting with the Brett flavors and aromas)
using the Wyeast 5151 (the LHBS didn't have the Brett Trois I was looking for, and they suggested this would be a good substitute.)

Care to share your recipe?

 

Doing an oatmeal stout in a couple days. I'll decide at kegging if I want to make it a coffee oatmeal stout.

 

None More Black Vanilla Stout.

 

I caught myself out on technique when I went to making the occasional 10-gallon batch. Some of what I was used to doing just didn't fly when I accidentally over-sparged, then realized I couldn't get 18+ gallons up onto the burner stand. Screwed myself really badly on that move.

Fortunately, I then resorted to using "tools" and put the shorty legs on the burner so that I could just lower the kettle onto it. Even that was not easy.

 

I would love to see someone incorporate floor jacks into their brew stand.