Formulate Recipe
I brew all-grain. I formulate my recipes to produce about five gallons of beer for packaging. I lose about a half-gallon due to trub in the fermenter and another half-gallon in the boil kettle. That means that I need an original gravity volume of six gallons. I experience a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour [Ed: TBR.] which means I need a boil gravity volume of seven gallons for a 60-minute boil or seven-and-a-half gallons for a 90-minute boil. I typically get around 75% mash efficiency. I typically use bagged pellet hops for all additions. Previously I had used Rager for bitterness predictions, but have switched to using Tinseth. I use Morey to predict beer color. [Ed. Brewing software/spreadsheet?]
- Specify the style (any style)
- Specify the barley
- Specify the water
- Specify the hops
- Specify the yeast
- Specify the process
Gordon Strong gave a nice presentation at the 2011 National Homebrewers Conference on Recipe Building And Competition Tips.
Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels has great information about recipe design.
Order Ingredients
I order everything a week in advance, requesting an ice pack for liquid yeasts if right for the weather. I order enough yeast to directly provide enough cells for the ferment, and not making a starter. When everything arrives, I store the yeast in my beer refrigerator and the hops in the freezer. I store my grains in the cellar where it is relatively cool and dry.
Mise en Place
The day before I plan to brew I weigh out [Ed: What kind of scale?] and crush [Ed: What kind of grinder?] my grain. I crush it into a six-and-a-half-gallon foot grade plastic bucket. I weigh out [Ed: What kind of scale?] my hops into paper cups marked with the time for the corresponding hop addition. I set up the brewery and measure out my strike and sparge water using a half-gallon Pyrex measuring cup. I place the strike water in my boil kettle and the sparge water in my hot liquor tank. [Ed: What are you using for a boil kettle, hot liquor tank, burner, anything else?]
I crush my grain with a Crankandstein 3D mill with a base and hopper and a hand crank.
I package and serve my beer in a Brew Logic Dual Tap Draft System.
I measure temperature with a Splash-Proof Super-Fast Thermapen™.
I transfer liquids with gravity or a Fermtech Auto-Siphon.
I boil in a 10 gallon Blichmann BoilerMaker™.
I keep my fermenting beer warm with a FermWrap Heater controlled with a Johnson A419 Temperature Controller.
I weigh my hops and salts with a Blade Scale™.
I heat liquids with a Camp Chef Explorer 2 Burner Propane Stove.
Yeast
The first thing I do on brew day is get the yeast out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature while I brew. If I am using Wyeast smack packs, I smack them.
Mash
Light the burners under the boil kettle and the hot liquor tank.
Hear the strike water to the strike temperature plus 9 °F to account for losses in transfer to the mash tun. Measure and record the temperature. [Ed: How are you measuring temperature?]
Transfer the heated strike water to the mash tun. [Ed: What are you using for a mash tun?] Measure and record the temperature. Adjust if necessary. [Ed: How do you adjust the temperature?]
Measure out the mash and boil salts into appropriately marked paper cups. [Ed: What kind of scale?]
Add the grains to the strike water. Add the mash salts to the mash. Stir with a mash fork to wet all the grain and break up any dough balls. Cover the mash. Start a timer for the mash duration. Let the mash stand for 10 minutes. Measure and record the mash temperature. Adjust if necessary. [Ed: How do you adjust the temperature?]
Vorlauf
TBSL
Lauter
TBSL
Sparge
Batch Sparge
Mineral Salt Addition
Boil
Full Boil
10 gal Blichmann Boilermaker
Camp Chef
Bagged pellet hops
Stopwatch function of iPhone built-in Clock app.
Chill and Drain
Immersion chiller
6.5-gallon Glass Carboy
Pitch
Rock to aerate
Multi-package Yeast Pitch
Ferment
Refrigerator w/ Johnson Controller
Fermwrap
Dry Hops
Package
Bottling
Kegging
Mature
TBSL
Serve
TBSL