Homegrown homebrew

Homegrown hops, and I got to use some this time! Wasn't ready to brew when they needed to be picked, so they were dried (in a dehydrator at 85-90ºF for about 2 days) , vacuum packed, and frozen. Mostly mild Cascade, but some potent Centennial as well. This was the entire harvest, so it's all mixed in together. This is also the last of my base malt, of which there was about 3 pounds less than I had on record...luckily had some rye malt lying around to shore up the grist bill to hit a reasonable gravity. Beautiful copper color, wort tastes great,... hops might have fared better as a 5min addition.

Batch #106

Harvest-ish Rye Pale Ale

5 gallons

8.5 lbs 2-row base malt (mostly Maris Otter with maybe a pound CA Select mixed in)
1 lb Rye Malt

8 oz American Crystal 40L
8 oz American Crystal 90L
8 oz Aromatic

0.8 oz Columbus (14.9%aa), 60 minutes

4 ounces whole Cascade/Centennial (about 3:1), flameout+whirlpool

GigaYeast NorCal #1

Mash in with 16qts to 154F, hold one hour. Collect 7.5 gallons. One hour boil. Just shy of 5.5gal in the fermenter, with trub loss in transfer. Kegged after 4 weeks (because lazy) with 2oz priming sugar. Tastes good, but the hops aren't coming through as much as I'd like.

OG: 1.050

FG: 1.018 (a bit high)

ABV: 4.2% (a bit low)

IBU: ~45-50

Do the mash.

Well, I've now brewed my first all-grain recipe. I built a mash/lauter tun out of a 5 gallon cylindrical water cooler, a stainless steel false bottom, and the following (inside to out):

3/8" hose barb to 1/2" MIP
1/2" FIP to 3/4" male hose
3/4" female hose to 3/4" MIP
(Cooler wall)
#17 rubber O-ring (#15 would have been better)
3/4" ID washer (2" OD, milled to 1.75" to fit the cooler)
3/4" FIP to 1/2" FIP reducer
1/2" x 1.5" MIP nipple
1/2" ball valve (threaded 1/2" FIP both sides)
3/8" hose barb to 1/2" MIP

Toss in some vinyl hose, teflon tape, and a trio of clamps, you've got yourself an all-grain setup. It's fun to build, but not really worth the time. I spent about $75 ($20 for a new cooler, $25 for the false bottom, $30 for other parts), which is only about $10 less than a new complete assembly from MoreBeer.

For my first recipe, I borrowed Jim Rossi's Honey Pale Ale from MoreBeer's library.

Batch #15
Jim Rossi's Honey Pale Ale
--7 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt
--8 oz Honey Malt (Crystal 25L)
--3 lbs Honey (15min)
--0.5 oz Cascade 7.4% AA (60min)
--0.5 oz Cascade 7.4% AA (1min)
--Whirlfloc (20min)
--White Labs WLP001 Calif. Ale Yeast
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.004!!!
ABV: 6.5%
Calc. IBU: 15ish

Mashed 1 hour at 152°F with 2 quarts per pound. Batch sparged to 6 gallons. Mash gravity was 1.035. My calculations bring that to about 74% efficiency. I used whole hop leaves for this one.