third beer bubbling strongly

[b3s]

finished doing my first partial mash (a stout, i hope) yesterday and it's bubbling up a storm. my first batch with white labs yeast. also my first batch with a wort cooler.

things i discovered:

direct heat sux...i envision a rubbermaid hot/cold cooler in my near future.
even a large basket hopper strainer is insufficient for 5 pounds of grain. i envision a false bottom for said cooler...or grain sacks. i'll probably go with grain sacks.
mashing is fun...but splatter sux.
the wort cooler is definitely worth a lot more than its weight in gold. way better than boiling water and freezing it the night before.


my second batch, which is still in the secondary, will go into my newly acquired tap-a-draft...if it ever gets here!

my fourth batch is going to be an IPA partial mash, and i am strongly considering the purchase of another glass secondary so that i don't have to wait so dang long...i'm down to my last 14 pints of the first batch and 5 pints of guinness. i might have to actually buy beef from the store again :(

[shughes600]

Do you mean direct heat for mashing sucks? I always do infusions but am working up the bravery for decoction real soon, probably tomorrow. I'd go with the phill phalse bottom. It fits in a bottling bucket and you simply pipe it to the existing spigot (with a rubber stopper inserted so that the tube fits in the stopper which fits in the inside of the spigot). You can then also use the mash bucket as a hopback and strainer.

I love my chiller setup though I am about to modify it a little. I was at Lowes buying copper pipe for the mash tun and saw more than enough supplies to have made my wort chillers (immersion coils) at a much cheaper price. I use 2 chillers, one in wort one in ice, both in series, ice bath first. I plan on modifying the coil that goes in the wort to be flat so that all tubing is just under the surface of the wort. I then need to suspend it at a fixed depth from the top. I have two plans on this; either place a piece of wood on top with two appropriately sized holes for the tubing to come through and have extra hose clamps to adjust the height, or just bend the tubing so that it hangs from the top of my pot. Regardless of which I do I hope to set up a thermodynamic circulation system so I can let my trub settle out properly without having to stir for temperature equalization.

[b3s]

yeah, i meant direct heat for mashing sux. i had to mash in my brew pot and it was difficult to get the temperature correct and i hate opening lids to stir stuff when it's ambient temperature that is doing the work. wish i would have thought to get some water heater insulation to make a pot cozy (need to do this for camping anyway). then i could have taken it off of the heat and let the cozy keep the heat in...but like i said, i'm definitely getting a hot/cold drink cooler for mashing since i now know i'll be doing more of this :) i'll probably make an in-situ lauter as well and attach tubing to the spigo to go right to the brew pot.

[Tweek]

yeah at the point you get a cooler setup to do mashes their is no point in NOT going with a false bottom. That way you can mash and sparge in the same container. Pick yourself up a false bottom (phils is good as shughes600 said) and a sparge arm, I also like phils. then all youll need is a boil pot assuming you are using your old brew pot for sparge water. Then you are all set. The false bottom and sparge arm will only set you back about 30-40 bucks and it is well worth it.

[b3s]

actually, i've been researching. there's a phil's phalse bottom and sparge arm that will fit my bottling bucket. i'll get some water heater insulation and make a cozy for the bottling bucket to cover the sides and top. i'll sparge into my fermenter (bucket) and pour it back into the brew pot.

that should do good for a while i suppose.

[paul84043]

I'm still trying to work up the nerve to do partial grain brewing....

I have 2 6.5 gallon carboys, and 4 5 gallon carboys, plus my two conical fermentors. After the batch I'm brewing tonight, I will only have one 5 gallon sitting idle. I'll have 35 gallons of beer happily bubbling away.
I transferred an Irish red ale and a Porter today. In a week I will have 4 batches ready to bottle. But the cool part about beer it that if you're pressed for time or just don't feel like it, you can let it sit for another week with no problem! I love that. No pressure.

[b3s]

paul, don't phear the partial mash, it is not that difficult. hell, it's actually pretty dang easy...but there is work involved :)

however, it does require some forethought and planning, that is for sure.

[S.F.B.]

I was pretty nervous when I did my first part mash. Now I really enjoy doing them. As has been said, plan ahead. If you do, you'll have no problems. The one word of advice that I would give you is, don't rush when sparging the grains to the boiler. Take your time and get as much of the sugar off the grain as you can.

[paul84043]

how can you tell when you're done getting the sugars out of the grain?

[Tweek]

you can take gravity readings every so often as you sparge. it will get more obvious that the sugars are getting thinner as the color gets lighter as well. Sparging should take about 45 minutes or so for a 5 gallon all grain batch.

[shughes600]

Use tincture of Iodine. You can get it from a pharmacists. You will have to sign for it, it is a POISON. It is pretty cheap, and not all that complicated to do this. Iodine will react via color change in the presence of starch. Sample your mash in a way that there is no grain husk in the test liquid. Place the liquid in a container with a white background. Add a drop of Iodine. I usually go with no color change is done, partial color changes need more time and immediate color changes are way under done. I am pretty sure the Iodine is supposed to stay purplish. Test the process immediatley after the mash starts, it should react. DISPOSE OF ALL SAMPLES THAT COMES IN CONTACT WITH IODINE. IODINE IS A POISON.

[paul84043]

So, do you constantly have the liquid that comes off of the grain being drained away? Or do you just catch some in a bowl or something?

I'm learning....verry slowly....but it's getting there..

[b3s]

Originally posted by paul84043
So, do you constantly have the liquid that comes off of the grain being drained away? Or do you just catch some in a bowl or something?

I'm learning....verry slowly....but it's getting there..

not sure of when you mean.

during mashing? no. after about 45 or so minutes, take a sample of liquid and test...if it's false, wait a while.

during sparging? yes, that's the liquor your trying to get to.

[shughes600]

Mashing - Steeping the grain in hot water to convert starches to sugar.

Sparging - Sprinkling hot water on grains to rinse sugars away.

Lautering - The removal of wort from the mash tun.

The basic procedure is to soak the grains at 149 - 158 for 45 min to 1 1/2 hours in the mash tun. Then remove water from the mash tun, and once it gets low, start slowly adding sparge water. After the mash (45 min to 1 1/2 hr) you will be constanly collecting wort for as long as 90 minutes.

[S.F.B.]

Originally posted by Tweek
you can take gravity readings every so often as you sparge. it will get more obvious that the sugars are getting thinner as the color gets lighter as well. Sparging should take about 45 minutes or so for a 5 gallon all grain batch.

I go by the color and time I have been sparging. 45 min. to an hour. Depending on how much grain is used.

Ther is a good beginners guide to mashing in the October '02 issue of Brew Your Own magazine. It covers the very basics and gets you started with part mash brewing. It doesn't require any new equipment, either. Once you get going you will want to upgrade to some different stuff to make the process easier and more efficient.

[Tweek]

You can use Iodophor for the iodine test as well. but be carefull if you get any husk in your sample you could get a false positive. Its best when you are starting out to just let the mash go a little longer and not worry about doing conversion checks.

brew your own and zymurgy are great magazines and you can learn a lot from them. If you are not already reading them I highly reccomend them both.

[shughes600]

Originally posted by Tweek
... Pick yourself up a false bottom (phils is good as shughes600 said) and a sparge arm, I also like phils. ...

Tweek,

I use the Phils sparge arm also. I can't get a good slow speed setting. I greased the pin at the bottom with food grade gel but I can't make 4 gallons last more than 1/2 hour. How bout you?

[Tweek]

I have mine hooked up to the spigot on my liqour pot. So I control the flow with the spigot. it seems to work fine for me. I can sparge out for as long as a I want (within reason of course) this way. What are you using to control your flow in with? The one thing that I dont like about the phils sparge arm is that the spinning is gravity fed so if you go too slow it wont spin. but I have a method now that seems to work reasonably well.

[shughes600]

I use two bottling buckets for mashing. The second one holds hot liquor and is atop the refrigerator. I regulate the flow with the valve as you do. I think the pin which fixes the rotating arm to the stationary braces might be bent, causing me to flow higher to get the thing spinning.