Group Brew

When I was at Estrella, there were a number of people in our encampment who showed an interest in brewing. As a result, I invited them to my next brew session. That day was last Sunday.

Because the Oatmeal Stout that I brought to Estrella was so popular, we decided to brew another one of those on Sunday. The recipe was exactly the same, except that I found actual British hops at the brew shop. Because of this, instead of the Styrian Golding hops, I used Kent Golding hops. The recipe follows:

5.0 lbs Munich Malt
2.0 lbs Pale Malt, 6-row
1.25 lbs Flaked Oats
1.0 lbs Roasted Barley
0.25 lbs Black Patent Malt
1.0 lbs Crystal Malt, 80 L
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
1.8 oz Kent Goldings Hops, 4.8 AA, 60 min, 37.9 IBU
White Labs, English Ale (WLP002)

1.054 OG, 11 lbs, 37.9 IBUs, 49.0 SRM, 83% Extract Efficiency, 5.5 gallons

The brew day went very smoothly, other than me forgetting to turn on the heat to the sparge liquor before doughing in, to heat up while the mash was in progress. Because of my absentmindedness, the mash took about two hours, waiting to hit the right temperature in the hot liquor tank. In the end, though, all was well. In fact, we hit our original gravity (OG) dead on.

There is one other thing to note. My mash tun, a K-mart brand water cooler, was so warped that the sparge arm had trouble spinning. As a result, I think it is time to retire it. I'm a little sentimental about that, as that is the mash tun I started with.

Below are some pictures of brew day:

All the brewers pictured next to the equipment. From left to right: moi, Ron, Dawn, and Ryan.

Me, stirring the mash. Ryan, next to me. "This is how it's done."

Ryan, stirring the mash.

Dawn, stirring the mash.

My warped mash tun (dirty, of course).