2 hour brew & more

Okay, here is the deal. Going on vacation next week,will not have any beer legged for July 4th if I don't get it done now. So I also really want to see if I can keep refining the 2HB process. So yes, success on both counts. After seeing another brewer's spreadsheet (thanks Gary) I set up my timeline on two parallel tracks. Started at 1:54 and was pitched and picked up at 3:55! And I kegged a pale ale into a corny & the teakettle , so yes we will have Homebrew for the fourth.
And I'm enjoying a lovely Fat Tire too. Ah,good deal.

2 hour brew, revisited, again

Another Sunday, another try at getting the 2 hour brew even better.

You must have a five gallon kettle and a wort chiller. You have to get your fermenter sanitized the night before, then all I needed to do was rack the sanitizer into a bucket to sanitize the strainer, measuring cup, stopper and airlock. The kitchen needs to be "brew-ready" when you walk in the next morning. So okay, done.

Now the brew.

Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil in the brew kettle. Bring another 2 gallons to a boil in a smaller pot. When the large kettle is boiling, turn off the heat and mix in the extract. Stir well with the paddle and top off with the now boiling water from the other kettle. Now that the smaller kettle is empty, heat up enough water to cover grains to 165F. Start steeping the grains and go for 30 minutes. I'll remove the grain bag, heat it up to a boil and pour that "tea" into the kettle. Boil for only 50 minutes. That shouldn't change anything dramatically. Chill and pitch.

So far:

8:55 Walk into kitchen. Get water going, mix extract in, bring to boil.

9:35 Boil starts. Timer set for 50 minutes. Siphon sanitizer, get some hot water into malt bucket to get it all out, set aside.

10:00 Get grains in bag into strainer; more hops added

10:12 Wort chiller goes in; grain tea brought to boil, added to kettle

10:31 Boil done, chilling begins.

11:05 Chilled, pitched and the kitchen is clean

Not bad...................

2 hour brew: one more time, what I've learned

Sunday morning. I am trying to brew before I go to the store. It'll be tight. I started at 9:30 a.m. It's a pilsner with the Wyeast Staro-Prague yeast. This is a new one for me. All light dry malt and US Saaz pellets. Some carafoam, light wheat & a bit of flaked barley.
Some thoughts on this 2 hour deadline:
1. I will need to cut back on boil time to 50 minutes. Depending on how much I boil, it takes more time to come up to a boil. So today I'm starting with just a bit less than 4 gallons. It took about 30 minutes to get to full boil.
2. Mixing in dry malt: Tried something a bit different. Poured dry malt into pot then I used the sprayer attachment to add water. Used hot tap water. This worked really well. It dissolved pretty fast, nothing stuck to the bottom. The paddle is the right tool for a flat bottom pot.
3. The oatmeal stout grains were a pain in the ass. Oats got really big. Hard to rinse well. I don't think I got all the color from the dark grains, so I might have to rename this as an English Brown ale. Don't think I'll do use oats in a post boil steep again.

2 hour brew,part 2

Okay, the schwartzbier seems to be coming along just fine, so I want to try another 2 hour brew.

Start time, 11:00 am

fermenter is already filled with sanitizer

about a gallon of water heating on the stove to make dissolving the malt extract easier

starter is made, yeast looks very good

oats go into cool oven to toast as it preheats to 350F



The recipe:

Toasted Oatmeal Stout

#1 toasted oats

12 ounces chocolate rye

8 ounces 90L US crystal

12 ounces dehusked carafa 1

4 ounces roasted barley

4 ounces mild ale malt



#6-6 ounces Munton's amber malt extract

After I mixed the extract into the gallon of hot water on the stove @11:12, stirred well with spatula, then I started topping off to boil volume with quarts of H2O that I had heating up for 3 minutes in the microwave. That should get everything up to a boil quicker. Oats toasted to a golden color in about 20 minutes. Don't forget them! As soon as you can smell them, it's time to stir or take them out.



11:36 Boil! Set timer for 1 hour

Hops:

1-1/2 ounces E. Kent Golding pellets, 5.5% AAU @ 60 minutes

1-1/2 ounces E Kent Golding pellets, @20 minutes



12:15 am rinse out funnel, cup, strainer, fermenter Add wort chiller to boil. Add 20 minute hop addition



12:39 Boil is done; wort chiller hooked up. Grain bag is in the middle of the chiller.

1:05 Pitched and covered @ 72F



Because the oatmeal grain blend was bigger than most recipes, it really filled the funnel/strainer. Luckily I had the better part of a suitcase of water, so I was able to use that to rinse the grain bag. Did that, then topped it off with tap water.
Okay, a little more than 2 hours, but not bad. done!