Batch 8 - All Citra IPA started
Did my eighth batch tonight. This time an all extract, all Citra hops IPA. I bought 33lbs of golden malt extract and trying to use it all up before it has a chance to go stale. BTW, thinking this could be a great winter approach to brewing. The 33lbs worked out to about $2.40/lb, which makes it competitive with grains in terms of price. Thinking 4 x 4 gallon batches. I have an amber that used 6lbs (plus some crystal malt for color) and then 3 x single hops IPAs using 9lbs each. Figuring on brewing them all within the span of a week.
Anyway, just tossing that out there. Real point of this was to talk about time management after my last post and general lessons.
In my last Brew Tips I said that time management made the difference between a 2-2.5hr brew day and a 4.5hr one. Today I timed more carefully from before I grabbed my equipment until I put it away. It ended up being 3hrs 2mins. So, I must have been wrong on my last one at the time saved. But, having said that, the brew day didn't seem all that bad. I had 1hr+ of lounging time while waiting on various stages, so I could knock that down to effectively 2 hours.
I started at 7:40, and ended at 10:42. The 1hr boil didn't start until 8:30. Ended at 9:30. Around 10:10 brought wort out of tub to siphon and pitch yeast. Didn't track when that finished. But then by 10:42 equipment was cleaned and put away.
So, some things to note would be that getting to a boil took an insane 50 minutes and cooling took 40. For a total of 1.5 hours on what could have probably been solved in 30-45 minutes (some of the boil time was prep time so it wasn't truly all 50 to get it to boil) with a burner and immersion chiller. With that assumption, better equipment would have seen me done in 2-2.5hrs. So I won't call my original article entirely wrong until I get such equipment and test. But, that will wait for the summer. Before that I will be building a mash tun from a cooler with a stainless steel braid.
Which reminds me, to get #8 on the go, #5 was bottled. #5 was my mostly grain based BIAB attempt and part of my motivation for wanting to switch to AG. I don't particularly have anything against my kit beers or my all extract beers. And as mentioned above, mass LME may still be a common fixture for my winter brewing. But, batch #5 was the first to come out colored as expected and the first to offer a truly different flavor that wasn't purely the result of hopping the living shit out of a batch.
I could totally live with more like batch #4. And I think I could still learn more with all extract or extract + steeping grains. But I think I like tinkering too much and that I will learn more, faster with AG. So, I still stand by most things I stated earlier. For me, I just happen to be looking for even more. Also, I hate steeping and I hate BIAB. If steeping is the way to go to get the most of extract brewing, then I'd rather go AG.
I still leave myself fully open to coming full circle back to extract brewing once I know more. I truly believe that if I experiment more I'll figure out ways to make extract brewing more versatile and improve my steeping technique. At which point I may only use AG for more grain centric recipes (had an awesome porter the other night, something I'd like to try).
Anyway, just tossing that out there. Real point of this was to talk about time management after my last post and general lessons.
In my last Brew Tips I said that time management made the difference between a 2-2.5hr brew day and a 4.5hr one. Today I timed more carefully from before I grabbed my equipment until I put it away. It ended up being 3hrs 2mins. So, I must have been wrong on my last one at the time saved. But, having said that, the brew day didn't seem all that bad. I had 1hr+ of lounging time while waiting on various stages, so I could knock that down to effectively 2 hours.
I started at 7:40, and ended at 10:42. The 1hr boil didn't start until 8:30. Ended at 9:30. Around 10:10 brought wort out of tub to siphon and pitch yeast. Didn't track when that finished. But then by 10:42 equipment was cleaned and put away.
So, some things to note would be that getting to a boil took an insane 50 minutes and cooling took 40. For a total of 1.5 hours on what could have probably been solved in 30-45 minutes (some of the boil time was prep time so it wasn't truly all 50 to get it to boil) with a burner and immersion chiller. With that assumption, better equipment would have seen me done in 2-2.5hrs. So I won't call my original article entirely wrong until I get such equipment and test. But, that will wait for the summer. Before that I will be building a mash tun from a cooler with a stainless steel braid.
Which reminds me, to get #8 on the go, #5 was bottled. #5 was my mostly grain based BIAB attempt and part of my motivation for wanting to switch to AG. I don't particularly have anything against my kit beers or my all extract beers. And as mentioned above, mass LME may still be a common fixture for my winter brewing. But, batch #5 was the first to come out colored as expected and the first to offer a truly different flavor that wasn't purely the result of hopping the living shit out of a batch.
I could totally live with more like batch #4. And I think I could still learn more with all extract or extract + steeping grains. But I think I like tinkering too much and that I will learn more, faster with AG. So, I still stand by most things I stated earlier. For me, I just happen to be looking for even more. Also, I hate steeping and I hate BIAB. If steeping is the way to go to get the most of extract brewing, then I'd rather go AG.
I still leave myself fully open to coming full circle back to extract brewing once I know more. I truly believe that if I experiment more I'll figure out ways to make extract brewing more versatile and improve my steeping technique. At which point I may only use AG for more grain centric recipes (had an awesome porter the other night, something I'd like to try).
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