Monday, April 6, 2009

Cookin' with gas

Update - Yeah, it's tasty,...wheat, toast, banana, but I swear it's got acetaldehyde, too. That's what I get for rushing it to the keg.
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I brewed outside for the first time. Borrowed a propane tank and burner and set to work with a few more brewers. Good times. Having a tree was a mixed bag - ample shade, ample crap falling into EVERYTHING. I was a little worried that this batch wouldn't turn out quite right, but the grains had enough enzyme to do the conversion. My efficiency dragged a little bit, probably because I was using someone else's water and didn't - excuse me, it just foamed through the airlock...okay, problem solved for the moment - add any salts. Still, reasonable efficiency around 70%. I actually ended up using two burners and two kettles, which makes step mashing by multiple infusions a lot easier.

Batch #36
Dunkelweizen
--5lbs Ger. Light Munich
--5lb Ger. Dark Wheat Malt
--0.25lb Pale Chocolate
--1.25oz Liberty 4.5%AA (60min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--WLP300 English Ale Yeast, 2L starter from ~1/2 vial saved from a Hefe starter.
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.014
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: ~20 or so

Mash in with 10qts to around 125-130 (lots going on, didn't take notes) for 20min. Add hot water to raise temp to 152 (or thereabouts, again...no notes on what actually happened) for 40min. Added rice hulls. Mash out to 168F (more water) for 15min. I undermeasured my water and ended up only pulling 6.5 gallons of wort, so only did a 60min boil. Ended with around 5.25gal of wort. Brought it home, pitched my yeast, and it is going like mad. After 6 hours, I had about an inch of kraeusen, it's out the top now.