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Author Topic: Long but productive brew day...  (Read 1461 times)

Offline BeerInTheHand

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Long but productive brew day...
« on: December 13, 2015, 11:15:46 pm »
So we pulled a grain bill for a barleywine several weeks ago but we use a 10gal mash tun which 27lbs of grain clearly wouldn't fit in with strike water. Ended up getting a second mash tun from a buddy and did a double mash and completely miscalculated our water volumes doing it that way (note: don't start a brew day after drinking a lot of beer and watching football).

We mashed in on the first one, waited 10min and started heating the strike water for the second and got that going about 20ish minutes later. After draining off and sparging the first one we started to drain off the second. Just after it finished we realized we had 10.5 gallons in the kettle for a 5 gallon batch. So clearly that one didn't get sparged. We ended up having to boil for 2.5hrs to get the volume back down to just over 6gal.

That was the longest most propane consuming single batch of beer I've ever done. Either way, all is well now and she has an OG of 1.105. It's going to get some bourbon soaked oak spirals in secondary and probably be forgotten about til, at the very earliest, late spring.

Long story short: I'm buying a large rectangular cooler for bigger beers in the future.

Offline jtoots

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Re: Long but productive brew day...
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2015, 09:32:50 am »
note: don't start a brew day after drinking a lot of beer and watching football

HA!  Yeah, I have enough troubles when I get carried away with mid/post brew batch drinking.  beforehand, i'm in trouble!!

Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Long but productive brew day...
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2015, 09:42:59 am »
I feel your pain. I endured a turbid mash yesterday. Started at 10am and ended the boil at 5pm. Then still had to cool and get it in the fermentor. Very long brew day.
Heck yeah I blog about homebrewing: Brain Sparging on Brewing

Offline pete b

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Re: Long but productive brew day...
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2015, 09:50:05 am »
Yea, my brew day drinking consists of a beer after the boil is settled in and no chance of boil over at which point a timer is set for the next hop addition or irish moss. A hutchie scotchie during the run off of a big beer being the exception. I simply don't enjoy getting buzzed while there is still stuff to do.
Don't let the bastards cheer you up.

Offline Pinski

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Re: Long but productive brew day...
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2015, 09:57:25 am »
Yea, my brew day drinking consists of a beer after the boil is settled in and no chance of boil over at which point a timer is set for the next hop addition or irish moss. A hutchie scotchie during the run off of a big beer being the exception. I simply don't enjoy getting buzzed while there is still stuff to do.
My brewday drinking "rules" are; perhaps rinse my coffee cup out with a splash of breakfast stout. Enjoy a hot scotchy at the outset of runoff, pour a cold one once the beer is in the fermenters. Assess and proceed from there. 
Tired-Buzz cleaning sucks.
Steve Carper
Green Dragon Brewers
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Offline BeerInTheHand

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Re: Long but productive brew day...
« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2015, 11:17:48 am »
We typically don't start drinking until after mashing in, and even with that it's a very moderate amount until we're done. But I had several beers during the game and we needed to get this brew knocked out, lesson learned... Again.

I initially wanted to brew this beer back in spring so it could potentially be ready to drink by the dead of winter, but we kept putting it off. My brother is coming back to town in May so I'm hoping it'll at least be decently aged by then so we can tap it.