It turns on, lights up, heats water, holds temperature ... the alarms might work (not sure I fully understand that part of the Auber PID logic...). So today is the big day --- first brew -- ebiab, no chill, ferment in cube is the plan. I have a slightly modified amarillo apa recipe from the biabacus that i'm using (not sure i fully understand the biabacus but i would like to learn the finer point whilst brewing beer). attaching 2 pics ... i think (?)

step one --- crack a beer ....

ok ... finishing up the mash. gravity headed the right direction. ph seems off .... then again i'm almost color blind and these test strips aren't exactly "definitive".

off to the boil!

Well -- it's in the fermentor.

It didn't go perfectly, I tried to focus on sanitization and process -- record keeping was one of the things that fell out a bit.

Strike temp seemed to not fade down to mash temp very quickly. I'm in the Florida Keys so it's 80's (F) and humid here, potentially a factor there. Whatever the cause, next time I'll put the strike water at a lower temp. The mash seemed to go ok besides being at 154 seemingly forever. There was the thermometer hooked to the PID (base of Kettle, near element) and the thermometer in the mash (from the top) and they were approx 5 degrees apart ---- i didn't calibrate either one so i spent a significant amount of time wondering which was more correct -- or if they could both be correct w/ a significant gradient in the kettle. Turns out that the one hooked to the PID is quite accurate, the one hanging into the mash was reading about 3 degrees high. So actually less temp gradient internal to the kettle than I thought really. Also of interest -- I did not have a great method for taking a gravity reading during the mash. I'll fix this for next time somehow.

I was somehow not "ready" for mashout and pulling the bag. You would think that one has 90 minutes ... how could one be "not ready"? Not sure. I was trying to get my two "helpers" to bed so ... Anyway -- all in all the mashout went pretty well -- the PID really controls the temperature amazingly well and the 5500 watt element heats the volume quite quickly (which is good and bad). So I may have spent longer in this part of the process than I should have. But -- I got the bag pulled -- I squoze the heck out of it w/ my fancy heat resistant gloves on for about 5 mins and called it good. That part was .... ahem, less than scientific or repeatable. Need to think that through better next time. Also --- I out-clevered myself here in that whilst the bag was suspended by fancy pants pulley I set the element on manual 100% heating thinking I'd get the heating started --- well, it was almost boiling over while I still had the bag over the kettle. Not optimal. I'll fix that part of the process next time. This is probably the root cause of me not getting a good gravity reading here (I got it 10 mins into the boil).

The boil was fine. In the beginning I think that I was boiling too gently. I had the PID set to fire the element at 50% (manual control for boil). When I was working the boil off rates in my head it seemed like I was "behind" --- bumped up to 53% manual and had a quite healthy rolling boil and then started hitting the boil off rates that it seems like I'm supposed to get (based on BIABacus nums). Hop additions went well. But nearing the end of my boil I ended up out-smarting myself again --- I decided that my overly gentle 30 mins initial boiling time had left me w/ too much volume and that I'd simply add time to the boil. No, I didn't account for that in the hop timing, I was just fearful that I'd miss my OG. So I boiled for an extra 15 mins. Probably not terribly smart. Also couldn't find a great way to take a gravity reading DURING the boil.

After the boil I turned off the element and waited about 10 mins for things to start cooling. They weren't cooling much nor fast. So -- I set up my tubing and send 5 gals on over into the cube. 1058 turned out to be the OG post boil (yeah, I was actually looking THROUGH the test jar at the spinning hydrometer and as it spun past i read it saying "Reading on bottom of miniscus" .... my brain then went "ooooohhhhhhh"). I had enough left over to put about 400 ml in a flask for a real wort starter. Only later did I realize that most folks don't make a starter w/ dry yeast. Well, I did. Or at least I tried. I cooled that 400 ml whilst re-hydrating my dry yeast according to the instructions on the package -- then at 88 deg F I pitched the re-hydrated yeast to the 400 ml cooled wort. then onto the spinner it went and I gave it about 22 hours.

My cube wort was cooled at that 22 hour mark and it seemed that the yeast should be happy (there was some foam in the starter flask -- i would have liked to see some other visible sign of happy yeast but couldn't find much on what that's supposed to look like) -- so i transfered the now cooled wort from one cube to another (for aeration) and pitched the starter. The wort smelled absolutely delicious and quite hoppy (I quite like hoppy beers). I put on a blow-off set up and stuck it in the fermentation chamber at 65 deg F. I have no idea what it's doing now. I'm hoping that somehow i'll be able to tell that it's going to start fermenting. I'm thinking of throwing an ounce of hops in there to dry hop and add some aroma since i kind of fornicated my hops schedule.

Theres the report for posterity. All in all -- my lurking here set me up pretty well. Things I wish I had known/done better:

- taking gravity readings (how to get the wort out, then taking the actual reading, calibrating hydrometer, etc)
- what yeast LOOKS like when it's going strong
- the idea of making the boil about as vigerous as the boil off rate indicates it should be
- that in a PID / hot water heater element set up the temp can really move pretty quickly, be ready!
- when posting pictures try to ensure that the picture is right side up BEFORE posting...

No idea what happens now, i think i'll just leave her alone for a bit. I need to source some corny kegs so that if/when this ferments out i'll have a place to put it. Also need some more ingredients for my next batch...

Cheers,
FFL