An Angle on Recipe Building

Grab 100 grains of Malt broken down by a percentage of the grain bill and gind in a coffee grinder (or malt grinder) and make a TEA to sample your wort. You will end up with a rough idea of your future beer. You can even throw in a few hops if you have some laying around (I would recommend flowers vs. pellets).

I imagine you will pick up a some tannins but why the hell not give it a try.

I think I might have to start trying this at work! That will definately start a conversation or two!

courtesy of Jamil Zainasheff

Ken Schwartz and the Fermentation Chiller

http://home.roadrunner.com/~brewbeer/

TBN_Doc's Brew Day

Yeast Starter: "Doc" breaks down his process @ 1:19 in to Podcast from 1/13/2008 _ Part 1 Doc's Brew Day (can sit in fridge for about two weeks max)

RO: Reverse Osmosis water

Pre-Boil = de-carbonates the water but removes the calcium as well. One might have to re-introduce calcium to water if one does a Pre-boil

Bring HLT to 168^ - 175^ to kill enzymes for 10 min. then begin mash-in (sparge)

Mash to Boil kettle transfer rate will effect efficiency

Get a stick and mark the gallons
-Pre-boil volume TIMES pre-boil gravity = Post-boil volume TIMES post-boil gravity __solve for x

Hops Break
-Wait for the wort to boil to the point that it boils and appears similiar to egg drop soup (Hop break).
-Trickle the hops in to the kettle to avoid boil-over.

Carbonation
-Set to 12 lbs and carbonate.
-The colder the beer the great absorbtion of co2

Sanitization

StarSan
-Stay under 110F (equally effective regardless of water temp as long as withing working range), work for 3 min.

Bottling
-hold caps in Star San while bottling

Brewing Process (in Construction)

GRAINS
-Bring the grains out to rest at room temperature one day before BREWDAY

CHILLING

The basic setup is that you put the immersion chiller in the boil pot with 15 minutes remaining in the boil. Connect the pump to the kettle spigot (out) with a length of tubing. From the pump output it goes through a hunk (about 2 feet) of the silicon tubing that B3 sells with their systems. This hunk of tubing is attached to a piece of copper tubing with a hose clamp. The tubing has a gentle curve to it and goes underneath the surface of the wort, just inside the coils of the immersion chiller. Although the pump is clean, and has been pumping 170F+ water for the past hour during the sparge, I turn it on for a few minutes to recirculate the wort through it and heat sanitize the setup. When the boil is complete, turn on the pump and the chiller water. The temp drops more than 100F in 3 minutes, using one of the beefy, B3 Super Chillers. It is 50' of 1/2" copper, which is a huge amount of surface area. The rest of the drop (another 50F or so) takes longer. Watch the thermometer until the temperature is where you want it for pitching, then turn off the water and the pump to let everything settle for 20 minutes. This allows me to rack clear wort to the fermenter and leave all the trub behind in the kettle. If you don't care about it settling, you can just run it off at that point.

There are many advantages to this technique. The first is that you're cooling the entire wort below 140F in about a minute or two. Below 140F you're not going to keep generating DMS like you will with a plate chiller or counter flow chiller. If you're into clean german lagers, this is a critical factor in success with this style. The other huge advantage is leaving the cold break behind. With a counter flow chiller or plate chiller you're sending all that cold break into the fermenter and you're going to need to get rid of it if you want the best lager possible. With the whirlpool chiller, the trub forms a nice cone in the kettle and you can leave it behind when you transfer to your fermenter.

After chiller has cooled wort to desired pitching temp, turn off the water and the pump to let everything settle for 20 minutes. This allows for racking clear wort to the fermenter and leave all the trub behind in the kettle. If you don't care about it settling, you can just run it off at that point.

Courtesy of Mr._Malty

BREWING Directions

1
Check List
Verify equipment and ingredients
2
Boil
Boil water. You will need at least a gallon of sterile water for a variety of small tasks. Start by boiling about 1 gallon of water for 10 minutes and let it cool, covered, to room temperature.
3
Clean and Sanitize
Clean and sanitize. It may seem strange to the first-time brewer, but probably the most important thing in brewing is good cleaning and sanitization. Clean all equipment that will be used during the brew with a mild, unscented dish detergent, making sure to rinse well. Some equipment will need to be sanitized for use after the boiling stage. You can easily make a simple sanitizing solution by filling the fermentor bucket with 5 gallons of water and adding 5 tablespoons of chlorine bleach (a concentration equivalent to 1 TBS/gallon, or 4 ml/L). Soak all items that need to be sanitized in this bucket for 20 minutes. After soaking, dump the sanitizing solution and pour in some of the pre-boiled water for a quick rinse to remove any excess sanitizer. Place the small spoon and the thermometer in the yeast starter jar and cover it with plastic wrap. Cover the fermentor with the lid to keep it clean. (See Chapter 2- Preparations, for more info,)
4
Wort
1.5 hours
Boil the brew water. In the brewpot, bring 2 gallons of water to a boil. Pour this water into the fermentor and leave it to cool. Now bring 3 gallons of water to boil in the brewpot. You will be boiling all of the extract in just 3 gallons and adding this concentrated wort to the water already in the fermentor to make the total 5 gallons. (See Chapter - Water for Extract Brewing, for more info.)
5
Rehydrate the dried yeast. Although many people skip this step with fair results, re-hydrating it assures the best results. While you are waiting for the brew water to boil, rehydrate two packets of dried ale yeast. Put 1 cup of warm (95-105°F, 35-40°C), preboiled water into your sanitized jar and stir in the yeast. Cover with plastic wrap and wait 15