Building a Mash Tun - Part 3

Finally, I've found a combination of parts that work. Yesterday, I picked up a couple 3/4" lock washers from Lowes, and they fit over the brass nipple. I was able to use one of my 5/8" stainless steel washers next to the ball valve, since the washer would actually fit over the threads on the brass nipple.
Well, after a good tightening of the fittings, I filled the cooler up to the top with water and checked for leaks. And after 20 minutes, everything on the outside was bone dry.
Now I just need to find a vinyl hose or something that can withstand mash/sparge temperatures.

Building a Mash Tun - Part 2

My quest for the stainless steel washers is not over. My drill bit is not doing the job widening the 1/2" hole like I had hoped. I did find a 5/8" stainless steel washer in a concrete wedge anchor kit at The Home Depot. I bought 4 of these for $3.28 each... Only to find out the damn thing doesn't fit over the brass nipple, just like I had suspected. Which means the washer works on the inside of the cooler, but I still need probably 3 to go on the outside. I tried to ghetto rig the thing with a bunch of rubber O-rings, but it leaks.
I'm not sure where to go from here. I've already invested way more money into this thing than the stainless steel conversion kits cost. And, that's really what I want anyway. But, I have all grain ingredients to brew a pumpkin ale, and I need to brew it this weekend for it to be ready by Thanksgiving.
I just looked at the kits on Northern Brewer, and with the 3 day shipping it's gonna be around $53. But I don't think I'm gonna buy it. I'm not 100% sure it will even fit, I don't know how the stainless steel hose braid attaches to those, either. I've come this far. I'm sure I can figure something out. To be continued...

Small Batch Starter

If I'm making a yeast starter anyway, why don't I scale it up, add specialty grains and hops? At least that way I would be making beer. Even if it is just a six pack. Also, this would give me a chance to play around with recipes.
So, I bought a couple 1 gallon jugs from Northern Brewer and made my first small batch yesterday.
I'm shooting for 3/4 of a gallon.
This is a pale ale. 15 minute boil.
.75 lbs Briess Pilsen Light DME
.15 lbs Crystal 60L
.3 oz Chinnook @ 15
.25 oz Cascade @ 5
.25 oz Simcoe @ knockout
I'll end up dry hopping with something. Probably Chinook, since that's what I have in the freezer.
The main reason I'm doing this: Wyeast 1056. This will be a starter for a pumpkin ale I'll be brewing this weekend.
Almost everything went well. But, my OG was very low. 1.032. I was shooting for around 1.050. I attribute this to not including the DME volume to the original boil volume. A mistake I keep making over and over... At the very worst I'll have a six pack of really bitter watery beer.
Well here it is. I put it in a pan of water, wrapped in a shamwow, beneath the air conditioner with a fan blowing on it in the coldest room in the house. This should keep the fermentation temp below 70 degrees. It's still pretty hot during the daytime here.

Building a Mash Tun

Last year I tried my hand at all grain brewing before I knew how involved it was. (Well, I'm still not 100% confident of all the specifics.) I had no mash tun. So I developed a half assed way of mashing and sparging involving a big blue cooler and a grain bag. It was during a time when my brewing habits were relatively slack anyway. On top of that, my record keeping was next to non-existant. So I have no idea what my efficiency or gravity was. I still made beer. A pumpkin ale with real pumpkin. And despite the fact it was way over carbonated, it tasted pretty good.
A couple weeks ago I bought one of the big 10 gallon cylindrical picnic coolers from Lowes. And yesterday I picked up the parts to convert it into a mash/lauter tun.
The homebrewtalk.com wiki makes it seem simple enough. With one exception: You must convert 4-1/2" fender washers to 5/8". It looks like it's still gonna be pretty difficult. I haven't had time to sit down and finish the job. But, at this point I'm not even sure the 5/8" hole will be big enough.
One other cause for concern: Most of the other parts are made from brass... Brass is made with lead. In John Palmer's book, he published a method of removing surface lead from brass using white vinegar an hydrogen peroxide. I suppose this will work in the meantime, but it still makes me nervous. I think eventually I'll try to find stainless steel parts to replace the brass ones.

Current Brews

In the primary(s), I've got the 15 minute Amarillo Pale Ale (from the previous post). This is a modified version of James Spencer's recipe. Here's what I did:
6 lbs Briess Pilsen Light DME
1 lb Caramel/Crystal 40L
2.5 oz Amarillo @ 15
1 oz Amarillo @ 10
.5 oz Amarillo @ 5
1 oz Dry Hop
White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast
I used Safale US-05 for the side batch that I reboiled.
The original recipe uses 1 lb Crystal 60L instead of the 40. And .5 oz dry hop instead of 1 oz. So my beer should be lighter in color, and have more hop aroma.
The rest of my current brews are recipe kits. In the secondary, I have Denny's Wry Smile Rye IPA from Northern Brewer. This is a new recipe using their new Rye Malt Extract. I plan to bottle it this weekend. Bottled, I have the Autumn Amber Ale from Midwest Supplies and an Irish Red from Northern Brewer.
This picture is from a few weeks ago of my Autumn Amber. It's a pretty nice beer. It's been bottled for three weeks, and it's conditioned well.

Trub Trouble

I'm starting to get pretty pissed about all the hop sludge at the bottom of my kettle. It's keeps clogging my racking cane and I lose siphon. I don't like the idea of the muslin bags. It's said that hop utilization may suffer. Plus, it becomes impractical with several boil additions.
This past weekend on a particularly hoppy beer, I clipped a nylon bag on the end of my racking cane...

But, that got me nowhere. I couldn't keep a siphon. There was still a ton of wort (and trub) in my brew kettle  and I was not letting that go to waste.
So, I took the strainer bag, put it around a colander and set that on a pot.

It took a while, but with some stirring and squeezing of the bag, I was able to get all of the wort from that batch. I ended up with a grapefruit sized hop ball.

It was pretty fantastic.

Of course, that portion of wort was no longer sanitized. So, I boiled for about 15 minutes and cooled in the sink, then the freezer. I was able to fit this wort in a 1/2 gallon growler and a 40oz malt liquor bottle. I ended up pitching a separate yeast (from the main batch). I had a packet of Safale US-05. I pitched about 3/4 into the growler, and the other quarter in the bottle.

(I didn't have the right size stopper for the growler.) This process is a big time pain in the ass. Especially when you want a short brew day. But, it works. And it's the most effective solution I've found so far.