Grain Mill

I hadn't planned on getting a grain mill this soon but circumstances sort of forced me into it (oh darn).

I had to wait until payday to pick up the ingredients for tomorrow's brew day. So I went down after work to the LHBS, but was informed that they couldn't crush them Friday, nor could they promise them for Saturday, maybe Sunday, they would call.

Unacceptable to say the least. (Did I mention I was the only one in the store, they had an hour until closing time, and her excuse was she couldn't do it and wait on customers at the same time, oh, and it took me all of 5 minutes to crush the grain once I finished this set-up. Nice customer service there CMC.)

So I bought a hand crank grain mill. This moved up one of the projects I was planning for 2013 to tonight. I assembled the mill, which is kinda of aggravating in it's design as the edge clamp puts the mill outlet over whatever flat surface you have it clamped onto. This is fine for small hobby type stuff, but for milling 10 lbs of grain it isn't feasible.

I fortunately have this small portable table we received for free from the furniture store when we bought our new dining room set. It had been floating around, not really finding a place in the house and ended up on the patio outside.

I took that table and cut a hole in the top in order to insert a funnel to catch the milled grain. The funnel drops it into a chute that empties into a bucket.

I removed the hand crank from the mill and inserted the proper sized tap from my tap and die set (you lose man points if you don't know what that is), put a socket in my power drill to match, and Viola! Electricly Powered Grain Mill.

Start to finish, about 1 1/2 hours.

Right now I'm just using scrap cardboard for the funnel and chute, some time in the future I'll come up with a better solution, but it works for now.

Mt Dew box forms the funnel through the table, dropping into the cardboard slide to the bucket.

The crush looks pretty good to me, I have no whole grains that are uncrushed and plenty of hulls to set the grain bed. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Ranger IPA

Many thanks to N.S. who pointed out this recipe to me. I'm not above jumping on a bandwagon, and I love IPA's. Mmmmmmmmmm, Hops! I think I've found the first AG project for this weekend.

HBT - Ranger IPA

RANGER
OG 1.059
FG 1.009
IBU 70
SRM 7
ABV 6.4%

Grains/Sugars
8.25 lb Pale Malt
3 oz Crystal 120L
2 lb cane sugar - added when 15 minutes are left in boil

Hops
60 minutes - 12 AAU Chinook (1 oz of 12% aa)
30 minutes - 6.5 AAU Simcoe (0.5 oz of 13% aa)
15 minutes - 3.8 AAU Cascade (0.75 oz of 5% aa)
0 minutes - 0.5 oz Cascade
dry hop - 1.25 oz Cascade - for one week

Yeast
Wyeast 1792 or
Wyeast 1272 or
WLP051

Details
Mash @148*F
Boil for 90 minutes
Ferment @68*

Shopping List

In preparation for doing an AG recipe in the hopefully not to distant future I've come across a few items that I need.

1 - Mash Paddle, needed to stir the grains as they steep
1 - General Idea of what I'm going to be making (Grain Bill, hops, yeast)
1 - Method of keeping the hot water tank above the mash tun, I'm going to have to improvise in the short term until I can build a stand for just this logistical problem.
1 - Some sort of kit for testing my water quality. PH has a huge effect on grain utilization I've heard. I have some items left over from the days of fish tanks, should suffice for PH. I can also get a water quality report from the city showing various levels of chemicals. If any are too far out of whack I'll have to find out how to balance them.

Additionally:

1 - Packet of champaign yeast to restart a stalled fermentation of the Dunkleweizen (stuck at 1.024 for 2 weeks)

Mash Tun

I received the new Mash Tun and Hot Tank today from UPS. Woot Woot!

I will post pictures of them to the equipment page when I get them uploaded. This means that my next batch is going to be my first All Grain.

I'm in a bit of a quandry on what I want to make. I should probably do a simple recipe in order to learn the process before I get to crazy with some weird Russian Chocolate Raspberry Imperial Stout.

Decisions, Decisions.....

DIY Projects

During this months LHBC meeting several DIY projects were discussed, and members examples were presented. These types of projects are one of the aspects of home brewing that I like the most, being able to make your own equipment to suit your particular needs.

Sure you can go out and buy the following items, but it is also great fun to make them for yourself.
Over the next year or so I will be attempting to make a few of the following items:

Counter-flow chiller and/or pre-chiller for immersion coil
Yeast starter stir plate
3-tier stand
Electric powered grain mill

I've already made my own immersion chiller which works well for the most part. However, during the summer months when the ground water is pretty warm it takes quite a while to chill 5 gallons of wort to pitching temperature. I'm either going to have to add a pre-chiller using another coil and cooler to that, or go with the counter-flow. I haven't decided quite yet which way to go.

I'll be posting each project as I tackle it, and will feature pictures from start to finish.

Lets get this party started

This will be my basic introduction post under the hubristic nom de plume of 'Brew Master'. I am no such thing, although we all have aspirations. I've created this blog in order to track/chronicle my growth as a home brewer.

My personal basics are as follows: I am a 41 year old married father living in Iowa working an average desk job in the IT world. Over the years I have developed a passion for good beer. Originally this passion was only indulged on the consumption side from public establishments up until a good friend of mine brought me on board in the hobby of creating my own beer. I participated in a few brewing sessions to learn the basics before diving in myself.

I have been brewing on my own now since February of 2012, beginning with simple extract kits. As of the start of this blog I have made the investment in the necessary equipment to begin my foray into All Grain brewing.

I am a member of my local home brew club (heretofore known as LHBC), and through the club I participate in a variety of public functions from outreach to competitions. My home brewing community is quite active with dozens of members at every meeting, growing larger even from the short time that I have been a member.

This should be an adventurous year coming in 2013 for my brewing goals. Feel free to follow along as I try, fail, and hopefully succeed in both my short term and long term goals.

Thanks for reading.

Brew Master