On Sunday, January 25th Der Brauer and Irish Rover knocked out 4 brews: Barley Wine, Altbier, Witbier and the always enjoyable Pilsner. The Barleywine was a new recipe of Irish Rover's.
(Pilsner Mash)
Der Brauer had not brewed last fall so the sweet smell of mashed grains was a welcome experience.
We brewed two beers at a time. All beers were 5gallon batches. The wort chiller was working great most likely because of the low temperature of the water from the hose. Most beers dropped to under 70 degrees in about 10-15 minutes.
The Witbier was the only beer with adjuncts. As is tradition it included Coriander, Orange Peel, etc. all added during the boil.
One new procedure that was tried during this brew was to measure the gravity of the wort during the mash. Per The Brewmaster's Bible and other sources, the last of the sparge should ideally reach 1.008-1.0010 in order to be finished. None of our beers reached levels this low. It was also difficult to accurately measure this because of the high temperatures of the wort and therefore the need to adjust the hydrometer readings. Either way, we recorded our findings and it should give us insight into mash efficiency in the future and the possibility of draw out a "second drain" to make a lighter beer. Extra water was added to the Barleywine to test this process. Total volume after boil was around 6 gallons.
Of course it wouldn't be a brewing day without tasting some homebrew. We tried some of Irish Rover's two year old Belgian Dubbel. It was fantastic! Very drinkable and wonderful to just simply look at.
-Der Brauer
