While sitting at my computer (where Beer Tools lives) I started to review my checklist of equipment, ingredients, and procedures. I knew I had all of the ingredients - 11 pounds of milled grain, 1.5 ounces of hop pellets, and 2 vials of WLP001 Cal. Ale yeast. And, by now, I should have had all of the necessary equipment; especially my new Coleman™ "mash tun", that has a 36 quart capacity. I needed the new mash tun since I was going to mash-in two batches for a total of 15 gallons of water for 11 pounds of grain... Wait a minute, what?!? 11 pounds x 1.375 quarts of water/pound = 15 quarts. DAMNIT! 15 quarts, not 15 gallons... GRR
Rachel lauded me for catching the problem, and it's always nice to have an extra cooler, right?
I schlepped all of my clean and sanitized equipment to the garage and set it up so I could jump right in, light up the propane-powered turkey fryer and get to it. Armed with 15-ish quarts of strike water, I started the fire and let it run. Then, I brought up the grain and proceeded to pour it into the empty Igloo™ mash tun. Sigh, Error #2. When my water reached it's proper temperature (mash temp + 11 deg. F), I poured it into the grain-filled cooler. Rachel helped out by stirring the grain while I got a nice exfoliating steam treatment. She also made the classic Shakespearean cauldron comment as the bed of grain began bubbling. If I only knew what toil and trouble I was in for...
After 60 minutes, I went to the tun with an empty kettle to collect my first runnings before the sparge. I opened the valve and this wonderful brown smoky, earthy liquid started draining. Man, it was nice. Standing there, listening to football on the radio, I noticed the flow tapering off. Strange, I thought, as the cooler still had quite a bit of malty water in it. I shook it around, I stirred it, but the flow simply stopped! I fought with this for 10 solid minutes; I wasn't having a stuck mash! But, sure enough, I did. I muttered expletives as I tried to get this to drain. And you know what? With all of my magazines, books, and the trusty Internet, my stupid self decided that it would be better to dump it. So, I muttered some more expletives as I dumped the paltry 1 gallon of wort and remaining water & grain in the field in our back yard. Let this be a lesson to you - pour the hot water into the mash tun first, then add the grain while stirring it. (Now the birds and squirrels have a tasty smoked "oatmeal" to munch on.) At least I can begin the winning pumpkin spice recipe! (I will attempt the smoked beer again, don't you worry!)
...Did I mention I smoked some of my own grain for this beer? Here's a picture of the contraption Pops built for me to use the Weber for smoking. The trick? Soak oak chips or an oak barrel stave for 1~2 hours. Put those on a cool to medium fire and watch the smoke, well, smoke. (Just be careful of hot spots observed through the hole in the upper right of the picture.)
2 comments:
That sucks about your stuck mash. I just brewed an oatmeal stout about two weeks ago. I was told rice hulls help to keep the mash from sticking. I added a good amount (don't know the weight) and had absolutely no problems drawing my wort.
Keep up the good work.
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