Batch 108, Gemutlich

A repeat of the excellent oatmeal pale ale. I haven't done this one in a while.

10 gallon batch
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
IBU: 21
SRM: 11
ABV: 5.5%


11 lbs 2-row
5.5 lbs munich
3.5 lbs wheat
1.5 lbs flaked oats
0.5 lbs honey (added at flame out)

Mash at 148F, collect 13 gallons.

2 oz Tettnanger, 90 minutes
1 oz Tettnanger, 30 minutes
1 oz Tettnanger, 5 minutes
2 oz Mt. Hood, 5 minutes

1 tsp Irish Moss, 10 minutes

Wyeast 1272

Actual OG: 1.060

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Batch 107, Prickly Pear Beer

A second attempt at a prickly pear beer. The one I made last year still isn't very good. I tried a bottle today, so I know for sure. This year, I did things a little different. First, no honey. Second, no cooking of the prickly pears. I just added them at flame out and let them sit for about 10 minutes. Like last year, I ran them through my food processor first to make sort of a prickly pear soup.

10 gallon batch.

15 lbs 2-row
1 lbs wheat
8 lbs prickly pears (just a guess, I didn't actually weigh them)
2 oz Delta hops, 60 minutes
Wyeast 1318, London Ale III yeast

Mash at 152F.

I didn't calculate any sugar contribution from the pears, so I really don't know what they add. Just the grain should have given me an OG of 1.045, I ended up with 1.052 actual. Volumes were dead on, so I'm going to guess the difference is from the pears.

I used the new stainless braids that I made today. They worked very well.

A few brewday pictures:

The prickly pears. Lots of seeds and a lot of very small cactus spines.

About 2 gallons after the food processor.

New screen in the boil kettle.

New screen in the mash tun.

No screen in the HLT.

Grain is ready to grind.

Grinding grain. Mostly 2-row with a little wheat.

A picture of me brewing.

Another picture of me.

Mash out. I sure do like this thermometer.

Hops are ready. I went with Delta instead of Willamette because I was out of Willamette.

I put this screen over the boil kettle because the trees kept dropping things.

Those are the things I hope to prevent from getting in my beer.

Those are the trees. Last day of skiing at Bogus.

It's quite red in color, no scorched flavor this year!

Almost done, just filling the fermenters.

New SS Braids

My old SS braids for my kettles are looking pretty pathetic. They are old, stained, stretched, and flattened. I only had two braids, one for my mash tun and one for my boil kettle. I wanted a third for my HLT so it could double as a boil kettle, which I've used it for when making partigyle batches. I got enough parts to make three new ones.

Parts list:

1 - 6' washing machine hose with stainless steel braid, cut into 2' sections

3 - 1/2" copper T fittings

3 - 1/2" copper elbow fittings

1 - 1/2" copper pipe, 18" long

6 - 3/4" hose clamps

1 - 7' 14 gauge Romex house wire, cut into 28" sections

I got the washing machine hose from a local building materials recycling store for $3. I cut into 2' sections and pushed the braid off, it's kind of like those "Chinese handcuffs" we had as kids, push it off, not pull it off. I bought the 1/2" copper fittings, pipe, and hose clamps at Lowes for about $10. I already had the Romex, and already had solder and a propane torch to join the copper pieces.  Pretty cheap project.

I only used the ground wire out of the Romex. My thought with the wire is to insert it through the inside of the braid and twist the ends together. That will keep the braid from stretching, and I think it will also help keep it from floating.

I cut the copper pipe into three 3" pieces and three 2" pieces. This works out just right for my kettles.

*** years later update, as in 15 years later (April 2026): Fuck Google and Blogger. The pictures simply disappeared. I uploaded them to Blogger, and this is after google bought blogger. and I've read literally hundreds of posts from other people saying the same thing, their pictures are gone, and google claims it is user mistake. Bullshit. Fortunately I still have the original pictures on my laptop for this post. Note that is is before Google Photos even existed (2016, remember they acquired Picasa in 2004?), so linking to Photos was not an option. Now I uploaded them to Photos, and can't find them. Why? Because Photos sorts by DATE THE PHOTO WAS TAKEN (as determined by the EXIF data attached to the photo), not when it was uploaded. So I have to scroll back 15 YEARS to fix this shit, for every photo. Fuck this. Google has definitely become enshittified. I really should take some photos of these now (April 2026) they look exactly the same and have held up just fine. In hindsight, I probably should have edited the EXIF data to today's date and saved some trouble, but damn, this shouldn't be so difficult.

Most of the parts

Beginning assembly

Mostly assembled, just need the elbow piece, the wires are twisted together and excess cut off.

All together. The copper pieces are soldered together.

In the kettle, looks good!

One for each kettle

New versus old, see why I'm replacing them?