My first brew day in 4 years!

[luvmy40]

As some of you know, I am a 2nd Amendment advocate, avid shooting sports enthusiast and Kydex Bender as well as an amateur motorcycle mechanic and Yamaha fanboise.

 

I am also a very out of practice home brewer as well.

 

Once upon a time, I brewed 5-10 gallons of beer every month.

 

Then I started a business.

 

I haven't brewed in 4 years.

 

Today I broke out the mash tun, hot liquor tank and boil kettles, and cleaned and sanitized for hours in preparation of brewing my first 5 gallon batch in 4 years.

 

I cheated. I bought an all grain "kit" from Grape and Granary rather than build my own recipe. I figured it was better to work back into brewing slowly rather than just dive in.

 

I just pitched the Wyeast slant in a 1 liter starter in hopes of mashing in sometime Friday afternoon.

 

This will be a Marzen Lager(Oktoberfest) recipe but fermented with Wyeast's California Ale yeast as I do not have a working lagering chamber at this time. I've had good results with similar recipes in the past.

 

I'll post pics once I get things rolling.

[Air Ready Auto]

As some of you know, I am a 2nd Amendment advocate, avid shooting sports enthusiast and Kydex Bender as well as an amateur motorcycle mechanic and Yamaha fanboise.

 

I am also a very out of practice home brewer as well.

 

Once upon a time, I brewed 5-10 gallons of beer every month.

 

Then I started a business.

 

I haven't brewed in 4 years.

 

Today I broke out the mash tun, hot liquor tank and boil kettles, and cleaned and sanitized for hours in preparation of brewing my first 5 gallon batch in 4 years.

 

I cheated. I bought an all grain "kit" from Grape and Granary rather than build my own recipe. I figured it was better to work back into brewing slowly rather than just dive in.

 

I just pitched the Wyeast slant in a 1 liter starter in hopes of mashing in sometime Friday afternoon.

 

This will be a Marzen Lager(Oktoberfest) recipe but fermented with Wyeast's California Ale yeast as I do not have a working lagering chamber at this time. I've had good results with similar recipes in the past.

 

I'll post pics once I get things rolling.

 

Congratulations on bringing out the brew kit! Oddly enough I just got my stuff out of storage and ready to clean up for brewing this weekend. It has been 2 years for me. Maybe we can compare notes later. Am thinking I'm going to do an English style ale and an oatmeal cream stout. Need to go get fresh grains. Good luck. Nothing like drinking your own brew!

[luvmy40]

I got the brew started and took some pictures for any who may be interested.

 

Here's my mash tun where I steep the freshly crushed malt.

 

 

This is the Hot Liquor Tank where the water for the mash process is heated.

 

 

 

This is the Boil Kettle where the wort(pre fermentation beer) is boiled to reduce volume and raise the starting gravity.

 

 

Here's a shot of the wort as it started to boil. I use two 230V immersion heaters to heat the mash water and boil the wort.

 

 

 

 

Time to add the bittering hops!

Edited August 17, 2018 by luvmy40

[luvmy40]

I wonder what has changed? This is the fist time I've had my pictures rotated like that. I tied rotating them before tagging them and they still flip sideways.

 

Oh well.

 

Five gallons of faux Marzen Lager in the fermenting bucket!

 

I now remember why I stopped using hop pellets and went exclusively to whole hops. The pellets clog up my kettle siphon. Maybe I'll remember that the next time I brew. Hopefully it won't be another 4 years.