Celebration Ale - Rewind

So we went ahead and brewed this weekend to get ourselves back on track. This was again the Celebration Ale clone in exchange for wine bottles. The recipe is the same as in the previous post,
except that we decided to replace the Amarillo hops with Cascade out of the pound we picked up. So when you are looking at the recipe, its more like this;

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 13.00 gal
Boil Size: 15.98 gal
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 14.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 88.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
32.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 82.05 %
2.60 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 6.67 %
2.60 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.67 %
0.90 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2.31 %
0.90 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 2.31 %
4.00 oz Target [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 40.0 IBU
4.00 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 32.6 IBU
2.00 oz Target [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 10.5 IBU
2.50 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
2.50 oz Cascade [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 6 days) Hops

This was a single infusion mash that we split up into two coolers due to the size of the grain bill. Both mashes were struck aiming for 150f with the fist mash hitting 151 and the second being more like 149. We ran off and sparged the first mash, and then dumped the grains, scooped the stuff from the other cooler into the tun and sparged that.

*There is no question that this is not the way that we want to do things going forward. I have started to look for a great price on a 100qt cooler that we can make into a mash tun. Any leads are welcomed, trades will be accepted.

Our pre-boil gravity showed up at 16 brix or 1.064 (well above the expected 1.057) making us quite happy. There were a few boil overs due to the increased volume of over 14 gallons in a 15 gallon brew pot (it was actually more than that because we had two gallons that started out in another brew pot and was added once the first boil over happened). Oddly, the OG wound up at around 1.064 as well, making me wonder about the temp of the sample on the pre-boil gravity. I am going to have to watch that in the future. But alas, it was all good because we were at the proper OG on multiple instruments with a final yield of 13.5 gallons.

When it was all said and done, it was a 6hr brew day. Most of the extra time was used cooling the unusually large wort that we had and was well worth the effort because this is going to be a GREAT brew. I would hate to not have a full five gallons for myself.

Within 8hrs it was bubbling away:

Yea I know, it's a pretty boring video, what can I do? At least it's better than babbling about Bryan Adams.

Going forward, I would like to create a long-term plan for our brewing operation. As we look at the plan to buy a 100qt+ cooler, there will be the opportunity to evaluate the whole setup and I would like to move away from looking at the brewery as one single part at a time. Instead I would like to create and work towards a plan where pieces are worked on and put into place for an overall new brewery. That's the dream anyway.

Cheers!