I was back out to Ben’s for another lesson on beer brewing. This time it was an all grain brewing. Sam has moved his brewing tower out to Ben’s place. This tower with multi kettles, multi burners and gravity transfer allows for a nice ten-gallon system with all the parts for all grain brewing. We had a number of Ben’s brewing group who joined in and it made for a great day of brewing, sampling and conversation. The following photos take you through all most all of the steps in the process.
The big steel tower is in position.
The propane tank is hooked up the multi-burner system.
Water is added to the top tank for heating up.
Sam does a some clean up before positioning the mash tank.
Looking inside the mash tank with the screen system in place at the bottom.
The hot water tank and mash tun in position.
One of the bags of malted barely mix and hops. We used 30lbs of barley.
The water reached the right temperature.
The hot water is drained off to the mash tun.
Ben adds the first bag of barely while Sam stirs.
In goes the second bag.
Then a good stir is given.
At this point an insulation is warp around the tank to hold temperature.
The mixture steeps for an hour with occasional stirring.
As the enzymes in the malted barely convert the starch to sugar the wart is tested to see if any starch is left.
When there is no more starch a sparging process begins.
A new batch of hot water has been heated up.
The hot water slowly flows into the top of the grain bed.
The wart slowly flows into the kettle.
At this point they start checking specific gravity of the wart.
Ben checks his spectrometer to see how much sugar is in the wart.
The water flow in at the top for an hour.
The kettle fills with sweet wart.
Finally all of the water is used up and mash tum drains out.
At this point the burner on the kettle is turned on and it starts to heat.
A good head of foam builds but it breaks just as the pot boils.
During the hour boil hops are added at different times.
Finally the boil is done.
From this point on everything has to be sanitized. Sam works an iodine solution through the hoses, carboys and fermenters.
Sanitizing the fermenter and wart cooler.
The wart cooler and transfer system is ready.
Transfer of the wart.
One of the many hurry up and wait moments.
Sam does a final check on the specific gravity.
The kettle is emptied.
A very relaxing and fun brewing time.
Oxygen is bubbled back into the wart.
The first carboy of cooled wart is poured into a fermenter.
