Mini Mash

Getting ready to unleash the mini mash monster. It is functionally ready to brew now but am generally working on two goals.

1- portability. Want to be able to load up easily for roadtrip brewing.
2- electric. For indoor winter brewing.

Not so much worried about 2. I generally have no problems brewing outside in the winter, nor do I mind brewing indoors with current setup. But electric looks cool.

About all I need now for portability is a shorter burner and possibly a different chiller.
The burner I have now is very tall. And would a pain to move around. I need a second burner for my tiered system anyway so might as well factor in a shorter one.
The chiller I use now is made for 5 gallon or more batches. Yes I can and do use it for my smaller batches, but half of it sticks out of the wort. A smaller version would not only be more efficient but easier to transport.

Have been making a list of what I need. Although it looks like alot, most everything is either smaller versions of what I use at home, or easily fits inside something else for moving.

– burner and propane
– 5 gallon kettle
– water jug. Bring my own water and bring wort home
– mini mash tun
– 2 or 3 gallon pail for measuring, sparging, cleaning.
– chiller
– box for tools and ingredients. Coffee cans, thermometers, refracts, spoons, garbage bags, cleaners, starsan, sprayer.
(most likely fit in 5 gal bucket)

And optionally I could bring a smaller pot for the smaller pot, and my own hose with splitter.

That's it. So if there water for chilling, we can brew.
Hopefully I can stop tonight and look at burners. Then we can work on the tiered, and the portable.

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I started yesterday's brew day off as any other. Arranging equipment,
soaking stuff. But this time I got a brand new tun to use.
Before hand I'm trying to figure out how much different the strike
water needs to be to account for more volume. Most every calc I find
just goes by weight of the tun. And the new bigger tun is lighter than
the old smaller one, so I left it the same. Will adjust out later
after I see what it's gonna do.

So we are gonna brew up a blonde. Basically Centennial Blonde with 05
yeast instead of Notty.

Hit temps right on the money. But then everything starts falling apart
pretty quick. Hence the out of the ordinary notes here. In fact there
were no notes taken.

While mashing I decided to mess with the old shower faucet down
stairs. Changing it up to a brewing sink. But, I of course bust a
something and we have water flying everywhere.

Looks like an old joint came off or the solder cracked. Easy enough I
think. But it's not. So I'm fixing and mashing.
Then we come to sparge. Between the stuck sparge, the crushed braid
and the floating to the top braid, I was ready throw the whole works
out the door.
Finally got it sparged, but did not risk vourlof as much as I should.
Just wanted to get it out of there.

I have had my issues with braid before and this seals it. I and making
a hard tubed manifold. And I don't know if it was because of the
floating braid, but I left alot of liquid behind

Boil was pretty routine. I decided to FWH it with the 60 min hops.
Looks pretty good. Lots of break churning around.

I cooled it down to 75 and then a lid on it. Gonna let this settle out
before I move it to primary. Quick run to Fleet Farm for some copper
fittings to fix down stairs.

Took just 45 min to run. Got some great settling in the kettle.
Probably about an inch of gunk. This might help clear it as I forgot
to Irish Moss it again. (can't wait for my kettle valve)

But it's beer. Stuff goes wrong once in a while. But taking steps to
correct. Hopefully this follows the pattern. Usually when Issues
arise I get my best beers out of it.

We will see pretty quickly with this one.
OG 1.042

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Been doing alot work at the ol “brewery” in the last week. Getting back into the swing of things and giving a facelift to the old equipment.

Last post I finished up the mashtun, and today I gathered up all the fixins for a ball valve in the kettle. Will be installing that sometime this week I hope.

I am on the look out for another burner so I can finally get around to making my 3 tier set up. But finding the right burner isnt as easy as it was when the deep fried turkey was the big fad. Now it seems they all have some sort of safety timer on them, and shallow pots.

And why do I need another pot? Well thanks to the fine folks over at TCB and their electric meddlings,, my interest is leading me to also experiment. I am thinking a smaller 3 gallon batch, indoor electric set up would be mighty fine for those winter brews. But I gots all summer to work on this.

On to the Wiki’d Ale. Kegged it up the other night and got it on the gas. I gotta say, its pretty good.
I think it is hopped just about right. Full nose of cascade along with the roasty of choc malt. Just enough bitter to over come the sweet. But not biting.
Sweet upfront, but the slight roasty and the 05 make it finish on the dry side, but not overly dry.
The color is exactly what you normally get with 1/4 lb choc malt. 17-18 SRM (I’d Sneak a pic in here but is pretty dark down here)
Slight haze, but I expect this to drop out fairly quickly. Might try some gelatin just for kicks.

Over all I am very happy with the result. Its extremely young yet. So when these sharper hops and roasts meld and blend after another week or two,, this is gonna be one great beer