How To: Install a Thermometer on Your Mash Tun

Over my last few batches I've been struggling getting consistent original gravity (OG) results.  I'm going to discuss my struggles and changes I've made in a bit more length in a future post, but one of the issues I considered was that I wasn't properly maintaining my mash temperature.  Controlling temperature (both during the mash and fermentation) is one of the challenges of home brewing.  Placing your strike water and grains in a cooler for an hour isn't an exact science and most home brewers don't have access to the same sophisticated equipment that a commercial brewery would use.

The simplest way to monitor your mash temperature would be to just drop your floating thermometer in your mash and check the temperature every so often.  The disadvantage of that process is losing heat each time you open your cooler.  I decided that I want to be able to monitor my mash temperature more closely to have a better idea of the temperatures during the mash.

Here's the process I used to install a thermometer on the outside of my mash tun (credits to John A who posted this procedure on a MoreBeer review of the stainless weld less thermometer kit).  The only challenge of this procedure is to not damage the interior cooler liner when you drill the larger hole for the thermometer bulkhead.  The procedure is very simple and could be done in less than 20 minutes as long as you don't have any leaks.

What you'll need:

Cooler mash tun
Stainless weld less thermometer (I used the 6 in variety, but the 2 in would probably work ok)
Drill
1" spade drill bit
1 1/2" spade drill bit

1.  Decide where to drill your hole for the thermometer.  Obviously this needs to be within the mash so you definitely want it below the 5 gallon mark on your cooler.  Also, don't place the hole too low to avoid trouble removing your false bottom.  I placed my hole about 4 3/4" above the ball valve at the bottom of my cooler.

2.  Drill a 1" hole with your spade bit.

3.  Drill a 1 1/2" hole with your spade bit.  This is part where you need to be careful.  The threads on the bulkhead are designed to fit through a 1" hole, but the depth of the threads is too short to fit through the entire wall of the cooler.  The 1 1/2" hole should go through the exterior liner and insulation only.  Do not damage the interior liner.

You can see from the photo that I mangled the exterior liner a bit.  If I were doing this again I would probably drill the larger hole first.

4.  Insert the thermometer and bulkhead through the new hole.  Sandwich the interior liner between the red rubber washer (this should go outside the liner) and stainless steel washer (inside the cooler).

5.  Tighten all your fittings, test for leaks and you're ready to get your mash on!

Legion of Boom (LOB) Pale Ale

This recipe is, sadly, the result of a lost Super Bowl bet.  My friend Joel and I bet a bottled & labeled batch of home brew on the game.  Joel and I have a long history of competitive spirit (sometimes good natured) and the Super Bowl back in February gave us the chance to talk trash for two solid weeks.  I'm still shocked at how badly my Broncos were crushed.  As named by my good friend Joel, I give you Legion of Boom Pale Ale.

This recipe turned out nicely, but if I were to brew it again I would probably up the hop additions at the 10 and 20 minute marks to get some more hop flavor.  Additionally, as a side note, I used gypsum, epsom salt, and table salt to increase the hardness of my water to better match traditional English pales.  I was please with the way it turned out, but you should consult your local water report before modifying your water composition.

BJCP Style Category: 8C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Batch Size: 5 gallons

Grains:
9.50 lbs UK 2-Row 
0.75 lbs Crystal 60
0.75 lbs Crystal 80 

Hops:
1.25 oz Cascade - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
0.88 oz Cascade - 20 minutes remaining in the boil
0.50 oz Cascade - 10 minutes remaining in the boil
0.50 oz Cascade - 2 minutes remaining in the boil

Other Additions:
1 - Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 mins remaining in the boil
20 g Gypsum @ 15 min remaining in the mash
5 g Epsom Salt @ 15 min remaining in the mash
0.13 tsp Salt @ 15 min remaining in the mash

Yeast:
English Ale Yeast - While Labs 002


Mash the grains at 150 deg F (strike temp 170 deg F) for 75 minutes using 2.75 gallons of water.  This is a thicker mash than I usually work with.  I decided to use a thicker mash in for this recipe after reading about brewing pale ales in Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels.  This book recommended using a thicker mash for pale ales, about (0.9 to 1 quart per pound of great).  I typically mash at 1.33 qts per pound of grain.

Sparge at 170 deg F using 4.6 gallons of water.  Boil for 1 hour, cool, and ferment.  I kegged half of this batch and bottled the other half to pay my super bowl debt.

Resurrection

One post in six months.....not exactly a great track record.  Going to make a run at resurrecting my activity on this blog over the next couple of weeks here.

I will say that my activity on the blog doesn't reflect, my home brewing activity.  I've got quite a few items to post here including recipes for Legion of Boom ESB (regretfully related to the Seahawks super bowl win), Courtney Chaos Saison, and a Simcoe Session IPA.  Also I've got a few new pieces of equipment that I've been working with including a March brew pump and a counterflow wort chiller.  Finally, I've been working through some brew problems in my own head on why my OG's have been low lately and how to better maintain mash temperatures without an elegant brew system.

More to come soon.....stay tuned.

Chai Spiced Brown Ale

After being a major slacker on this blog for the last two months, I'm happy to be posting a recipe again.  I may not have been posting, but I definitely kept brewing over the holiday season.  I'm going to try to keep things more consistent in 2014.  Here's a recipe that I brewed towards the end of 2013 (exact dates unknown).  This has turned out to be one of the more enjoyable recipes I brewed last year and I'd definitely recommend this batch to anyone who enjoys a smooth brown ale with a hint of spice!

I found this recipe inspiration in Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher (see page 170).  I didn't follow Gordon Strong's recipe exactly since I want my brown ale to be a little stronger than the recipe in the book, though I did use chai spices as directed.

BJCP Style Category: 11C Northern English Brown Ale or 21A Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer

Batch Size: 5 gallons

Grains:
4.75 lbs UK 2-Row
2.50 lbs Vienna Malt
1.25 lbs Munich Malt
1.00 lbs Caravienne Malt
0.75 lbs Crystal 80
0.25 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.25 lbs Flaked Oats

Hops:
1.50 oz Saaz - 60 minutes remaining in boil


Yeast:
British Ale Yeast - White Labs WLP 005

Chai Tea Spices:
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2" ginger, peeled, sliced
1 star anise
1 black cardamom pod, split
1/2 whole nutmeg, roughly chopped
2 cinnamon sticks
5 whole cloves
18 green cardamom pods, split
2 tsp black peppercorns
0.25 tsp fennel seeds

I mashed 3.6 gallons of water with the grains at 147 deg F (strike temp 163 deg F) for 60 minutes.  Sparge with 4.2 gallons of water at 170 deg F for about 60 minutes.

Sparging beautiful brown ale...

Once you've collected your wort, bring the batch to a boil and add the Saaz hops once you reach boiling.  Boil for 60 minutes.  Cool and transfer your wort to the primary fermenter, pitch yeast, and ferment for one week.

After the primary fermentation is complete you're ready to add the spices.  Gather all your spices ahead of time and prepare as noted above.  

Chai Tea Spice Blend!

Bring one quart of water to a boil and pour the water over your spices.  Allow the spices to steep for 15 minutes in the water.  Strain to remove the spices and chill until you are ready to use.

Transfer your fermented beer to the secondary fermenter.  Add the chai tea to your taste.  I ended up adding the entire tea blend and did not find it to be overwhelming.  Leave the batch in the secondary fermenter until you're ready to bottle or keg.  The final product is delicious.  Enjoy!

November Bay Area Beer Events!!

I need to get more consistent about posting these.  I came up with a nice September list, and completely dropped the ball in October.  Better late than never for November!

November 9 - 101 North Brewing Naughty Aud Imperial Stout Release Party - Pub Republic, Petaluma

November 9 - 8th Annual West Cost Barrel Aged Beer Fest - The Bistro, Hayward

November 14 - An Evening of Kaiseki & Sake - Mandarin Oriental, San Francisco

November 18 - Peak Organic Bar Hop Project - Southpaw BBQ, San Francisco

East Bay Special Bitter (EBSB!)

This is a pretty straight forward recipe than the past few that I've posted here.  With the holidays coming soon I have spice beer on tap and spice beer planned to be brewed next weekend (Winter Chai Brown Ale!).  I thought it would be nice to have something on tap that was easy drinking and pull me away from the awesome Harvest Pumpkin Ale.  Also, we are expecting a few Thanksgiving guests who aren't into spiced beers (my Dad....see you at Thanksgiving!).  After debating for some time where to go this weekend, I remembered a nice batch of ESB I brewed a few years ago.  I'm sure this isn't the same recipe, but I whipped this one up Saturday night and headed to MoreBeer! in Concord on Sunday morning.  Without further BS-ing, enjoy!

Brew Day: 11/3/2013

BJCP Style Category: 8C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Batch Size: 6 gallons

Grains:
11.50 lbs American 2-Row (looking back on this now; I probably should used UK 2-row; relax have a homebrew)
1.1 lbs Crystal 40 
0.4 lbs Crystal 60 (I had an extra 0.4 lbs of Crystal 60 which I substituted; otherwise I would've used 1.5 lbs of Crystal 40)
0.5 lbs CaraRed

Hops:
1.00 oz Northern Brewer - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
0.50 oz Northern Brewer - 30 minutes remaining in the boil
1.00 oz East Kent Goldings - 15 minutes remaining in the boil
0.50 oz East Kent Goldings - 1 minutes remaining in the boil

Yeast:
British Ale Yeast - White Labs WLP 005

Mash the grains at 151 deg F (strike temp 168 deg F) for 60 minutes using 4.5 gallons of water.  Sparge at 170 deg F using 4.6 gallons of water.

Brew Day - 11/3/2013

Sparging!

Fermentation:  

As always, I carbonate at room temperature until I convince my wife to let me convert our garage into a temperature controlled fermentation chamber (not happening....).  If you do have the ability to fine tune your fermentation temperature, I'd recommend 68 to 72 deg F.  That seems to be a pretty common range for ESB's from my Clone Brews book.

11/4/2013 - 7:00 am

11/4/2013 - 6:30 pm - LIFT OFF!

OG = 1.056 (actual 1.062)

FG = 1.018
ABV = 5.0% (projecting 5.8%)

How To: Use a Counter Pressure Bottle Filler

Over the past few months since I went head over heels for kegging, one of the problems I've been facing is:

How do I get the carbonated beer out of the keg and into the bottle?

If you've ever tried to pour a beer directly from your tap into a bottle you're probably familiar with foam over flow that follows shortly after.  It's kind of like those 3rd grade volcano projects you did as a kid. This is usually followed by spilt beer, cursing, and tears of frustration (don't cry over spilt milk, but wasted beer is sinful).

On recent trip to MoreBeer! in Concord I invested in a Counter Pressure Bottle Filler. 

Counter Pressure Bottle Filler

This device is essentially a stainless steel tube with a 3-way valve at the top and a pressure relief valve on the side. 

I tested this gadget out this weekend on my Harvest Pumpkin Ale.  Through some trial and error this seems to be the least painful filling procedure:

1.  Clean and sanitize bottles and bottle fuller as your normally would. For me this includes PBW cleaner and Star San sanitizer. 

2. With the 3-way valve in the neutral position (perpendicular) and pressure relief valve closed, connect gas line and beverage lines to the top of the bottle filler. 

3.  Set the pressure on your regulator to 8-15 psi.  This was the pressure recommended by MoreBeer!, but I found that my typical serving pressure (5 psi) worked well too. 

4.  Insert the filler into your bottle so that the rubber stopper is snug inside the bottle. 

5.  Open the valve to the gas side and allow the bottle to fill with CO2. Once the bottle is full begin to open the pressure relief valve to allow air the escape. 

6.  Once you have air moving through the pressure relief valve you're ready to fill the bottle with beer. Move the 3-way valve to the beverage side. You can control the flow of beer into the bottle by adjusting the pressure relief valve. The more air you allow to escape, the faster the beer will flow into the bottle. 

Beer filling in progress...

This is what this process is supposed to avoid, head inside the bottle.  I need more practice.

7. When the bottle is full, move the 3-way valve back to the neutral position   Remove the bottle filler and cap the bottle immediately. 

A few things NOT to do:

- Do not try to stop the flow of beer using the pressure relief valve. This will only stop the flow of beer until you remove the filler. Once that happens the system is open, beer comes flowing out onto the floor of your garage, and you begin shouting. 

- Do not move the 3-way valve back to the gas position after the bottle has been filled.  Pushing gas into your beer is bad.

MoreBeer has a great video on their website detailing this process.