Brewing With David!

Hello Everyone!

Well look at that...! It's my birthday!  LOL!

I went over to David's and Stacey's place yesterday to give him a hand brewing and to enjoy his award winning BBQ chicken n' ribs n' beef brisket! Boy was that BBQ good! Yummmmm!

I arrived there around 11:30 and he was inside measuring out the grain bill. I volunteered to get the water dumped into the HLT and to start heating it up. While it was heating, we crushed the grains using his Barley Crusher and we were ready to dough in the grains. After the strike water reached 170 degF we transfered the allotted 4 1/4 gallons to the mash tun and proceeded to dough in. The temp came in a little warm, so we had to add about 1/2 gallon of cool water to lower the temp to our mash temp of 154 degF. It worked out well. We hit the target temperature then wrapped the tun with a blanket for insulation purposes and set the timer for 60 minutes.

It's BBQ time! David and Stacey announced that the BBQ was ready and we followed him into the house, grabbed our plates and served ourselves to the spread! It was fantastic.

After the hour was up, the timer went off and David, Jeremy and I tested the wort for conversion by performing an iodine test. It was converted to our satisfaction! We then re-heated to sparge water back to 180 degF and started to recirculate the wort to get a clear run off, and then started to run off into the boil kettle. The wort looked nice and clear. After we completed the runoff and got our 7.5 gallons we checked the pre-boil gravity and found that we were about 2 points low, so we decided to boil the work for a little longer just to bring the OG to the desired gravity. We ended up at 1.054, and David was very happy with the result.
This was David's 3rd brew session on his new rig, and he is getting used to the routine and of getting his efficiency locked in. He's been making adjustments with every brew session ans is improving. This was his best session so far.

We completed the boil and chilled the wort using his home counter flow chiller and completed the brew session. Jeremy and Cheryl stopped by with an array of his amazing homebrew and we had a mini-beer tasting with David's friends and family. I brought a  2 liter growler of a Brown Porter that I made 4 weeks back and shared that with everyone too.

David had some Fullers Porter and some Fullers Pale Ale to have in between and everyone had a fantastic time.

Here's a few pics of the day's happenings:

Here's Davids new Brew Rig:

Here's David keeping an eye on things and explaining the operation:

Jeremy and Allen checking out the rig and temperatures:

Running off the wort into the kettle:

Recirculating to clear the wort:

Chilling the wort and filling the primary fermenter!

Time for award winning BBQ!

Everyone had a fantastic day!

Well that's all for now...

Thanks for stopping by....

Keep Brewing!

(_)3

Brads Porter Session!

Well....!

I awoke this morning at 5:45 AM and got up and got dressed and had a cup of coffee before heading out to Brad's place to witness his brew session. The sun was just coming up over the horizon when I completed the 20 minute drive and I pulled into his driveway to see him already sanitizing the brewery's plumbing and getting the equipment ready for the mornings brew session.

Brad greeted me and asked if he was late or if I was early! I stated that I was a bit early and he then chuckled and went back to work getting ready to start today's brew session. He got me a chair and handed me his brew recipe...ahhh....a nice Robust Porter!

Within 15 minutes we started heating up the strike water and when that was at our desired temperature, we started to dough in the grains. It was then that our long time friend and brew pal Bob rolled into the driveway and he assisted with the stirring of the mash while Brad fed the mash tun the grains at an even pace.

The session was highly successful and fun for all. We ended the day with food and drink and we were all satisfied and tired out from the day's events.

Here's just a few pics of the session:

Bob stirring while Brad pours in the grain!

Close up of the grain being doughed in:

Bob finishing up with the mixing:

Here's Brad,  Bob and I bringing the wort to a boil:

It was a great session and we had a lot of fun too! Now the hard part....waiting until the final product is finished!

Thanks for stopping by......Keep Brewing!

(_)3

Brewing With Jeremy

Well, last weekend was very busy! I visited my friend and fellow brewer Jeremy last Friday night to observe him brewing his Pompous Ass ale. We also had plenty of great samples to enjoy.

On Sunday I brewed up an IPA which is I hope an attempt to clone Bells 2 Hearted Ale. My friend Brad was on hand and was of great assistance. We have been trying to brew a close replica of this fantastic brew for a couple of sessions now and we feel we are getting very close. We'll brew a batch...then get together to do a sampling and critique session, then discuss ways to improve the beer and how to get it closer to our desired end result. Brad brewed it first, and now I have brewed it with the changes we made to the first brewing of it. The brew is still fermenting as I type, so it's going to be a while before we get the taste our results.

On Sunday evening I attended our brew club's monthly meeting ( Volusia County Home Brewers Guild ), and that is always fun!

Now...on this Saturday, I'll be over at Brads place assisting him with the brewing of one of his Porters. This guy brews a great Porter by the way. After the morning brew session, we'll be having a cookout and will be enjoying his latest beer....his Danish Lager for the first time! Can't wait to taste that lager.

On Sunday we have a family get together to celebrate my stepson's birthday and also my birthday! Yeyyy! another BBQ!

Then on Monday I travel to Ormond Beach to David's place to assist him with his brew session and to help him get rid of some left over BBQ he's going to have left over from the BBQ contest he's going to over the weekend.

Pheeewww! What a weekend coming up! I'm also planning on racking the Peach Ginger Melomel off the lees and into a clean and sanitized carboy to allow it to sit for a few months. You know I'll be sneaking a little taste of that! I have to wash my wine bottles and get them ready for the White Grapefruit Wine that needs to be bottled. I'm thinking of bottling that over the weekend if I have the time and energy.

Here's a couple of pics of Jeremy's brew session:

Here's Jeremy checking the temperature of the strike water.

Dumping the strike water into the mash tun:

Mashing in the grain:

Here's a couple of shots of my Sunday morning brew session:

Mash Tun doing it's thing!

Boiling the wort and softening the Amber Extract to be added to the boil:

19 hours after pitching the yeast, fermentation is in full bloom:

Well that's it for now....I'll be posting about this weekends events real soon!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a safe and fun Labor Day weekend!

(_)3