Brewing an American Stout

Nice Shiny New Mash tun

I Thought this weekend during my Brew day, I'd take pictures of my upgraded system, and decided I'd document my process. However the HLT Urn I bought off Trademe (NZ equivalent of E-Bay) had a substantial leak in it. There goes my plan to work a new system.

I used Basic Camping Mat to Insulate the MLT.

Ah well, at least that's the only thing that didn't go to plan. So back to the trusty BIAB Process I went. Difference this time, was I used the new mash tun (I had cut everything to size for it already)

I'll detail my recipe in this post to give you an idea of what's what and why is looks like ink.... lol.

Brewed: 25/01/2015
OG: 1.066
IBU: 71
FV Volume: 21 Litres

6kg Gladfield Ale
700g Rye Malt
350g Pale Choc
300g Medium Crystal
250g Roast barley

60Min: 20g Centennial / 29g Nelson Sauvin
0Min/Whirlpool: 38g Centennial / 17g Nelson Sauvin
No Dryhops.

Yeast: WLP 090 Slurry (Thick)

So away I went, and to be sure of no screw ups I took my time, I filled my new shiny with 36 Litres of Tap Water, and turned the burner on.

Mashing In

A Strike Temps of Around 69 was required, I normally gets 3-4 degrees of heat loss once the grains are added.

Just a quick side note on BIAB and heating etc. Please be careful to stir the pot to maintain an even temperature through the whole body of water. this makes sure all the heat from the bottom is being utilised, thus making your heating slightly faster, and getting an even temperature across the board.

The other thing I should probably mention at this stage,  Heat gain doing BIAB, this can be an issue in some vessels, mainly the thinner ones, where the heat can travel through the post around the outside, and not distributing evenly. So what I like to do, is get to strike while stirring, and then spend a good 2-3 minutes vigorously stirring the water to make sure its at a settled temperature, and of course even through out. (I have an analogue temp probe on the vessel, as well as a small digital readout one, which is hand held.)

I'd thought out about using a new process (Well a shortened process) as I like to do a mash out step using BIAB. I have a pulley system rigged up, which means I can pull the bag off the bottom and heat to 75/76 degrees then wait 10/15 minutes before removing the bag and bringing to a boil. Basically this is the process I thought about changing to the No Sparge Method. Meaning I wouldn't need to carry out the mash-out step. (I will attempt this at some stage)

All tucked away.

Anyway, back to the day at hand. After
that, I remove the bag and suspend it slightly for a minute before  hanging it from a big hook I have in the garage, below of course is a Pot to collect the additional Wort.

Nice Clear Wort. Nice and Dark

then Boil and Add the Hop additions as normal. I'll add the Immersion Chiller 15 mins before the end of the boil (After a quick Water spray to remove dust) and that'll sufficiently sanitise the chiller.

I gave this a 15 min Whirlpool/hop steep, before turning on the chiller, and whirl-pooling again, to get full wort contact.

I hit 65% efficiency on this, which was a shame, but only 4 points away from the normal target. I shook the fermenter, and then used my aquarium pump for 30-40 minutes for full aeration, and then pitched the yeast.

Simple process, short brew day. Mostly, the clean up is what takes the time. Most people mention this, and you've heard it all before, make sure everything is clean and sanitised.

Primary1(Plastic): Secret Crusade American Rye Stout

Primary2(Plastic): {Nothing}

Primary3(Bretts/Sours): {Watch This Space}

10 Litre PET Carboy #1: Night Crawler Imperial Stout 

Sour#1(Wide Mouth Glass): Guts & Glory Flanders Red

Sour#2 (PET Carboy): {Watch This Space}
Barrel: Hail Caesar Oud Bruin Ale
Bottled: Chch Homebrew Club Barleywine / Braggot Ale.

Keg1: Bathed in Blood II (Stone Levitation)
Keg2: Promised Land II (Stag)
Keg3: Clown Prince Belgian Blond (SMaSH Beer)
Next Beer to Brew: SOUR BEER