The first all-grain batches

July 23, 2008

I wouldn’t say that I’m sick of brewing beer, per se, but the tasks that surround beer brewing are starting to get a little old.  For example, bottling.  And cleaning.  And cleaning.  And organizing.  I have a lot of bottles, and with my new all-grain system, a lot more equipment, and every time I want to do something with it I have to move a lot of equipment and a lot of bottles.

But, I love to brew, and brewing with all grain is now as much fun as it is complicated.  The system that I ended up purchasing and assembling is made of of two 10-gallon Rubbermaid coolers with Kewler Kitz spigots and ball valves, and one with a false bottom that acts as a mash tun.  Essentially, I built a kit identical to this one, but for less money because I got a great deal on the coolers.  The other cooler acts as a hot liquor tank, and I bought a nicely drilled sparge arm to assist with the sparging process.  Completing the equipment is a 60,000 BTU propane burner and a 32-quart stainless steel kettle.  It’s nothing I’d use to professionally brew beer, but it works rather well.

The first batch went about as well as to be expected, and I manged to screw a number of things up.  Firstly, I mistakenly threw out most of my fermentable sugars, and so the batch ended up being about 2% alcohol.  It’s pretty hoppy, too, but there isn’t enough malt flavoring to balance it out.  I brewed hop water, essentially, or what might be the first session IPA.  I also didn’t have my equipment set up completely right, so the sparging process was messy.  Lastly, I didn’t know quite what to do with my leftover grains, but we managed to make four loaves of bread and a batch of granola.  I threw a lot of grain into my backyard, though.

The second batch went much better and turned out to be a respectable 5% ABV.  I got it right this time.  The flavor was very nice out of the fermenter, but I had to bottle with cane sugar instead of corn sugar, so I’m hoping that doesn’t mess it up too much.

I’d love to brew again, but my oven is broken at the moment, and without an oven to do something with the 12+ pounds of grain that will be left over after the brew, I’m a bit hesitant to give it another go.  I have a jar of malt extract I could use…but that seems like a step backwards.

This weekend is the 21st Annual Oregon Brewer’s festival, and I’m looking forward to some of the beers that will be there.  Should make for quite a Friday afternoon.

Posted in Bottling, Brewing