...and it's constantly in the 90s otherwise...but I needed to brew. Got some new gear, and one of the taps is running low...it's time.We started early, about 0700 (probably could've started at 0500 and done a bit better). I got the gear all set up (new single vessel RIMS, electric). Everything went pretty much like clockwork, since I'd put in a lot of time learning BIABacus and used the info to set up a pretty detailed flow sheet (did I mention this was also our first ever AG brew?). Our first run on the new gear was going to be a Saison, so sayeth the wife. Got the grain cracked the day before at my local shop, went out and got my RO yesterday as well (our water is hard and has a very high pH), so we were sitting pretty.
Got the pre-measurement stuff all handled first thing this morning. All stashed in little Tupperware, including the salts for the water and flavorings for the finish, like pretty little maids in a row!
Started up the gear and dove right in. For my first run using BIABacus, I must say I was really amazed at how accurate the predicted volumes were. I had calibrated the kettle, a quarter gallon at a time earlier in the week, and marked it all out with the bad-ass electro plating/etching method I found on here, so it was easy to keep track of where we were throughout the brew.
RIM sparging is, well, stoopid easy. Rained in the grain to our grain bag, the PID keeps the temp right on track and the circulating pump keeps the temps even throughout. With a check list running our lives, I was amazed at how much time we spent just staring at each other. It's a good thing I like my wife, 'cause we spent a lot of quality time doing nothing together today!
The recipe called for (what I thought) was a pretty low mash temp (90min @ 147*), then a 172* mash out. Like I said, pretty easy to keep up with.Pulled the colander and let it drain into a bucket for a bit, while the temp ramped up to boil, then took our samples. Found a pretty cool multi-event timer on App Store while we were staring at each other, so I lined that up and dove into the boil. Used a hopsack for the first time...I think I'll move to a fixed mouth basket...digging into the bag with the kettle at boil was a bit toasty on the fingers!
We hit the end of the 90 min boil and transitioned to cooling. Now, I've been using an immersion chiller previously, but today was a baaaad day for that. I imagine the ground water was up around 72+* so I set up a pre-chiller using another small immersion chiller I have in series, but the Delta T wasn't on our side. Additionally, making a 5.5g VIF batch in a 15g kettle means hanging my chiller on the side of the kettle left about 20% of it out of the wort
. I tried using the smaller chiller and setting it GENTLY on the electric element, but wasn't happy with that. Anyway, after adding ice and more ice to the pre-chiller, I got us down into the mid-70s after about 1.5 hours. Not real happy about this. Now that I'm using a pump, I think we're gonna move towards a recirculating counter flow chiller and pre-chillers.Anyway, like I said, the volumes were spot on...unfortunately, our gravity into the fermenter was really low compared to the recipe. Like 1.044 when it was supposed to be 1.062. Not sure where that came from, so I've got some things to look over and scratch my head about
...anyone with ideas, please, feel free to chime in. But we moved smoothly into the carboy for primary, got 'er pitched and she's already bubbling a bit. The WLP565 I used says it tends to stall, so it should be left to run up in temp as it likes...hopefully that means the warmer than average pitching temp I used won't be a big deal.Clean up maybe took a bit more time than I'm used to, but it was simple. Just ran the PBC through the RIMS at about 100* for 15min and then rinsed and ran the rinse water out through the pump, wiped it all down and left it to sit in the 104+* heat of the day to "finish" drying...didn't take long! Done, cleaned up and put away by 1330.
So, lessons learned from our first ever AG run:
1) a detailed plan, with detailed info from BIABacus, means less panic, to be sure.
2) it's hot out, sure, but we need a better, faster, less water intensive way to chill.
3) a rigid hop basket is in my future, and some aloe vera for my fingers...
4) I clearly don't have the experience to know why everything lined up properly, except for the OG. Gotta look at that one...
All in all, it was a fun day. The wort has a nice, somewhat spicy flavor and is really clear already. Hopefully it ferments well and turns into the summer beer I'm looking for!
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