HOLY 93% BATMAN

So lately I have been doing some SERIOUS malting. The first batch of wheat malt I made ended up in a terrible beer. TERRIBLE. But I now have four batches of beer made from all home malted, home toasted, 100 percent Colorado grains.

Today was a crazy day. Brewed a beer, and I assumed my usual 75% efficiency when I put the recipe together. I also decided to do a REAL fly sparge... and it took forever. An hour to be exact. Apparently the word "sparge" literally means "to sprinkle," which is what I did. Sprinkled water over the grain bed til I eventually had all the sweet wort I needed to brew.

Problem is, I kinda sorta forgot about it, and I ended up getting a gallon more than I needed without realizing it. I really don't know how this happened, it just did. Anyways, as I was getting near the end of the boil, I checked how much wort I had, and it was 4 friggin gallons. Great I thought. Now Im gonna have a super weak beer. So, I came to terms with it, and I proceeded to start cooling down my wort.

This is where things get awesome.

After cooling the wort, I took a gravity reading, 1.055. Which was only 4 points under what I was aiming for if I had THREE gallons of wort. With 75% efficiency, and an extra gallon of wort, it should have been around 1.044.

So after a lot of checking, double checking, Google searching, forum trolling, and soul searching, I finally was able to except an awesome fact. Even if only for today, I rocked a 93.8% brewhouse efficiency.

So. Friggin. Awesome.

The End.

Busy day. Barley is fully modified, so I finally got to use my new contraption that I built a week or so ago!

  
When I malted my wheat, I realized how much I hated moving the grain a million times during the whole malting/kilning process. Now I just plop this bad boy on top of my malting floor, and voila! A malting floor/kiln. Frick ya,.

It works *great*. Its been literally holding 104 degrees all day. Perfect!

I also made roasted barley
and what ended up being light, medium and medium/dark crystal.

The light is still in the oven drying a bit more.

Tomorrow I will cure some pale malt hopefully and make some other toasted malts. I love this! When I first did the wheat, I was starting to feel overwhelmed. But after using this GREAT barley from Colorado Malting, I have made a complete 180. I am starting to fall really feel as attached to this as I am to brewing... I HAVE TOTAL CONTROL. I AM THE MASTER OF ALL MY BEERS.

BRYAN RULES

YEAR LONG DREAM: REALZED

Today I did it. Home made beer made with home made malts. This beer is representative of weeks of planning and awesome DIY projects, and it still won't be totally finished for a couple more weeks.

I can't wait to drink it and I am so very excited for my new future as a maltster. Next step? FARMER. Lets do this.




SO FRIGGIN PUMPED

This is a picture of the grist that will eventually turn into the first batch of beer made entirely made from home malted and roasted grain! Just waiting for my mill to arrive... so excited. Better than Christmas.

I also started malting my first batch of barley. So as of today, I should only have to visit the brew shop for hops and other miscellaneous stuff.

Too pumped. Here's to new adventures!


FINALLY FINISHED ALL THE MALT!

I got busy... again... and after the initial drying of my wheat malt, I didn't have time to cure it. That all changed yesterday, and I ended up with about 12 pounds of pale wheat malt and 2 pounds each of dark and medium crystal! So pumped. I have my mill in the mail so I should be brewing with this next week... I DID IT!



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