6.0 lbs Maris Otter Malt

1.75 lbs Flaked Barley

1.0 lbs Roasted Barley

1.0 lbs Rice Hulls (for easier sparge)

1.0 oz Challenger Hop Pellets 7.6% AA – 60 minutes

0.5 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets 5.6% AA – 60 minutes

0.5 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets 5.6% AA – 15 minutes

Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast Smack Pack.

The mash went well, I got 82% efficiency on my mash and mashed at 152F.  The OG of my wort was 1.043 and calculated IBUs was 40.  I oxygenated the 5.5 gallons of wort in my fermentor for 45 seconds and pitched the yeast into wort at 71F.

Here are some photos I think a lot of you may enjoy.  Next week I’ll share a few photos of the fermentation process.  But now to the brew day photos!

Justin

Here is a photo of the grains before adding to the mash tun.  The white specks are barley endosperm, the whiteish flakes are the flaked barley, the dark specs is roasted barley and you can see a great deal of barley husk and rice hulls.

Here is a photo of the mash shortly after doughing-in.

This is the mash after 60 minutes. Notice how the top watery portion of the mash has become clear compared to after doughing-in.  This is one sign of complete starch to sugar conversion.

Here is my boil setup.  The collected wort with a propane tank fueling the boil.  You can also see the big pot in the background, that’s what I use to heat my water for mash and sparges.

Not that is picture is especially exciting, but I thought it was neat with the steam rising.  It is the spent grain in a trash bag.

A wonderful photo of the boil.  You can see some flecks of protein and hop in the clear portion of the wort, lots of steam and on the left is protein hot break.  Occasionally I’ll skim some of this out and dispose.

……And finally the chilled, oxygened and yeast pitched wort.  I’ve got a blow-off tube in there just in case.  I’ll leave this post here for now.  I’ll post a few pictures of the fermentation process during the week.  An early update: fermentation is going well, I have a krausen head developing about 8 hours after pitching my yeast.

Today I brewed up a clone recipe from the September 2008 issue of Brew Your Own magazine, this recipe is for Beamish Irish Stout (I think I said Murphy’s Stout in the video clip, but this was the one for Beamish Stout.  Too many recipes too little time I guess!).

Beamish and Guiness are similar beers, although I like Beamish a little bit more.  It as a bit of hop flavor/aroma that isn’t in Guiness.  Anyway here’s a short video clip of the rolling boil.  It smelled wonderful, if only your monitor was scratch and sniff.  I’ll post some pictures and a some more details later in the weekend.

Anyone else brewing up a batch this weekend?  Enjoy the video!