Remember “Cheers and Jeers” from TV guide? Apparently they are still doing it. After the concurrent successes and failures of our first all-grain brewing attempt, I feel that a SFB version of Cheers and Jeers is the best way to tell the story. If you’re in a hurry it goes like this: Cheers to most of the new equipment, Jeers to me for effing it up.
Cheers
Wort chiller: I finally built one and it worked better than I ever expected it to. We cooled the wort in 20 minutes. That beats the H E double hockey sticks out of sitting the brew pot in the freezer and then falling asleep waiting for it to cool.
Mash Tun / Lauter Tun: A while ago I bought a converted keg from some dude on Craigslist. This keg has a screw in thermometer on the side and a spigot built into its bottom. I did not realize that I would need to build something to set it on nor that I would need to work out some lauter method. We used cheese cloth bags to contain the grain but I would prefer to get a false bottom. Looks like thats my next purchase.
Turkey Fryer / Brew Kettle: I bought a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer kit from Amazon a few weeks ago. We were able to use it to heat the strike water, heat the sparge water, and finally to boil the wort. All worked well but perhaps a little too well. Discounting some spillage that I was not present to witness, we ended the boil with far less wort than I expected. If this turkey fryer boiled off three gallons of wort in an hour then it must have been some powerful flame.
Jeers
Me: So I forgot an ingredient. Its happens to all of us, right? Lists be damned! When I brew I brew by instinct (n.b. – my instinct includes a timer and several thermometers). The OG of the ESB we brewed was quite a bit lower than my recipe called for. What the flip is going on? Oh, I forgot to add the brown sugar that I though was going to be such a great ingredient and I was excited to add and taste in the finished beer. Anyone could make that mistake. Besides, it was getting dark, there were about 12 dogs roaming around the brew site, and it was all happening so quickly.
Starting Late: This is also my fault but I didn’t really want to start off the Jeers section with two “Me’s”. The next brew will be started in the early afternoon or not at all. Not including pre-cleaning of equipment, from my arrival at the brew site, to pitching the yeast, to clean up, to my departure from the brew site it took just less than five hours. Now we know not to start at 6pm.
Rushing: If I had been reading my own Tuesday Morning Quarterbacks, I would know not to rush the brew, especially when we are doing things differently. I thought I learned that lesson brew three or something. Overall, there was too much new to do and not enough daylight to comfortably do it in and I probably should have made a check list. Can I blame the dogs again?
Grain Bags: Are these things supposed to be multi use? We had just over 11 lbs of grain and we were able to fit them into three large bags from The Thirsty Brewer. Tom was right on the money when he said they should hold about four pounds of grain each. I should have known. Reminder: Tom gets a cheer next Cheers and Jeers. They contained most of the grain and although I desired better performance, they did better than the alternative: nothing. I tried to hose them off after the brew… did not work and boy did they stink like rotten mildew the next day. I hope a run in the washer gets them smelling fresh.
