Brewday: Christmas spiced beer

Today I will be attempting my first shot at playing with water additions.  Up until now I have always used RO water and added a generic pack of salts from the homebrew store.  I want to try to dial in my water and PH level though so I pretty much have to learn about water profiles.  I am only doing a 3 gallon batch today because this will end of at about 9% ABV and it would take me forever to drink 5 gallons of this.  Also since it is seasonal, I am not going to want to drink it much past January so I will save a few for next year and not worry about having to store a bunch of beer for next year. (We live in a small house).  I also am reusing my yeast cake from the porter I just brewed which was the first time doing this.

Here is my water profile.  I am going to be posting this to Homebrewtalk.com to get some feedback.  Hopefully I am doing this correctly.

 I don't have any other pictures from this brewday as most of the pictures are pretty much the same.  I will be sure to post a picture of the finished product. 

Brew Day: Porter

Well it is almost time for the cold weather here in AZ again and to me that means making sure that I have a nice dark beer for the winter.  I can't drink dark beers in the hot summer out because they just seem too much when it is 115 degrees out.  The very first homebrew I ever had was a Porter a friend made and it not only opened me up to the world of brewing but also beers other than Budweiser and the like.  It has become one of my favorite styles.


Here I am preheating the mash tun.  Next to it I have all my grains.  I read in the most recent BYO that you can actually get a better flavor profile if you don't do a sparge.  I figured I would try that so I just put in all my water minus what I calculated I needed for a mash out. 

I hit my mash temp right on target at 152.  That always makes things much easier.

I have several new toys since the last time I brewed.  Most are more for lagers but I couldn't help using them this time.  This is my stirplate that I build for $15 and some spare parts.

And this is my new refractometer. I found myself using this much more than I planned and was able to make adjustments as I went.  For example, after my mash my gravity was a little low so I just increased the boil time. 

 

 Here it is boiling away...

Here is my other new toy that is mostly for lagers.  I purchased an O2 system.  I think not being able to get enough oxygen in the wort affected my flavor a bit and cost me a few points when I entered my beer.  Hopefully I can avoid that with my next lager and in the mean time it will help with ales but not having to shake the bucket for 5 min. 

Once the beer is finished I will post a picture!