Category: Uncategorized

Why an all in one system?

stoutmakerLeave a comment

One of the biggest crazes (craze, not fad.. But fads could be a post all on its own…) right now are the all in one brewing systems. The GrainFather, Mash and Boil, Robobrew, Anvil Foundry… Seems everyone is putting some version of an electric system.

What they consist of is an 8ish gallon, 110v (some are starting to include 240) boil kettle, with a removable metal basket that you mash in. You do the mashing and boiling in the same vessel. So essentially, a stainless version of a Brew in a Bag. Each system comes with standard temp settings/controls, while each variety has its different features. From built in pumps, distilling addons and chillers depending on how you plan on using it, and of course,, how much you wanna spend.

Now I was very skeptical of these things when they first came out. But watching the Brits brew with their similar electric water boilers interested me enough to give one a try. I chose the Mash and Boil because I was only planning on using it to heat my mash waters and boil the wort in. I was going to continue to mash in my tun.

This plan works fantastic. With the timer I can have my water heated up and ready to go the minute I walk down stairs, Drain into my tun, and start heating sparge waters. But doing it this way does require a separate kettle to hold the wort while sparging before getting returned to the kettle to boil. Having all of the equipment any way,, this was fine with me.

However, I started to use the M&B for mashing as well. After figuring out that a mash bag in the tube helps drain and wrapping the entire thing in reflectix keeps heat in, and not to trust the onboard thermometer and manually check temps, I found that this system is very accurate, and very repeatable and quite easy to use especially in a small space.

Mash tube with bag

I think the basic system is pretty solid. You do need an extra kettle if you plan on sparging, possibly not if you are going no sparge. A chiller. Immersion is great, counterflows work as well. The pumps are optional, I do not use them. 

Normal brewing practices still apply here. You still need to pay attention. Make sure of your temps, sparging gives better efficiency, recirculating gets clearer wort. 

If these were around when I started decades ago, I might have started with one of these systems. I doubt that its cheaper than the burner/mashtun start up route, but if you are limited to electric brewing or have a small brew space, or just don’t wanna build your own equipment then these systems are for you.  

I for one am definitely buying another if the one I have now craps out. 

Salsa

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Like everyone else these days, I have tomatoes getting ripe one after the other. So let’s make salsa!

But not just any salsa. Fermented salsa.

This makes about 1 quart jar,, which we will be fermenting in as well. I like this size because I only usually have one or two tomato plants and get 5-6 or so tomatoes ripe at a time. Tomorrow I’ll probably have another 5-6 ready…

This quart is:

  • 5-6 medium tomatoes
  • 1/2 small onion
  • 3-4-5 garlic cloves
  • Cilatro depending your taste
  • Hot pepper depending on you again
  • Kosher or your kraut salt

Chop everything up into Salsa sized bits

Now the fermenting part. You need to use between 3-5% salt. So just weigh what you just chopped up. (It easier in grams.)

This batch I had 750g and I want 3% salt so.. 750x.03=22.5. So I mix in 22.5g of my salt. (23g really just round up)

If you let it sit a few minutes it will start to pull water out of the tomatoes. That’s good! Then just fill your jar up to the neck. The either use your weights or a hunk of onion or pepper to wedge in there to keep everything under the liquid.

Then just loosely put lid on and leave sit out on the cupboard for a few days to ferment.

You will start to see bubbles like this. And a bit more liquid. It’s probably good after 3 days of this. But better after a week! Refrigerate when it’s where you want it.

Cranberry Mead

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Now, mead is not one of my favorite things for some reason. I mean, I should like them, right? Who don’t like honey?

Oh I have had a few that were phenomenal, and also some that were the worst homebrewed things I ever had. (one was so bad it turned me off of an entire genre of beers)

I have made a couple of meads in the past. They ranged from ok, to maybe not. Mostly because of ingredient choices. Somethings just aint cut out for mead.

But I’m not a quitter. I’m going to find a combination that I like sooner or later. And this past version may be just that. Cranberry mead.

Now I put a little thought into it this time, I was looking at a 3 gallon batch. Lower alcohol so it can be drinkable relatively sooner than normal. A sweeter version. And,, well… cheap. Meads can quickly deplete the wallet quickly.

So what I came up with is: Cranberry Mead
5lbs Costco Wildflower Honey
3 lbs can Vinters Harvest Cranberry Puree
3.25 gallons filtered water
Nutrient
Nottingham Yeast

Using honey and puree is just a matter of dumping and stirring. And while yes I did figure on a bit of displacement, I didn’t figure on quite as much as we got. After getting everything mixed in as measured, it appears we have about 4-4.5 gallons of must.
Am going to assume we will lose atleast a .25 gallon on first rack then maybe another .25 between the next rack and bottling.

The last wine was the same volume and we just racked to my 3 gallon carboy and a separate 1 gallon fermenter. (its nice to have odd ball sizes of jugs laying around) But in the future I will have to adjust for this. 

We had an OG at pitch of 1.052,, and I would expect the Notty to stop around 1.010. That would be around 5.5%, and perfect for what I’m looking for. 

Will be doing staggered nutrient additions, which for mead, especially cranberry, is really needed because the honey has nearly nothing. So I’m going to put in ½ teaspoon today. Stirring every day for 5 days but adding nutrient only every other day. This helps the yeast by releasing some C02 and getting that nutrient in.

This right now is some tasty stuff. Would be a good mixer for some vodka. I hope it holds some of this character when its finished. I guess we will see.