Batch 139, Panama Red

Due to moving, I haven't brewed in quite a while, and I'm pretty much empty since I took all of my homebrew supply to the wedding. It seems appropriate to break in the new beer shed with another batch of my all-time favorite.

10 gallon batch.

OG: 1.063 (1.060 actual)
FG: 1.016
IBU: 65
SRM: 13
ABV: 6%


22.25 lbs 2-row (Gambrinus)
1.5 lbs Crystal 60
1.5 lbs wheat
4 oz Chocolate

Mashed at 155F for 60 minutes.

2 oz Mt. Hood, FWH
2 oz Centennial, 60 min (pellet)
2 oz Cascade, 30 min
2 oz Cascade, 5 min
2 oz Mt. Hood, 5 min

90 minute boil.

1 packet Wyeast 1272 American Ale II yeast in each fermenter bucket.


I should have taken a few pictures while brewing in the new beer shed, but overall, it went quite well. There was a little hassle figuring out hoses and finding all the little pieces of equipment, but nothing major. Hit volumes, temperatures, and gravities pretty closely. OG was slightly low, but I think that is because I opened the gap on my grain mill a little so that it feeds better. It's really nice having convenient power outlets, there is one by the mill for running the drill, and one by the boil kettle for running the pump.

My pump seems to be struggling. There was an odd situation where I was pumping from the HLT into the mash tun, and at the end, the flow was actually backwards. I usually connect the valve on the bottom of the HLT to the valve on the bottom of the mash tun and just pump away. The pump used to be able to suck the HLT dry and withstand the back pressure from the mash tun, but not today. Going from the mash tun to the boil kettle was fine, I collected 13 gallons in the BK without any back flow, so I'm not sure what the problem was. (Note: this is a continuing problem, the Chugger head can't seem to handle the back-pressure like the March pump did. I've resorted to pumping into the top, which means I need to pay more attention.)