I forgot to empty my mash tun.........

Filthy mash tuns in this thread. Just filthy!

 

If you had a cooler that cost almost $400 as your mash tun, you probably wouldn't forget, (ateast I don't). Stop beating your wife while you brew, also!!!!!

 

What kind of notes? ...something like "note to self"..."clean mash tun"? : )

 

Nah, I typically hand write a letter to myself as a reminder and put it in the post. When I get the mail 3 days later I'm like "oh dang" then I go out and clean it.

notes were mentioned as merely a part of what I'm doing besides cleaning. Its a mash tun made out of an old cooler, its not a finicky piece of equipment. I'm usually not OCD cleaning like a mad man while brewing.

 

I usually write a novel for every batch to ensure repeatability if it should happen to turn out awesome, or to learn from anomalies where they might occur. Here's just one example (of hundreds more) for a witbier. As you'll be able to see, this was from 2007 when I was still what I would consider just a fledgling all-grain brewer, so I document every single thought process for future reference. Many would say this is a waste of time. Nah. No apologies for geeking out on beer. And notes aren't the only thing going on. Meanwhile there's equipment to clean and sanitize, etc. etc. I just like to document everything while it's still fresh in my mind, in case I might need to reference it again later. So without further adieu... [geek warning!!]....

5/23/2007 Brewed Recipe brewed, shopping list and inventory updated. Man oh man, I had a lot of trouble with hitting mash temperatures with this one. I overheated the gluten rest water and added too hot at about 134 F instead of 128 F, so of course the mash temp was too hot, around 120 F instead of the 104 F desired. It took 1.5 quarts cold water to get it down to about 108 F, I figured that was good enough. But then I just could not hit the 153 F mash temp. I added the 6.7 qts boiling water as recommended, but only hit about 130 F with that addition (too bad water can't boil hotter than 212 F!). So then I added another 1.5 qts boiling water, only hit about 140 F. Added another 1.5 qts boiling water, only hit about 148 F. Added another 1 qt boiling water, only maintained about 148 F. Finally added another 1.5 qts boiling water, finally hit about 153 F for about 15 minutes. So I used up the whole dang sparge water on the mash, and the mash temp probably averaged in the low to mid 140s. I figured efficiency would suffer severely if I skipped the sparge (hey, this could have been no-sparge brewing!), so I boiled an additional 2 qts water to use as a wimpy sparge. I figure I'll need to boil for at least 105 minutes to boil off the extra water. I'm really hoping all turns out okay. But the color is great, it's the lightest colored beer I think I've ever made. And a little cloudy as anticipated. Tastes good, as if the starches did in fact convert properly. Smells very much like starch & flour as it is boiling, which would be as expected due to all the wheat. And amazingly, the sparge was not stuck at all, even with the oats and wheat! JB said it shouldn't really have an impact until you get to about 70% wheat, then you need to add hulls or it will stick. He was right, I was okay at just 50%. So I didn't need to waste any time with rice hulls. Cool. I'm expecting very low efficiency due to the wimpy sparge, probably around 60%. That should be okay, I think it was going to be a little strong anyway. And due to the very cool mash (around 140-148 F for about 45 minutes), not to mention how damn thin the mash was (2.5 qt/lb or something crazy like that), it's going to ferment out very dry. Jeez, I wonder if I should have added a tiny bit of Carapils. We'll see how it turns out. I can't wait. ...Mmm... smells pretty good with the orange peel and coriander. Coriander is quite a bit different in aroma from what I had expected. It's a little citrusy, but also peppery. No wonder people love it in wits, that's just what you'd expect in a wit for flavor and aroma. ...Well, it turns out that the relative lack of a sparge didn't matter much at all. OG=1.054 @ 3.15 gallons. Should be about 1.052 for that volume, so it's even better than anticipated. Efficiency of 71%. Actually I should have anticipated around 76%, I don't know why I only expected 69%. Hmm. I think I'll just add some water to reach the proper gravity. It's not good for it to be so strong. Okay, added 1 quart of clean unboiled distilled water to reach 1.050. There, that's better. I must have boiled for just a few minutes too long. I did extend the boil to about 2 hours because I knew I needed to boil off a couple of extra quarts, and it didn't seem to be reducing enough. But I overdid it. Again. Just a touch too much. Keep in mind in the future that I don't need to boil down as much as I think, it seems like about an extra quart is lost in shrinkage compared to what the calculator says. I think it's a system value due in part to the tilt of the stove and the calibration of the marks on my brew kettle. Heck... why don't I just fix the calculator to take it down for me! Yeah, that's what I'll do. Cool. Added a line for system losses due to the brew kettle being goofed up. Done. Also tweaked the recipe's volumes etc. so things should go smoother next time around.

 

No wonder you forgot to clean your mashtun
Think I'll finish War And Peace now : ) cheers

 

I don't have time for domestic violence, I'm busy cleaning my cooler and doing all the other stuff you mentioned (except for the drinking).

 

Yeesh. Cleaning is a way for me to tell time during my brewday. I know this step will take this long, so I can have all of this done while that is going on so that when I am done. I am done.

 

What's wrong with you people... How can not cleaning your mashtun be so common. I had no idea.

My brewday isn't done until everything is washed and mopped and **** and span. I swear the beer tastes even better when you finish all of that up at the end of the day.

 

Next, we'll (the mash tun gestapo) check credit reports to correlate the real dirtbags : )

 

Maybe some people prefer to empty a vile pile of stanky rotten grain?

 

Yes, and they have rotten FICO scores, too. : )

 

Too hot? Taking Notes? I use my handy rubber gloves and a pyrex measure cup to scoop into one of my many buckets for disposing once cooled (either the woods, the neighbors chickens or compost). Rinse that MT with the hose set aside, or get it all washed with the SS mesh braid soaking. If notes for how my mash went took 60 minutes, I don't think I'd want to brew. But hey, relax don't worry see if you can get some ******s to grow.

 

That's a month old; it's clearly plummeted since then upon hearing news of your mash tun hygiene practices.

 

I can probably get you an updated one tomorrow.

 

We would rather have you clean your mash tun on brew day from now on. TIA

 

Shameful, just Shameful. I run cold water into the grain bed then dump it on my garden along with coffee grounds and compost. Nothing better than spent grains for the chickens! They love that stuff, but usually can't eat it all. I'll alternate where the chickens are and where the garden is. Each year I swap them. It's .... kind of off topic, sorry.

 

This is why we need to go easy on the drinking while brewing!

 

I'm only allowed to have chickens in my back yard if they are pets and specifically not for consumption. Therefore, the spent grain gets bagged and the garbage men gag on it when they squish it. Sometimes it spews out of the garbage truck. My neighbors really like it when that happens.