The following is a brief overview of how I brew. My brew sessions are fairly simple. This just goes through a basic brewday when using my coolers for mashing. The procedures are the same whether I am doing a single batch or a double batch I just do some of the steps twice. I now have a DIMS setup now so I can mash in a kettle without having to transfer to a cooler for the lauter. The brewing steps are basically the same.

Recipe formulation:

To start off with I use ProMash to put recipes together. I formulate my recipes for 6 gallons post-chill volume in the kettle. This is the volume I use for efficiency and points/pound/gallon calculations. There are two reasons that I do 6 gallon batches. The first is because I like to end up with a full 5 gallon keg when the beer is finished. I try to have enough extra to account for all racking losses and gravity/tasting samples during fermentation and conditioning. The second reason is because by brewing a gallon more than the keg can hold I can easily adjust the OG of the wort if I happen to get crappy efficiency. If I get 6 gallons at a lower gravity than what I expect then I boil off some extra water to account for the lost efficiency to hit my desired OG. Anymore I pretty much hit what OG I want so that means I have some extra beer at kegging time. This extra beer gets put into PET bottles and carbed so I can drink it later while the rest is conditioning in the keg.

Setup:

I almost hate this step as much as I dislike cleaning. It takes a few minutes to move all the cinderblocks around and get the burners setup and hooked to the propane. Then I have to make sure I have the screen/scrubby in the kettles and put them in place. Depending on what mashtun i'm using I have to make sure that the manifolds are in place. This is a lot of back breaking work, especially moving the blocks, and it makes me wish I had a permanent welded stand.

Then comes hooking up the water filter and getting all the miscellaneous stuff in place. I usually have the grain crushed a day or two in advance so I don't have to bother with this step on brewday.

Strike Water:

Next I get the strike water ready. Either RO or filtered tap water or a combination of both is added to a kettle (usually 1.0-1.25 qt/lb) with brewing salts (if used) and heated to about 10 or so degrees hotter than my initial strike temperature. This is dumped into the cooler and allowed to cool to the proper strike temp before stirring in the grain.

Mashin:

Time to mashin. Once the strike water is in the cooler and has settled on the stike temperature I need I slowly stir in the grain a little at a time. I stir enough to keep dough-balls from forming but not enough to stir in much air. I let the mash rest like this for about 10 minutes before I stir, check the temperature and pull a small sample to check the pH. If the temperature is good at this point I leave it alone until mashout. If the temperature or pH are too far off I will make adjustments. I figure 10 minutes is a good time to wait and let everything stabilize so I get a good indication of the temp and pH.

Mashout & Sparge:

While the mash is mashing I get the mashout and sparge water ready to go. The mashout water is determined by ProMash and I get it boiling about 5-10 minutes before the end of the mash. I generally us filtered tap water with no adjustments to it. I heat the mashout water in one of my smaller kettles. ( the 4 gallon one is shown in this picture ) At mashout I just dump it in the mash and stir.

Sparge water is either tap water, RO or a combination of both depending on the style. I do make pH adjustments to the sparge water to get it just under 6.0. Most of the time I just use a 1/2 gallon of water per pound of grain. I have found this to be a good approximation of what is needed. Most times I end up with a little water left in the mash after I have collected what I need for the boil. Not a big deal as far as i'm concerned. Since I use my 2 quart ladel to move the sparge water to the mash I end up heating it to around 175-180° so it's at the proper temp in the mashtun. I recirculate the mash with my 1 quart measuring cups until clear and then start running it into the kettle. I add sparge water to the mashtun as needed to maintain atleast an inch of water above the mash. I stir the top half of the mash a few times during runoff.

Boil:

Most of the batches I do are 6 gallon with a 70 minute boil so I end up collecting around 7.25-7.5 gallons depending on the boil kettle. I usually start the burner once the kettle is about half way filled.

I boil both batches at the same time with about a half-hour stagger between them so I can chill one while the other finishes. I always keep a spray bottle of water near by in case I have a boil over problem. Boilovers don't just happen at the beginning of the boil. Any hop addition can cause a boilover at anytime during the boil.

Chilling:

I usually have the chiller cleaned and sanitized the day before I brew. If I don't then I clean and sanitize it while the boil is taking place. For the most part cleaning is just running hot water through it and then running StarSan through it to sanitize. I run hot water through it immediately after I am finished using it to clean it out. Once every few months I will run some PBW solution through it to make sure it's really clean. For chilling it is great. I attach it to the boil kettle, open the ball-valve and forget it. It usually takes around 10-15 minutes for a 6-12 gallon batch to be chilled and transfered to the fermentor at 65-70°. In the winter, with the cool Indiana water, I can get it below 60° easily.

To keep check of the temperature of the wort going into the fermentor I pushed a thermometer thru the 1/2" ID vinyl hose.

Fermentation:

I use all glass for fermentation. I have used plastic containers and SS kegs for fermentation but I prefer glass. Although there is a chance of breaking carboys I find them easier to use and clean. Once the wort is chilled and in the carboy I hit it with around +/-60 seconds of O2 depending on the style and OG. The starter is pitched and I place the carboy where it's going to ferment. Depending of the time of year and style of beer I either have it inside the house or in one of my chest freezers.

Cleanup:

Now for the bestest part of brewing: cleaning up. NOT!!! This is definitely one of the worst parts of the whole brewing process. It's also one of the most important. If you don't have clean equipment then it's almost impossible to brew good clean beer. That's not to say that if you don't clean thoroughly you will have bad beer everytime but it does mean that you are bound to be zinged with a bad batch or two sometime. Taking time to clean up right after the brewing is finished is well worth the effort. Believe me, I have waited until the next day and it's not easy at that point.

Cleaning includes scrubbing out the mashtuns and kettles, washing out hoses, flushing out the chiller, washing all miscellanious things like pyrex cups, spoons, etc,. A lot of this can be done while waiting through the other brewing steps. After everything is washed and set aside to dry I drain all water from my hoses and put all the cinderblocks and stuff back in their place.