Cream Ale run No. 2 - 8-19-11

We decided to order another batch of the ingredients for another cream ale.


At 1:20 pm we brought the three gallons of strike water to 162 degrees. We got the strike water in the cooler faster and the temperature were better.


Immediately upon getting the strike water up to temperature we began heating the 4 gallons for the hot liquor tank and set up a pot for the gallon and a half of boiling water.


Once we heated the water to 175 for the hot liquor tank we put it in the gatorade tank. Despite tightening the vales it leaked anyway. We got the water to a boil early on this one and added it to the mash. This brought the temp up to around 166 degrees.


We then added the boiling water to the mash and let rest for 10 minutes. After which we began sparging and getting our wort ready.


Here's a general timeline:


1:20 strike water at 162 degrees, mash was 151.1

2:20 Added boiling water - 1.5 gallons - brought temp to 166.6

2:30 we began to recirculate the wort

2:35 we began the sparge

2:48 the sparge ended

2:50 we began heating the wort

3:27 the wort began boiling

4:28 we began chilling the wort, took a reading, 128.7 degrees, original gravity of 1.030 = 1.043

5:09 wort to fermentor, 74 degrees

5:17 fermentor

American Ale - Crank it up - 8-13

George and Greg get down on there first brew. It's 3 pm and it's a Saturday. Things got real fast.


First brew is a cream ale. We heated the 3 gallons of strike water to around 162 degrees and put it in the cooler. The temp was slightly below 150 degrees. We mixed in the grain and let the games begin.





We then heated the water for the hot liquor tank. It took longer than expected. We heated four gallons to 175 degrees and put it in the other gatorade cooler. The valve on this was leaky and we lost some of the water. This caused us to rush on the sparge.


We also needed to bring 1.5 gallons to a boil. We ran out of time on this as well. We added the gallon and a half to the mash at about 190 degrees. This only brought the mash up to around 164 degrees, instead of 170 degrees.


During the sparge the false bottom clogged. We had to take the mash out and unclog the false bottom. We completed the sparge and ended up with just over five gallons of wort. We boiled this for an hour.


We then used cheese cloth to try to filter the beer best we could and reduce the trub.


We put it in the fermentor and let the bubbling begin....