This past Friday I had the most Epic brew day in my history of brewing. I took on a task that I had never even imagined until last Thursday. I wanted to brew a 10 Gallon batch of beer on Thursday, and then possibly another 10 gallon batch later on in the weekend. My wife took my boy to Lacrosse, WI for the weekend so I was all bachelor-en it and I thought I'd brew a ton and go see some live music at the Cabooze! You know....things that I don't get to do as much any more.
Thursday came and went without a brew day so Friday I devised a plan to brew two batch's at once. It required me borrowing a second mash tun from my buddy Kev, but other then that I pulled it off. 2 mash's going simultaneously, and then 2 -10 gallon batch's boiling at once!
It was a lot of work, but I wanted to push myself, and I wanted to brew a bunch of beers and experiment with a few yeasts I'd acquired recently.
More importantly it was my 50th brew day and I wanted to make it memorable and special. Part of me wanted to just breeze past it and act like it was no big deal, but it ended up being freakin nuts!
If you look at my blog and read my last two posts, these are the beer that I produced during this epic session! I was running back and forth from my house with 6 gallons of water what seemed like 10 times but was actually more like 6 times. The logistics of it were pretty interesting regarding the Mash(s). For my Black IPA I was doing a single infusion at 156 or so, but for the Biere de Garde I wanted to do a step infusion mash. Protein Rest (122ish), with an Beta (148ish) and Alpha rest (160ish).
It ended up working out great. First I pumped some hot water into my Biere de Garde mash for Protein rest. Then as the hot liquor tank heated I eventually pumped water into my Black IPA for the higher Mash temp. Then I boiled the hot liquor water and added that to the Bier de Garde mash at intervals to reach my temps. I hit my temps almost right on although my Protein rest was a bit high. Once the mash tuns were drained and the boil started it was all good!
I ended up getting 10 gallons of Black wort and 11 gallons of Biere de Garde wort. Here's how I split them up from there.
Black IPA / American Brown -
5 gallons fermenting with WY NB Neobrittania yeast
5 gallons fermenting with 100% Brett (Brett Drie, WY 5526 Brett B, and WY 5112 Brett L)
Biere de Garde -
5 gallons fermenting with WY Belgian Shelde (De Koninck)
5 gallons fermenting with ECY 02 Flemish Blend (second generation)
1 gallon fermenting with 100% Brett Drie/Avery 15 dregs (Sent to me by the yeast wrangler Jeffrey Crane from San Diego)
That's some shit right there!
What's your most Epic Brew day?
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