Good day to brew

These are just some notes from my brew day today. One quick thing, I appreciate the comments from Bad Ben with recommendations on the ESP recipe, however I did not follow them. Not because I am an ingrate know it all, but because I brewed before I checked my blog (NEVER AGAIN!!!). I think it will turn out okay in the end though.

• I used 1.5 qts per pound in the initial mash, making the mash a little over 5 gallons of water. I brought this up to close to 170f and when it was added to the grains, it kept at the 154f I was shooting for.


• I had my sparge water all ready to go and in the process of lifting it onto my rack, it plug came out and since I was not in the mood to dip my hand it 180f water, I let it drain out. I ended up having to get another 4 gallons or so up to temp for the sparge and I did a batch sparge instead of a fly.


• I tested the gravity after the first mash and half way through the batch sparge. The mash reading was 1.065 and the last reading was 1.056ish. It ended up boiling down to the 1.060 I was shooting for.
  

This is a picture of my new brew kettle in action! The rings are a great guide on the amount of liquid you have in the kettle and proved to be pretty accurate. After the boiling and cooling, there wort was up to the middle of the lower ring and I ended up with a little over 5gallons.

This is a picture of the ball valve, no leaks! This is proof that you can do it your self without the weld less conversions. However, after looking at the cost comparison, its a toss up.

Finally, I would normally hook my wort chiller to t normal hose fixture in the basemen (I unhook the washer). However, since my wife was doing laundry, I came up with this solution. Duck tape, the solution to all of life's problems. Reminds me of a quote;

"If it slips, duct tape it, if it's stuck, WD40 it"

Cheers!