Mellody Brewing

Blood, Sweat and Beers

The real time brew day blogging experiment is over.  I enjoyed it, how about you?  I know you all were following, refreshing your pages constantly.  Admit it, you'll feel better about yourself.

Well, the brew day went well.  We had some snags along the way, definitely learning the new system still.  Sparging went well, but lifting the kettle with all the liquid, not a good idea.  Also, cooling the wort down for pitching, another issue.  These are easily solved and I'm not worried.  Lessons learned:

1. Pump is becoming necessary - lifting coolers and keg kettle with 5 gallons of 212 degree liquid not a great idea, especially if I am alone. Time to research a pump system.
2. Counter-flow chiller needed. No more waiting around to pitch the yeast.
3. Summer heat sucks, as do the mosquitoes - my blood that is.  I suffered some mighty bites and feel like I lost 5 lbs in sweat.  Box fan to stay somewhat cool and earlier start time to avoid the blood sucking insects.
4. Thermoplastic tubing, my vinal tubing is looking a little weak after this batch, from the heat of the water for sure.
5. Must measure out where 5 gallons of liquid comes to in the new kettle.  This way I know how much water to add to get full 5 gallon batch at end of boil.

I'm sitting here sweaty and smelling of hops, beer and lord knows what.  I have the left over grains for biscuits in the fridge.  These should be interesting as they have the flaked wheat in them as well.  All in all a great weekend here at Mellody Brewing Company, we feel we're maybe on batch away from getting this system down to a standard process.  We'll see, I hope to brew again next weekend.

RTBDB - Son of a Pitch

After a second boil over after I put the lid on to try and stop some of the boil evaporation loss, we reached another key point in the brewing process.  This is were we cool the wort to yeast pitching temperature.  This was a challenge, unlike with batches in the past, due to the new kettle.  See the kettle holds its heat a lot more than the small pots did, and it can't be immersed in a sink with ice cubes and water as well as having the immersion chiller going at the same time.  Also, we had the second challenge of dealing with the FL heat and hot water down from the outside hose.  I rigged up a system where I used my hot liquor tank as a cold water tank and placed two blocks of ice in them surrounded by water.  I then ran this cold water through the immersion chiller.  If I had a pump this wouldn't have been so bad, but it took some time. 

Also, we lost a considerable amount of wort during the boil.  This is to be expected, but it seemed to me we were again under a full five gallon batch come fermentation time.  I added a bit of distilled water to try and bring it back up.  I have to figure out why I'm losing so much water during the process.

Anyway...the brewery is cleaned up and put away.  The beer is in the fermenter, and I'll pitch the Belgian Wit Yeast in a bit, just waiting to ensure we're at the right temperature.  Meanwhile, it's time for a shower.

RTBDB - Boil Over

Even with a 15.5 gallon brew kettle, and only 6 gallons of water, there is a boil over when you put the lid on.  The lid of a stainless steel kettle gets hot people, and I did this twice - why? Cause I'm smart like that. That's how I roll.

Corriander and Bitter Orange Peel to go in last. Then it is time for the immersion chiller contraption I devised.  Let's hope it works.

RTBDB - We're Wit It

Pre-boil Specific Gravity 1.048 - .001 off.

Can you say, job well done.  God Speed.  We're off to boil.  The hard part is done.  Now just to save the grains for some new wheat biscuits and clean up and prep the fermentor.

I must say, I'm excited that this seemed to work so well.

Here's a picture of the sparging in process.

RTBDB - Houston, We Might Have A Problem

Everything was going swimingly, slow sparge, sweet smelling and nice color liquid coming out - then BAM.  Nothing.  Went dry.  Doesn't look like 5 gallons or 6 in the kettle.  This huge kettle makes it really hard to tell how much is really in there.  I may add some more water just in case...

Time to take the pre-boil gravity.

RTBDB - Moment of Truth

Last time on this system, the problem we had was low efficiency, or not yielding enough sugars from the grains to get a good wort.  This will hopefully be solved with the research and adjustments I made.  I have the bigger kettle, which will help with slower sparging time efficiency since I won't have to worry about running out of room during the slow spare.  I've also learned  some better techniques for sparging so we should be ok.  We're aiming for a pre-boil gravity of 1.047 SG.  We'll see what happens.

RTBDB - Mash Out

No, this isn't some radio signal from the 70s hit TV show.  This is the term where we add 200 degree water to the mash to stop the transformation of sugar from the grain.  We add the mash out liquid and let it sit for about 10 minutes then start to sparge.

The sweat is reaching a new level, maybe gross but maybe this Wit should be called Wilting Wit or something...

Neighbors continue to drive by, walk by, roller blade by and stare at me.  What is that disgusting sweating man doing?  Moonshinin?!

RTBDB - Chill Out

I have decided I better run and get ice to run throught the chiller...there will be no time later...

Real Time Brew Day Blogging (RTBDB) - Wit

So, I'm outside in 90 degree FL heat, with 52% humidity, so it feels like 96 according to my weather bug.  I'm brewing a Belgian Wit and man it's hot.  I'm sweating constantly and I'm just sitting here now will the grains are mashing at a temperature of 150 degrees.  Mashing is when you release the malt sugars by soaking the grains in water. Kind of like a big tea steep right now.  Smells delicious when you open the mash tun and begin to get ready to sparge.  I'll steep these grains (a mixture of Belgian 2-row and malted wheat flakes) for 75 minutes.  Then it's on to sparging, or rinsing the grains with 160 degree water to release the sweet wort from the grains and to form the wort for brewing.  Then it's a 60 minute boil and we're pretty much done. 

As I sit here sweating away the toxins from a night at Oldsmar Tap House last night, I'm wondering how I'm going to get the wort down to yeast pitching temperature (70 degrees) when its so hot outside, and my water from the hose, which I'd usually use in the immersion chiller, is about 80 degrees.  I'm thinking of running to get some ice and running ice water through it to bring it down.  It's certainly going to be an adventure.  Also, I'm dreadfully low on propane and might run out in the middle of the boil.Nothing like planning ahead huh?  Well, I'll update you in a bit once I make some progress.

Natural Dog Treats

Here's the low down.  After brewing I always have left over grain used for brewing.  In the past I've either, thrown the grain away or made bread from it.  Yummy bread.  Then one day I made dog biscuits.  They are made from grains, peanut butter, flour and an egg.  Baked for 30 minutes.  I gave these to friend's with dogs and they were a big hit.  Now everytime I brew I make biscuits and hand them out.  It's gotten to the point where people are now asking for them when or if I brew again, will I make them.  So...a friend of mine and I are thinking, why not partner with local brewery to get their spent grains and making some home made, all natural treats and selling them at the farmer's market.  Everyone I've talked to seems to think it could work.  We've researched all the FDA stuff, labeling stuff, etc.  It's actually very easy and low overhead to do. 

My question to you fellow dog owners is...would you buy these? What criteria would you need to buy? What would you need to know?  We're thinking of marketing along the natural treat line, maybe gourmet.  Packaging would be simple, maybe sold in bulk by weight.   

Thoughts? Feedback?