I decided to brew on Sunday. I had no idea that in the middle of January it was going to be 90 degrees! I went ahead with the brew anyway since over the summer it was about 110 every day and if you wanted to brew well then that's just what you had to deal with.
OK so January, snow in the mountains just a few minutes up the road and I'm prepping to brew my award winning Bagpipe Ale.
I rolled out the equipment at about 9 in the morning and already was breaking a sweat. Went through all the normal setup procedures like cleaning and sanitizing, laying out the hoses, hooking up the gas. By 10am the filter was connected and the water was flowing.
Since brewing in a commercial facility it's strange to brew in the test kitchen because it's for most an outdoor activity. I don't have a well ventilated room with gas hook ups and drains here. I remember that first day that I began homebrewing when I thought that sanitization was SO key in everything. If one little spec of dirt was on something then I needed to wash with soap and hot water and then dunk in the idophor. Then I went and hung out with brewers from a homebrew club to watch them sit the mash paddle on the city trash container which was visibly filthy. Don't worry, I never did that because even with being a bit more lax in cleaning I still notice when there is a cleanliness issue! So I still get everything ready and wash it down and soak it in sanitizer before starting.
The mash begins. Water is at temp, 155 for a 147 mash in. I dump the grain into the mash tun and the temp plummets! I ended up at 108! I've never seen the temp drop so much. The grain was at about 75 degrees and that usually drops the overall temp only 10 degrees. Thank go for the new system we have here and the awesome heat exchanger. It took a little bit but I slowly rose the temp back up to 147 and continued to mash for 60 min.
The aroma was incredible. I wish I could sample it and offer it as a download here but that feature is yet to come on our fancy iphone/ipad gizmos. By now it was 90 degrees and in the sun I bet it was over 100.
The mash finished and I began the boil testing out the efficiency of the system by filling the mash back up instead of sparging. While the 9 gallons of wort was coming to a boil I tested the gravity over and over to see what I could still get from the final runnings. After about 10 minutes I hit 1.060. Now I know this is pretty huge for second runnings but in commercial brewing the water goes in and is continuously stirred so why not do this in the test kitchen.
A 90 minute boil and a very quick cool down and I went to grab the yeast. I had secured it in a cool dark cupboard where evidentally it overflowed. Yes, there was bread flowing out of the beaker and all over everything inside the cupboard. I've never made a starter that has taking off so well in under 24 hours. A brief cleanup and off I was to pitch the yeast.
When all was said and done I an OG of 1.089! This has always been a big beer but with all the changes to the recipe I had made the initial calculations did not think that I would get an OG that high. New techniques used and a bit of the scientific know how can bring you great results!
Once this big boy finishes fermentation and aging I'll let you all know what the turn out is. Stay tuned!
