pighillbeer

Latest Post

Citra Wheat Brew #5 Brewday July 23 2011

I am a bit late on this post.  Just bottled it as a matter of fact but let’s review.  This is the all grain version of brew #2 which was an extract and steeping grain beer.  I tried to get it as close as I could because the original is my personal favorite that I have done.  Citra seems to be hard to find right now but I was able to find 2 ounces of pellets and 2 ounces of whole, enough for this batch.

Having a glass of my first all grain brew, Hefeweizen Lite.

Nice day, decided to crush the grain outside.

This is the ghetto set up.  Built a “stand” for my mash tun out of a couple 2×4′s.

First running’s, looking good.

.Second running’s.

Trying to disprove that a watched pot doesn’t boil.  It did.  As a brewer you have to watch the pot so it doesn’t boil over, screw the old proverb.

Weighing out the “spice”

That watched pot again.

This is ghetto as hell.  My pot doesn’t have a lid but these bucket lids fit in there.  I taped it up being a duck tape engineer.  Probably not necessary though.  Of course I cooled it with the ice bath.  Can’t wait to build a chiller, this is getting old.

Now to turn my attention to these chicken wings.

The numbers on this one… I calculated brewhouse efficiency to be 77.5% .  That is right on with the last batch.  It is going to give this beast close to 6% abv which is what the original brew was.  So brewday was great but we had a heatwave and my basement was getting into the mid to high 70′s which is not good.  I tried a swamp cooler and everything.  I guess it didn’t work well because of the humidity.  We will soon see what this is going to do to the yeast flavor.  AC is back on now and temps are back in the high 60′s so the following brews shoud be fine.