Brew day at Matt’s place

Got an email that Matt (or @revmra) up Oconto falls was going to be brewing, so called up Tim from TCM and we took a road trip.
He was making and all grain Alt with spalt hops. I guess this was his first brew in almost a year, but still had his technique down.

One of the reasons I like to watch others brew is learing other techniques. Matt’s sparge is kinda a batch sparge and sorta fly sparge. kinda batch because he pulls the wort fairly quickly, but kinda fly like because he is topping off the tun every now and then. And as you can see, thats some seriously clear wort coming outta there.

When we get to the boil, we got to enjoy the smells of the spalt. Dont think I have smelled hops like this before. Somewhere between a Fuggle and a Christmas tree. Pretty much made my mind up right there that I am going to be using these hops in the near future.

Speaking of hops. While the boil was going on he was showing off his awesome hops. Goldings. Got a bunch of good growing tips that we are gonna incorporate, and we were able to get a couple of stray roots from him. More hops is a good thing.

Kinda rainy, but it was another good brew day, and of course great samples. Road trips are great. Thanks for the great day Matt.

Zerg Rush

Time to get the Zerg Rush Steamroller into a keg. Looks really clear so far. I took the FG reading as 1.008 so the crunched down quite a bit. The OG was 1.047 so we are looking at about 5.2%

I have been drinking a few of the Fogger Stouts, and have decided 2 things. I sorta like it, but I’m not sure its what I would call a stout. Seems a bit thin. not black, a bit sweet and not roasty enough.
I do like the taste direction its taking with the roasted barley, so I will brew this again, but with a bit of black Patent to fill in the gaps. Maybe some sugar to dry it out, but I think thats all it will need.
One last bit, Getting ready to rack the Ginger mead. Just not confident in my 3 gallon corny. She is scratched up pretty good from the brush. Gonna giver a good soak in bleach first, but i dunno if I like it. might have to replace this one

Woot!zenBock

Woot!zenBock

6-27-11 Lots of stuff goin on today. Its the Friday of Memorial Weekend so I’m off for 4 days.
Picked, cut up, and froze about 12 lbs of rhubarb for wine. Looks like I got quite a bit. Been thinking this over, and decided that I might wanna use some grape juice in there with the wine. maybe.

Ok on to the brew. wer gonna be brewing My Woot!zenbock. pretty big for what I normally do.

Woot!zenbock
5 lbs munich
1 can of wheat LME
3 lbs wheat malt
2 lbs pilsner
.5 lbs special B
.5 lbs Chocolate malt
1 oz Pearle @ 60
1 oz hallertaur @ 15
1 packet munich wheat yeast

think I am gonna try to slightly step mash this up. gonna mash at 152 for 30 then take some out and reheat it and raise to 157. gonna give it a shot any way.

Ok lookin at 3 ½ gallons at 165 in my pre heated tun.
just a bit shy. got 151 but gonna leave it. I dont really know how much more boiling water to add to hit 158 but gonna start at about ½ gallon.
found a claculator for it at the Rackers site.
Yep got 158. another 30 min.
Got 2 ¾ gallons first run. filled mash tun to top again and got 3 gallons in second.
whoops I think I got too much now. will have to boil down.
Dont think It really lost a whole lot, gonna go another ½ hr.
still quite a bit. filled my 6 gallon carboy and still a gallon left

OG 1.075 a bit low but had to much volume. but, works for me