This past Saturday, 2-2-2013, SBBC members met to brew Northern Brewers' Surly Bitter Brewer partial mash kit. Glenn, Nemec and Mama Granoth supplies some fine food to enjoy. Members also received their brand spanking new SBBC work shirts. Mike was also rocking his new kilt. The garage was warm, but outside was another story. We were joined by Andrew Hyduchuk as a new SBBC member.
Partial mass (PM) brewing is another step towards all-grain brewing. PM adds a step where grain is introduced into hot water (mash-in) and held within a certain temperature range for a set amount of time. Then after we seperate the grain from the wort, wer rinse (sparge) the grains with 170° water. This step ensures we rinse any leftover fermentable sugars from the spent grains. Afterwards, we top up to our normal boil volume and continue the brew. The OG was spot on at 1.040. The beer was cool and the yeast was pitched. Sunday morning, the airlock was bubbling away. This batch should be ready in about 4 weeks.
Here's a few pics from the brew day:
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| New SBBC shirt logo |
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| Yeast starter with our new stir plate and 2000 cc flask. |
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| Mike rocking the new shirt and UT Kilt |
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| Joe, Glenn, Andrew and Bob enjoying the brew day |
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| Boiling away |
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| All aerated and ready for yeast |
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| Happiness is a bubbling airlock |
