Going to a local beer festival Saturday. I think 70ish breweries are going to be there, looking forward to it.

thanks a lot guys

That's neat and all, but it seems like there are much simpler methods for step mashing. Agreed about mash thickness possibly being a problem for the motor. I guess it would depend on the torque it can deliver? All I know is that the brewery's mash mixer - the one driving a 40bbl mash tun - won't start once the mash is in the tun, you've got to start it up while empty otherwise the motor can't handle it.

My work brewery or my home brewery?

Oh yeah, and while I haven't actually fermented in it yet, its been able to hold 60F while empty and can fit 4 carboys.

Yeah, Boneyard's RPM IPA is great. I've never had the chance to try Notorious, their double (or triple?) IPA, but I hear that it ranks up there with the best.

You did the Conflux beer dinner? That's awesome. I almost drove down to Portland just for the bottle release Tuesday, but then figured driving five hours roundtrip to buy three 12-ounce bottles of beer would indicate that I have a bit of a problem.

I heard the Pinot-aged Dissident was the best beer of the night by far. What did you think of the actual final Conflux blend?

Nope, no dinner (although I heard they did crack Batch #1 Fred at it). The Portland Pub was doing taster trays as part of the bottle release of all the different parts. I was surprised as they didn't advertise they were going to do it and was just expecting to get some conflux on tap.

The Pinot Dissident was superb - I love the normal Dissident (as my avatar shows) but this was really a better beer. Tarter then most other Dissedent's I had and the wine merges well with it.

The Conflux itself was easily my second favorite of all the beers - it actually has a really strong Dissident/Pinot flavor with a finish of the strong hoppy Fred. Other then some whiskey from the Stoic portion of it, I couldn't pick out much other then the Dissdient/Fred. That's not necessarily a bad thing , just thought it was interesting from a blending perspective how weak the other two beers were.

I've been racking my brain and can't remember what that would be. YS would be Yorkshire Square, the special bitter, and that would fit the rest of the description, but no idea on YH.

If you've got more, get to 'em. Homebrew bottled off of a keg is prone to oxidization.

What other easier options are there for step mashes? Anything recirculating wort doesn't seem easier? Details on both home and work would be cool. Ive seen your setup at home, your process and others processes would be cool to hear about.

Wow, I just learned about the brew-in-a-bag method.

Seems amazing - really easy, almost no additional equipment required. Is there any particular advantage that traditional mashing offers that is a drawback of BIAB? Seems like there must be some reason everyone builds a mash tun instead of just mashing in the kettle

I think unless you have a really large kettle it would be hard to brew 5 gallons of anything with a high starting gravity. You could always brew 3 gallons if you wanted to brew a big beer. What I've read is 8 or 9 pounds of grain is about the max if you're using a 10 gallon kettle.

(This is only what I recall reading. I don't have any hands on experience with BIAB and already built a mash tun so I'll probably stick with what I learned on.)

It might have been YS. I don't recall. I'd go rummaging for the cap, but I took out the trash already. The flavor was consistent with a nice special bitter, at least. It wasn't an exotic brew. It was pretty ordinary, in fact, but it was a great example of ordinary: just what I was in the mood for.

Anyway, the last beer I have from you is the beer named Sue. I guess I can try that right now.

It pours jet black with a minimal head, which was unexpected, even though it shouldn't have been had I read the label: an imperial smoked porter. It definitely smells smoky, reminiscent of the DFH chickory stout. Damn, this is a great beer, and I'm glad I saved it for last in your batch. This easily gives Stone's offering a run for its money. I taste the smokiness, but it's not like it's a Rauchbier. The rich dark malt is the dominant flavor, with accents from the smoke and the hops. The sweetness is pretty subdued for such a strong, dark brew. I get a hint of a caramel flavor, but this beer is pretty far from, say, the Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (damn, I'm going to miss that beer now that I'm out in Cali). There's a good dose of coffee flavor, but this is more of a black coffee stout: no sugar, no cream, and no, that's not a bad thing. Good stuff here. I'd consider ordering this even on a hot summer's day. I don't think many 2p2ers live in or venture down to Nashville very much, but Yazoo's Sue is a treat if you do.

Heading up to Atlanta in a couple weeks. Looking forward to checking out Redbrick, Sweetwater, and Terrapin. Also gonna catch a baseball game, check out the Coca-Cola factory, and visit Stone Mountain. Anything else I should do?

Aussie Monsoonal blonde is just in a class on its own with the well balanced citrus flavors.

And the Estonian Saarema X is a really nifty beer. For a 10%! beer it has a very good taste and a really awesome kick in it.

I think, that with the EU laws implemented now, it might be up to 7% now, what is a shame.

Just got home and I'm having one myself. Gonna be sad when the keg kicks.

Work Brewery: Everything on the brewhouse is steam-jacketed. Mash tun has a mash-mixer, basically just spins and gently agitates the mash. The hot liquor tank is generally around 170F in the morning, so mash-in consists of turning on the hydrator and getting a base of hot liquor down while you go grab adjustment minerals, generally either CaCl or gypsum. Then get the grist going into the tun, and adjust the rate of hot liquor to hit your temp. Its better to undershoot a bit than overshoot, because you can always get steam going to the jackets to bring things up a bit. After 40m to 1 hour, transfer over to the lauter tun, vorlauf for a few minutes (10, maybe?) and then start running off. The lauter tun has rakes in case things get sticky. Turn on the sparge as needed; we don't have any sort of sparge automation. Once the kettle gets maybe a third full, start the jackets and colandrea and get it coming up to a boil. Kettle has a side port for the whirlpool. Boil is generally 75m and whirlpool is about 4m with a 20m rest. Generally everything is single-infusion, anything else would be tricky with that equipment.

Yeast health is monitored with a hemocytometer. We have two main strains, a house and a hefeweizen. The house usually goes 10-12 generations before repitch, the hef can stretch a little bit longer. 2 months sounds about right off the top of my head. We do occasionally get other strains in for seasonals, and we also have one lager strain in house, but almost everything gets house or hef.

Home brewery is 25g cooler mash tun, 20g kettle. I've also got a 15g kettle and am just about ready to go to two burners with a HLT, two-tier stand with a pump, but just haven't gotten around to piecing it together. Probably going to spring for a chugger pump soon.

Either infusion, depending on mash tun size and steps, decoction, or a direct-fired burner. I think direct-fire is probably easiest all things considered, but obviously requires some specific equipment. Anyways, if you haven't tried direct fire or decoction, I'd give those a go before deciding you don't like it for whatever reason. I think decoction is about like all-grain: seems pretty intimidating until you do it, and then you think, "That's it?" And for the types of beers I brew, anything other than single infusion is really rare. I don't even think its necessary for BoPils or Ofest, and if I do decoctions on those its just for kicks, really.

Wow. Hell of a day in Seattle ... I thought Stout Fest kicked my ass, but Sour Fest wrecked me completely.

I have photos of the following beers if anyone cares ... otherwise, here are the tasting notes.

Russian River Deviation: Tart, but not super sour. More citrus than cherry. I prefer Supplication, but immediately upon taking a sip my wife ordered a second one of these. I get a lot of peach and apricot.

Cantillon Fou Foune: The favorite of pretty much everyone we spoke to at the bar. We weren't wowed by it, however. Thought it was too light and lemon-y. It did improve as it warmed, however.

Cantillon Lou Pepe 07: "This is a cherry bomb!" my wife said as soon as she took a drink. Much darker than Fou Foune, due to the cherry ... and much better, we thought.

Cantillon Sain Lamvinus: Not too tart, but pretty good. Left us a little flat, however.

Bruery Bottleworks 12th Anniversary: My favorite of the day. Almost creamy compared to the others. Tons of peach and apricot, as well as tangerine. More body than any other sour we had.

Cascade Spiced Fruit Blend: An interesting beer; would not be out of place during the holidays. Plenty of spice comes through. Once it warmed up, it was almost like drinking spiced apple cider at Christmas.

New Belgium Love: Lots of plum and raisin in this. Not too sour, but got more tart as it warmed up.

Pliny the Elder: Not a sour, obviously, but I ordered one as a "palate cleanser." Yes, I was feeling pretty good at this point. It really hit the spot, but I don't know that an 8% double IPA helped me stay focused the rest of the way.

Double Mountain Rainier Kriek: Made with Rainier cherries, this had a lot of light cherry flavor. It was very interesting, and quite nice. Much lighter than you would expect a kriek to be.

Double Mountain Devil's Kriek: I thought this was better than the rainier kriek. More dark, of course, due to the cherries used, but more tart as well.

Firestone Walker SloAmbic: This was the most sour beer of the day. Had a ruby red grapefruit color to it. We really enjoyed it, but at this point we were all a bit wiped out on the sours.

All in all, a great day in Seattle. Walked to Fremont Brewing afterward and had a couple of Bourbon Abominables, which we really didn't need. We will sleep very well tonight.

RDH-Don't know where you said it but what brewhouse do you work at, if you don't mind me asking.

Plaster-That lineup is incredible. These weren't full pours were they? Samplers?

Yea this seems cool but some extreme overkill, that thing looks like a bitch to clean out. Ive done step mashes by adding precise volumes of boiling water to reach the different steps and it worked pretty well, i dont know that it made the beers any better but it wasnt difficult. Beersmith can calculate all of that for you.

I brew an 11 gallon batch on my bigger system once a month then I do 1-2 BIAB 3 gallon batches per month, I enjoy it its a great way to test out a style or use some left over ingredients you have lying around.

The disadvantages, for me at least, is that my effeciency craps out a little bit. I get 72% consistently on my big system but get more like 60-65% BIAB which results in having to buy more grain. I also have a hard time getting super clear beer, but with these small batches I dont really care, bc there seems to always bee some extra junk at the bottom of the kettle from the grain dust.

BIAB is a great way to get into small batch sour beer brewing BTW, thats how I do my lambics, brett beers and american wild ales (wtf is that even).

Do you notice any advantages to doing step mashes? I did it on a farmhouse a while back and the beer turned out great but I was wondering if it was all worth it. Most of my other Saisons are just a 148f single infusion 90 min mash and the beers turn out great and perfectly dry.

The Cantillons (they had seven on tap) were 6-ounce pours. The rest were 10-12 ounces.

Check the brewery named in post #4262, don't think RDH likes saying it.

Yeah I've played with that a bit. The idea behind it all is to automate it as much as possible though, mainly for fun/consistency.

What about a RIMS tube then?

Looked into it, a bit more expensive than what I really want to spend right now mainly because of the pump. I have access to a motor/pressure cooker already and can build out an arduino with temperature control/solenoid valve for less than $50. I probably should just save for that pump since it's obviously very hand in other instances too so meh. I'll probably end up debating this long enough to where I can afford the pump.

In other news, I might be able to do a wet hopped beer this year! My Willamette/Centennial are already starting to bud (I think?). My cascade looks like it's going to start budding soon as well. My chinook was doing the best for a bit and then just decided to die on me, there are some new shoots from the rhizome ~4ft though, so still some hope. The pictures below are of my Centennial.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yfq9hz45sp...2009.06.12.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7otn45hfgm...2018.19.35.jpg

plaster, thanks a ton for the TR. That's the kind of tasting I'd absolutely love to get **** faced at