Barrel Project - Summary Thread

[Bubbles]

Shanna, quick update. Just checked and I do have the chocolate malt after all - however, there's a catch. It's whole malt, and I don't have a mill. Do you?

[andrewL46]

I don't have a mill. Do you?

Lads I have a mill if ya need to call over and use it!

[Shanna]

Yes I have a hand operated crappy mill but it grinds so I can use it. I wont need much and I can exchange it for someother stuff.

Shanna

Shanna, quick update. Just checked and I do have the chocolate malt after all - however, there's a catch. It's whole malt, and I don't have a mill. Do you?

[Shanna]

Shiny

I also have a 25 kg bag that I just opened today. 11.5 kg of grain is a lot of grain and I could not see myself being able to stir this amount of grain with a plastic or even a metal spoon. So I made the barrel a new oak friend (see attached picture). In keeping with our Russian named barrel (Rasputin) "say hello to my little friend" - Alexei Nikolaevich.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Nikolaevich,_Tsarevich_of_Russia in case you don't get the reference.

Shanna

Yeah sorry, got sorted in the end. Do you not need it yourself?

[Bubbles]

Barrelabdpaddy.jpg? You sure you've named him correctly?

[Bubbles]

I don't have a mill. Do you?

Lads I have a mill if ya need to call over and use it!

Thanks for the offer Andrew.

[Shane Phelan]

11.5 kg of grain is a lot of grain and I could not see myself being able to stir this amount of grain with a plastic or even a metal spoon. So I made the barrel a new oak friend (see attached picture). In keeping with our Russian named barrel (Rasputin) "say hello to my little friend" - Alexei Nikolaevich.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Nikolaevich,_Tsarevich_of_Russia in case you don't get the reference.

Shanna

I used to stir with a plastic spoon, its almost pointless with imperial stouts which are like cement with all the grain. I upgraded recently. 

[mcgrath]

Hi Lads,
I put my brew on last night. Got 20L with  OG 1.095. 

Couple of things I learned from this brew::
1. Its hard to mix so much grain. The dough in took a lot longer than I expected. And it's hard work. Line up a partner if possible.  It takes up a lot of space too.
2. The Hop break was insane. Got caught out and had a horrible sticky clean up.
3. You loose a lot of liquid with so much hops.

Hope thats of help to someone...
Cheers,
Ciaran

[Shane Phelan]

Nice one Ciaran, thanks for the tips. Have you needed to use a blow off tube?

[Bubbles]

Thanks for the heads up Ciaran.

I like the look of that mash tun. Did you convert the rubbermaid yourself? False bottom, I presume?

[Rossa]

Pictures for the T machine with #barrelproject

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

[mcgrath]

Thanks for the heads up Ciaran.

I like the look of that mash tun. Did you convert the rubbermaid yourself? False bottom, I presume?

I got a lend of the mash tun from another brewer who got the Rubbermaid from a company  in Ireland. The false bottom is made specificly for the Rubbermaid and can be bought in the US. I think it is easy enough to connect to the existing tap in the Rubbermaid.   The guy who owns it works for a US company and he times his homebrew orders with his workmates trips to the US.  Why do I feel a group buy coming on..... I have to say it works great.

"Nice one Ciaran, thanks for the tips. Have you needed to use a blow off tube?"


I put a blow off tube on but finished late last night and it hadn't kicked off when I got up this morning... I'll give an update up when it kicks off..

[Rossa]

I have the boil on now. It took a hell of a long time to lauter. In fact it is still draining but I have 35l in the boiler. It took at least 40 mins to drain the last 15 I needed. OG is a little low so I will bump it with about 150g of table sugar.

[Shane Phelan]

Keep taking pics and throw them into the thread for the nosy people. (I'm not one of them... : )

[mcgrath]

The blow off tube hasn't been necessary yet but its bubbling like a mad thing. I have 13lt of head space anyway.  Its the loudest most vigorous fermentation I've had so far. So I'd say it would clean out a bubbler if you weren't looking after it. Away til monday now, so I wont have any more updates on it. Enjoy your brewdays..