The project started on Friday evening by running 70 gallons of water and preheating it to around 190F. Then 75% of the base grain was crushed and placed in each mash tun along with the brewing salts. This prepared us to get started early on Saturday.
Saturday Jack Buttress showed up around 7 am, and shortly after Michael Weber arrived. We got the first 2 mashes going, thanks to the help of Jack’s big mash paddle. We mashed for 90 mins and with 15 mins left in the mash, we added the dark grain (aka capping the mash). During this time Pat Bush arrived to help us out, and Jacob Magnuson showed up for a few mins.
Jack and Pat had the wort running beautifully clear, and after making one little change we started filling the kettle a little quicker. The spent grain in both mash tuns were added together, which was being saved for Marquis Wilkins to take the last bit of what runnings we had available for him to make a beer. He ended up pulling 6.75 gallons of ink black wort that smelt great.
We started the 2nd mash and took a break to meet Elliot Meyer, he is new to the club and met the guys at ENBF (East Nashville Beer Festival). Elliot brought a Flanders Red that he made and let me tell you, it was solid… Lots of beer was drunk, Bourbon and Scotch were broken into but we went light on it. After running out the 2nd mash we had a long break where we just let the kettle boil for several hours… MORE BEER WAS CONSUMED…
The grain got emptied, equipment cleaned, hops, whirlfloc, and yeast nutrients added. Marquis and Joseph filled the fermenter and set the temp to 67F.
Sunday the gravity was checked and we ended up with 29 gallons of 1.138 wort, we were shooting for 30 gallons of 1.130 wort, and Joseph intentionally overboiled to get a result like this. The reason this was done was that there was 350 grams of US-05 and 200 grams of Nottingham added to 1.7 gallons of water. This water added to the 1.138 gravity diluted the wort to give us the 1.130 and 31 total gallons with 63 ibus (International Bittering Units). The yeast was pitched at Noon, and by 5pm there was about 1″ of Krausen already forming and the airlock was getting a workout. After 28 hours the Liquid Marker on the outside of the tank went from 31 gallons of Wort, to 39 gallons with Krausen. I don’t think this beer is going to have any trouble fermenting with that amount of yeast and it sitting at 67F.
I hope you enjoy the images.
