October is a great time to brew home-made beer. This particular brew was more cost-effective than any brew I have undertaken. After tasting the wort (unfermeted beer), the Cascade hops (a very healthy dose) came through with flying colors as the taste was unmistakably hoppy” with a nice, semi-sweet maltiness.
This is an authentic “local” beer, with 12 ounces of whole Cascade hops that I grew and Athens filtered tap water. The malt and the yeast were purchased.
Get the carboy clean and sanitized. This is a “Mark’s Keg Washer. A 30-45 minute wash using Powdered Brewery Wash and another using Star-San makes the carboy squeaky clean.
Bring 8 gallons of water to a boil. It’s better to have too much mash and sparge water than not enough,
Get all the brewing gear ready. having the right utensils, thermometers, tubing, and other materials and tools make all the difference when brewing. It can make the difference between a lot of hard work and a fun and fulfilling production of good beer.
Cascade hops ready to use. I’ve been harvesting these off and on all summer and early fall and putting them in the freezer. Fresh would be best; however, frozen works well and is about the next best thing.
Pre-heat the mash tun with hot water.
Start stirring the grist into mash tun – start watching temperature closely. Today is a nice day with relatively stable outdoor temperatures. So, the water and mash temperatures did not vary much at all. It was a very pleasant fall day here in Athens, Georgia.
Mash temperature stabilizing at 155F degrees – target was 152F degrees
Put hops in the bag ready fro the boil – 12 ounces in total and I used them throughout the boil
After an hour of mashing, temperature still stable at 155F degrees – ready to sparge
Start sparging (rinsing) the mash into the liquor pot – I use a simple stainless steel strainer and pour the 170F degree water over the grains as the wort drains into the liquor pot. It is best to add sparge water slowly to get all of the sugary wort drained out of the mash tun.
Sparging essentially stops the chemical conversion and rinses all of the wort to be gathered in the boil pot.
The start of the “hot break” when the water comes to a boil. A foam appears temporarily when the boil begins. I turn the heat down and take the excess sugary foam out and stir until it settles down. Then, I turn the flame back up and continue with a rolling boil.
Adding the hops bag to the boil – you begin to smell the hops aroma almost immediately. The hops addition for this was for 3 ounces of hops. I steeped 12 ounces to punch the hops acidity up. This will be one of my “hoppiest” beers.
During the final minutes, drop the Irish Moss tablet (WhirFloc) to the boil. Allow to dissolve and then add the copper wort chiller coil to the wort and allow it to sterilize.
Carboy is nice and sanitized and ready for the wort. Once the wort has cooled, it is transferred to the carboy. It is during this time that precautions to keep things exceptionally clean and sanitized lest any contamination creep in and spoil your beer.
Initial gravity reading at 1.035. This number is used with the reading taken once the wort has fermented and becomes beer. The 2 numbers allow you to calculate the Alcohol By Volume (ABV) as a percentage.
Carboy ready to receive the wort from the boil pot. Note that a sanitized airlock is inserted into the carboy to keep out any airborne contaminants.
Start the siphoning process called “racking” to the carboy – yeast starter in flask inside of blue bucket ready to add after the racking is complete. A yeast starter is actually a very small beer of sorts. It has dried malt extract and water that has been boiled and cooled to 68F degrees. Yeast is then added to it. A stir plate is a nice device that helps keep the process active. it takes from 12-18 hours for a yeast starter to complete.
Here comes the wort
Nice looking wort that will soon be fermenting as the yeast begins its work