The fermenter is chirping away happily from my brewday on Monday. I do not know exactly when it starting fermenting, but it was well within 12 hours of pitching the yeast.
The rate of chirp was about 2 seconds/chirp (irregular viewings, since it is in the basement) on the second day. Now, it is going about 10 seconds/chirp. This is not too bad, I still have to wait a week or so until bottling.
Here is my mashtun, a work of genius.
Ok, this could be the most low budget mashtun ever constructed. All of the materials cost about $15 or so... And, I pulled off about 75% efficiency batch sparging with it.
The materials...
1. 25 quart cooler
2. SS braid
3. 4 zip ties
4. hose
...and get this, the SS braid is not even being held down to the bottom of the cooler. I make sure it sits on the bottom while I put my grain into the water. Before I collect my runnings, I confirm it is sitting on the bottom by pressing it down with my mash stirrer.
Who ever said all-grain brewing had to be expensive. The cooler does not even have a hole in it. Can someone please pimp my mashtun? Actually, there is no need. :)
Ok, yesterday I made an all Simcoe APA (may turn out to be IPA when I do a real check on the gravity). All hop additions were done at 10 minutes, we will see how it works.
Otherwise things went fairly smooth like. I do not have a chiller, so I placed the wort outside in the 5C environment. It seemed to cool to pitching temperature within a few hours.
I added US-56, because I think my mash temps were a little high, so I pitched the most active yeast I had. I am having a hard time controlling the mash temps, because I have not been able to dial my tun mass/heat properties super well. I believe my mash temps were around 154F. It should be ok...
Do not put a hydrometer in hot water. I was not thinking, and I was dumb. Now I am out 10 dollars or so. :(
Have you broken a hydrometer this way? The sad thing was, I was not even drinking at the time. LOL
