I brewed today!

Festbier at 1.055. Today I decided to test my stove and my ability to move mash temperature around. After holding the mash at 152F for 30 minutes I raised the burner to a safe, non brew bag scorching level. I picked up near 2F every 5 minutes and finished the 60 minute mash at 162F. I don’t expect anything from doing this but if I ever feel so inclined to do a step-mash at least now I have an idea as to how long it might take.

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Brewed Tim's Brown Ale (basically Janet's Brown Ale with @Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews home grown hops). Temp was a little warm & humid for the last day of September but, the sun was shining and I was outside brewing again. So I was happy. Brewing with whole leaf hops was on my brewing bucket list. Ran into the expected problem of hops plugging the kettle port so I had to manually stir during chilling and scoop out the hops before draining the kettle. Looking forward to tasting this one!

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BarbarianBrewer said:
Brewed Tim's Brown Ale (basically Janet's Brown Ale with @Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews home grown hops). Temp was a little warm & humid for the last day of September but, the sun was shining and I was outside brewing again. So I was happy. Brewing with whole leaf hops was on my brewing bucket list. Ran into the expected problem of hops plugging the kettle port so I had to manually stir during chilling and scoop out the hops before draining the kettle. Looking forward to tasting this one!

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That's a lotta hops.
 
Herm brews said:
Indeed! I am not averse to cleaning, but somehow that looks messy. Glad @BarbarianBrewer you got to check off your bucket list.
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Actually I find whole hops easier to clean up than pellets, they act as a wort filter on my false bottom and don’t stick to the bottom of the kettle like pellets can.
 
Herm brews said:
Indeed! I am not averse to cleaning, but somehow that looks messy. Glad @BarbarianBrewer you got to check off your bucket list.
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I think if I had a false bottom with a pickup tube drawing wort from below that, I don't think I would have had any problems. When using pellet hops, I drain the brew kettle through a strainer into the fermenter. With an equivalent amount of pellet hops I would have had to pause draining the kettle a couple of times to remove the pellet hop debris from the strainer. The only problem left to solve would be how to extract all that wort from the hops. Compressing them in the strainer, with my sanitized(?) hand, was the only messy part of using whole leaf hops.
 
BarbarianBrewer said:
Brewed Tim's Brown Ale (basically Janet's Brown Ale with @Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews home grown hops). Temp was a little warm & humid for the last day of September but, the sun was shining and I was outside brewing again. So I was happy. Brewing with whole leaf hops was on my brewing bucket list. Ran into the expected problem of hops plugging the kettle port so I had to manually stir during chilling and scoop out the hops before draining the kettle. Looking forward to tasting this one!

View attachment 26798
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Lucky you were outside and not in the kitchen then.
 
BarbarianBrewer said:
I think if I had a false bottom with a pickup tube drawing wort from below that, I don't think I would have had any problems. When using pellet hops, I drain the brew kettle through a strainer into the fermenter. With an equivalent amount of pellet hops I would have had to pause draining the kettle a couple of times to remove the pellet hop debris from the strainer. The only problem left to solve would be how to extract all that wort from the hops. Compressing them in the strainer, with my sanitized(?) hand, was the only messy part of using whole leaf hops.
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Wine press?
 
The Brew Mentor said:
I don't understand 2.5 gallons! haha
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It works for me. 99.5% of the beer I brew is drunk by me. Along with supplemental beer from outside, it usually takes a few weeks for me to consume a case of my homebrew. When brewing is timed properly, I finish consuming a batch around the time the next batch is ready. Occasionally, there is overlap - that time is coming with yesterday’s wheat ale, last week’s stout still fermenting along with a gallon batch of cider, and saison currently bottled and ready for consumption.
 
I have an overlap thing going on now. Started a lager (my first try) before I went on vacation. Been in the frementer over a month now and still no open keg space.
 
Herm brews said:
It works for me. 99.5% of the beer I brew is drunk by me. Along with supplemental beer from outside, it usually takes a few weeks for me to consume a case of my homebrew. When brewing is timed properly, I finish consuming a batch around the time the next batch is ready. Occasionally, there is overlap - that time is coming with yesterday’s wheat ale, last week’s stout still fermenting along with a gallon batch of cider, and saison currently bottled and ready for consumption.
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I like to brew more often so 2.5 days s good for me as well.
 
Did a 70 minute mash and was a little more efficient than expected, so I might have a 6% Festbier. That Blichmann makes one hell of a hot break. This is 7 gallons of liquid in a 16 gallon kettle. It actually got higher before the picture. I had my hand on the propane regulator and not the camera.
My, God what a beautiful day to brew beer! It is still only just above 80.
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