Mashematician - Take One

I finally used my newly constructed mash/lauter tun (aptly named "Mashematician") this past Friday. Here are some photos taken by the delightful Vivian:

I ended up employing the design described here. My outlet assembly is a bit more straightforward (read: simplistic) than in the plans, but it's been working well so far. If it has been leaking, it's probably been doing so into the insulation itself. (That is, leaking into the space between the two plastic walls.) I plan on installing a better-sealed outlet in the near future, but this seems to work well enough for now. It's a work in progress after all.

Here's a shot of me recirculating some wort. It ran off quite clear after vorlaufing about 5 liters or so.

Lastly, here's a shot of the outdoor burner hard at work.

I concluded that I achieved an extract efficiency of about 67%. It isn't exactly what I'd wanted, but I think that I can improve it by sparging more. As things are, I usually end up on the low side for volume in the fermeter. This would seem to indicate that I should probably continue to collect wort. I recently invested in some high tech pH measuring equipment (okay, it's actually just litmus paper), so I can periodically check the pH of the runoff to ensure that I don't take it down too low.

Speaking of extract efficiency, you may be wondering how I calculated this number. It just so happens that I'll be explaning what extract efficiency is, how to calculate it, and how to put it into a spreadsheet tomorrow for Technical Tuesday.

Finally, I got some awesome birthday gifts from the lovely Vivian as well! Not only did she bring back some very delicious and very interesting beers from her recent trip to Scotland, she gave me a shirt from Valhalla Brewery, a copy of The Homebrewer's Garden (now I can now when to harvest all those Centennial hops growing in my backyard!), and a copy of Sacred Herbal and Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation. I started reading the latter last night and am enjoying it already. Needless to say, I always appreciate it when I have more to read, especially about beer! Thanks Viv!

SLOM

I plan on bottling my 3-4 month of Russian Imperial Stout tomorrow. It is one of the strongest beers I've ever brewed (weighing in just under 10%ABV), one of my first all grain brews, and my first outdoor brew. I brewed over a charcoal Weber grill - you can see some pictures of the brew session here.

Anyway, that's probably not very exciting unless you're me or someone who's going to drink some...eventually. What is exciting is that I've found 34oz. Grolsch-style bottles for $2 a piece. Oddly enough, they can be found at Ikea. I give you, SLOM:


That's pretty cool! You could bottle an entire batch in around 19 bottles if you really wanted to. Granted, they're clear, but if you're not storing your homebrew in dark conditions anyway, I'm not really sure what you're doing with it.

I look forward to putting a few big bottles of this stuff away for at least six months. Hopefully I can be patient enough to make it a year. Here's hoping!

Quick MLT Update

The mash/lauter tun construction should be ready for use by the end of this evening. I hope to get some pictures to post after completion. I've modified my design over the past few days. It will have a greater amount of space for wort to flow out, ensuring a more even extraction of sugars. I'm very excited to brew with it on Friday!

My design is now more reminiscent of the plans found here.

MLT Construction Update

Construction of my new 48 quart mash/lauter tun is nearing completion. Here's a line drawing of the design I've employed:

I have drilled 136 holes. On average, that's a hole every ~0.42 inches. I'm hoping this will provide sufficiently uniform outflow to provide a reasonably good extract efficiency. While I think it will provide decent results, I suspect that this design would yield even greater efficiency:


However, I have had no luck finding a 1/2 inch diameter CPVC four-way tee (as would be located at the center of the bottom row of tees). Home Depot has't had them. I called four different local hardware places - nada. I guess I'll just have to make do with what I have for right now. No worries. After all, I still have yet to see what I can squeeze out of the current setup.

I plan to test my new toy later on this week. Here's what I have planned:

Calibration Brew:

Fermentables:
10 lbs. Maris Otter
.5 lb. CaraFoam

Hops:
Centennial @ 60, 10, 5, 1 mins.

Yeast:
Safale S-04

Mash at 153 for 60-75 min.

I'm very interested to see what I can eek out of 10 lbs. of Maris Otter. I can probably expect an OG of 1.045-1.056 in 5 gallons. (Those numbers correlate to 60% and 75% extract efficiency, respectively.)

Lastly, I happened upon this page today. I think this design is pretty clever. Check it out!