by ThePaterPiper » Sun Sep 24, 2017 7:08 pm
Ok,
Finally, it's mash time!! :handgestures-thumbupleft: :dance:
8kg of medium cracked malt. 60% medium 40% heavy. (Forgot that part in why's today's mash section)
Heated 38l of coles spring water to 73°c and into the esky with my home made BIAB bag. FYI, no matter what the sewing lady at the shop says, muslin is NOT strong enough for this purpose :angry-banghead: , but more on this later.
Anyway, I have read heaps in the beer brewing world about BIAB with the full target volume of water in, plus a liter for each kilo of grain. Simplicity and very little difference in overall efficiency apparently, however, with all that water in the esky, both my mate and I thought hmm... anyway, with the hope of the grain absorbing a liter per kilo, we slowly added the grain whilst stirring. All good, no overflows, but next time, 25l max I think, then sparge.
So temp is at 66° for the mash, close the lid and open it up every 15min for a good stir. After an hour, did an iodine test and nothing but light brown. Very happy :happy-partydance:
Try to take out the bag and rrriiipppp! x_x :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: as I said before, muslin is not what to use. Anyway, we finally got enough hands on the bag to spread the pressure and lifted it out, lit it dribble for a while, and get it in the bucket. It dead set looked like haggis! And smelt AMAZING!! All that peaty, malty goodness, my hands still smell of it. :think: well enough of that!
In goes the immersion chiller, quickly down to 30° and we are now under the pump a bit because the storm is coming in. So pour out, through a sieve thanks to my dodgy home made BIAB :oops: and we collect about 35l of wort! So much for absorption of 1L per kilogram. Still more wary isn't something to get upset about is it???
Temp down to 29 by now and it was time to pack up and me to go home, so pitched at a bit warm a temp, but the yeasties were well happy in their starter so they should be ok. Used Safale US-05 as we couldn't source safspirit for today.
Now it's wait for the yeasties to do their thang! :happy-partydance: :dance:
Oh, and we froze 2 kg of the spent grain to capture some of hat peatie goodness into our NGW. But that's for another thread. :music-deathmetal: