AK Stag's Head Stout brew day with pics.

[mr x]

I'm fumbling with two names for this beer, Kellerbeer or D'oh. Here's some pics of Fridays brewday. This is a first trial with some reconfigured and new equipment.

First the new electric HLT, which was the old brew kettle. It will be redesigned next days off to a bottom out HLT, just like the brew kettle. 4500 W element.

[mr x]

Another view showing the sightglass. I hit it with some JB weld because it was a pain in the ass to keep sealed. It's solid now, but I prefer a measuring stick (pics to come), especially for the keggle.

[mr x]

MLT.

[mr x]

HLT with lid and temp probe. I picked this on up on eBay for around $30. It's pretty neat in that it is a dual zone, and I can use it on the Primo as well as for brewing. It's also surprisingly accurate.

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Mashing away, not much to see here.

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Old HLT. Now for sale.

[mr x]

Generic mash pic.

[mr x]

Nice vorlauf. A little Hugo IIPA from Hoptoberfest in the background. Still tasting great with the bag of wet Centennial hops in there.

[mr x]

First run with the redesigned BK.

[mr x]

Defoamer frigging rules. It's hard to tell from a still pic, but that new element puts down a killer boil. It;s interesting in that the heating portion is contained in three sections beginning at the middle of the element.

[mr x]

Time to wash some carboys.

[mr x]

A big pitch of yeast from my 2 year old resurrected 1469 Cask Ale.

[mr x]

Measuring stick. I really like this for the brew kettle.

[mr x]

No solid state here! Old school analog. 5 kVA variac. Weighs about 60 lbs.

[mr x]

Thanks for all the seeds.

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Chillin', and getting ready to package.

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Yum.

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The end.

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You can see the scale that built up at the end of the element. There are three sections that look like this, but they were easy to clean.

[mr x]

Fermenting in the tub. Because this will blowoff and make a mess. I eventually switched to blowoff tubes.

[mr x]

A glass of Hugo.

A glass of Kellerbeer.

[mr x]

Went way over my target OG. Was looking for 1.050 max. My dumb ass forgot to set my efficiency back to 82% from 75% for my last beer.

[mr x]

This light fluffy whitish krausen eventually turns to a thick goopy, gummy beige krausen. It's the weirdest yeast I've ever used. Also quite tasty.

[wortly]

VERY NICE! Any idea how long it took to you reach a boil with 10 gallons in the kettle with your new element? What about getting up to temp in your HLT?

[mr x]

The BK is a tough one to estimate, because I was heating as I was sparging and adding fresh wort.

To get 14.4 gallons of strike water from 60f to 167f was about 45 minutes maybe...using 4500W.