Haven't been able to brew yet this year due to my wife getting 2 new hips and all. I figured since I didn't have a helper I better build something so I don't need help. Plus all that lifting ain't helping my old back none. So I finally got off my lazy butt and built me a brew stand. Going to brew 6 gallons of Simcoe Barley Wine. My good friend gave me 40 pounds of Maris-Otter and 12 oz. of Simcoe flower hops. He said if I brew it I can have half. This is the first batch. I will make another one later with a different yeast. I had to split it because I can't fit 45 pounds of grain and 10 gallons of water in my mash tun.
Heating up the water that will be mixed with the barley malt to 180°F.
It hit 190 so I'll let it cool down a bit.
20 lbs. of Maris-Otter. England's finest 2-Row malt. 1 pound I cold smoked with Alder dust for about 6 hours in a cardboard box.
Also have .5 # Crystal 120, .5# of Carapils and .5# of Belgian Special-B.
Using the Fuller's yeast. WLP-002. Made a big old starter.
Lots of yeast.
Barley and hot water mixed. Aiming for 156°F.
155°F. Excellent.
Man this smells so good.
Wrap it with some towels to hold the heat. Let it sit for 90 minutes while the starch turns to sugar.
Start heating the sparge water. Aiming for 190°F.
It's been 90 minutes. Time to recirculate to set the grain bed and filter out the solids.
Let the sparging begin. This is where we rinse all the sugars from the grain into the brew kettle. The arm spins while spraying water on the grain.
Hopefully it's going in to the kettle at the same rate the sparge water is going into the grain.
Three Tier Gravity feed system is what we call it.
We have wort. AKA unfermented beer.
Getting ready to boil.
Boiling for 90 minutes. Making 5 one ounce additions of Simcoe along the way.
5 ounces Simcoe hops.
My cat is supposed to keep the mice out of the brewery.
This my immersion chiller. 50 ft. of copper tubing.
25 ft. of pre-chiller in ice bath.
Chilling the wort.
We have chilled to 70°F. Time to put it in the fermenter. 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy.
Blast some pure O2 into it and pitch the yeast. Into the basement to ferment at 68°F. Original gravity is 1.090.
Should be around 9.5% alcohol when done.
12 hours later she is fermenting very vigorously.
Closer view.
Should be ready to rack to the secondary in about 10 days. Thanks for watching.
See ya.
Heating up the water that will be mixed with the barley malt to 180°F.
It hit 190 so I'll let it cool down a bit.
20 lbs. of Maris-Otter. England's finest 2-Row malt. 1 pound I cold smoked with Alder dust for about 6 hours in a cardboard box.
Also have .5 # Crystal 120, .5# of Carapils and .5# of Belgian Special-B.
Using the Fuller's yeast. WLP-002. Made a big old starter.
Lots of yeast.
Barley and hot water mixed. Aiming for 156°F.
155°F. Excellent.
Man this smells so good.
Wrap it with some towels to hold the heat. Let it sit for 90 minutes while the starch turns to sugar.
Start heating the sparge water. Aiming for 190°F.
It's been 90 minutes. Time to recirculate to set the grain bed and filter out the solids.
Let the sparging begin. This is where we rinse all the sugars from the grain into the brew kettle. The arm spins while spraying water on the grain.
Hopefully it's going in to the kettle at the same rate the sparge water is going into the grain.
Three Tier Gravity feed system is what we call it.
We have wort. AKA unfermented beer.
Getting ready to boil.
Boiling for 90 minutes. Making 5 one ounce additions of Simcoe along the way.
5 ounces Simcoe hops.
My cat is supposed to keep the mice out of the brewery.
This my immersion chiller. 50 ft. of copper tubing.
25 ft. of pre-chiller in ice bath.
Chilling the wort.
We have chilled to 70°F. Time to put it in the fermenter. 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy.
Blast some pure O2 into it and pitch the yeast. Into the basement to ferment at 68°F. Original gravity is 1.090.
Should be around 9.5% alcohol when done.
12 hours later she is fermenting very vigorously.
Closer view.
Should be ready to rack to the secondary in about 10 days. Thanks for watching.
See ya.
