The guy that said I could borrow his 30L stock pot actually thought I asked to borrow his 30L fermenter! I am now going to improvise tomorrow. I have cleaned a 44L square cooler which I will use for my mash tun. I'll still have to put it in a bag as I dont have any other equipment! hahahaha My plan is to mash the grains in the cooler, but b/c it doesn't have a spigot, I'll drain the bag in the cooler, then transfer the wort to my SS pot. I will also sparge into the boil pot. From there it should be a normal day, but its turned quite interesting.

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O&B Dream Team
Bill Barber - Bobby Clarke - Tim Kerr
Mark Howe - Chris Pronger
Bernie Parent
Farm: Giroux

Just a thought... should I mash in the bag or just strain it with the bag afterwards? What would you do?

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O&B Dream Team
Bill Barber - Bobby Clarke - Tim Kerr
Mark Howe - Chris Pronger
Bernie Parent
Farm: Giroux

Well, I mashed it in the bag, in the cooler. I ended up with 78% efficiency. I'm quite happy with that. I figured it would be way less. I had a bit of a mission as my smaller stock pot couldn't hold all the wort. I had to split it up into two vessels in order to get everything to a boil.

Last night I boiled water and then stuck it in the freezer. I used this to cool the wort today. Seems to work alright. I'll probably do that again. The cooler worked quite well as a mash tun. What I discovered is that I can quite easily move to all grain. This is what I may do for the next batch. I was basically doing it today anyway. What I need is a bigger pot and an outdoor propane cooker. The boil took ages to get going.

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O&B Dream Team
Bill Barber - Bobby Clarke - Tim Kerr
Mark Howe - Chris Pronger
Bernie Parent
Farm: Giroux

78% in a bag is really good! How much sparge water did you use? What temperature for the mash? Give me the lowdown on how the brew came out!!

I struggle with my stove dishing enough heat too. Generally, I use two burners under the same boil pot, which delivers more heat. I wish my pot was a bit bigger -- it's 30 litres -- so it wasn't so tight for an all grain batch. I usually end up diluting the wort about 4 litres at the end to get my target batch volume, but I'd obviously much rather the flavor concentration of not having to do that.

Outdoor isn't an option for me for at least 4 months of the year. Lets not kid ourselves: this is the justification I need to buy a gas stove!

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I'm not exactly sure how much spare water. Only about 3-4 litres poured over the top of the bag. The temp is also a guesstimate. I know the water was 170 to start. The cooler was cold tho so the temp dropped a bit. I stirred it in and it was about 150, then I added another liter of hot water and closed it up.

It took so long to boil that my feet were aching. Still sore today even. I had to wAtch for fear of a boil over. Then I had to watch for fear if missing something. Haha. I'll wear shoes next time.

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O&B Dream Team
Bill Barber - Bobby Clarke - Tim Kerr
Mark Howe - Chris Pronger
Bernie Parent
Farm: Giroux

OK.... I have a problem and I am ready to admit it. Every recipe I read, I'm always thinking... " I bet that would be good if I doubled the bittering hops, tripled the flavor and aroma hops and added a dry hop". I am addicted to hops!!!!!!

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O&B Dream Team
Bill Barber - Bobby Clarke - Tim Kerr
Mark Howe - Chris Pronger
Bernie Parent
Farm: Giroux

I dunno... I think until you're calling them by name you don't have an issue.

If you say something like "I just had this lemon ale and the Sorachi Ace was off the hook!" then you've got a problem.

If you say something like "it was all Cascade, and left my palate craving more" then you've got a problem.

When you make a Centennial Blonde Ale and use several ounces of hops even though the beer is less than 4% alcohol, then you've got a problem. Oops!

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Hahahaha! I have decided to brew an Irish Red next. My biggest challenge will be to keep the IBUs under 28 to keep within the style. Seeing as I am such a huge hop head, I think that others wont understand what I am doing with the hops, so I'm planning on doing a more approachable beer. It will be easy drinking and not so all in your face.

5 gallon batch
6.61 lb Black Rock Light Malt Extract 71.77%
1.10 lb Ireks Light Caramel Malted Barley - 10L (10.0 SRM) 11.96 %
0.20 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) 2.15 %
0.20 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 2.15 %
50g Goldings, East Kent [4.80 %] (60 min) 6.7 IBU
12g Goldings, East Kent [4.80 %] (15 min) 2.1 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)
1.10 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) 11.96 %
1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098)

I'm not sure about the honey, but it seems like an interesting addition. my mate has a few hives and he is about to harvest some honey. I can get a pound of back yard honey for the brew.

__________________
O&B Dream Team
Bill Barber - Bobby Clarke - Tim Kerr
Mark Howe - Chris Pronger
Bernie Parent
Farm: Giroux

Honey's really interesting -- it's completely fermentable, so it ends up imparting close to zero flavour. Not a bad thing, but something good to know.

That red looks good. I too have been trying to make a few more "approachable" beers to spread around that the drinker doesn't need to be hardcore in order to enjoy.

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I just did some quick math for that Irish Red recipe. It'll get 24 bottles of 750ml size (5.2%) at a price of $1.53 each. That is fantastic value.

EDIT: forgot the hops... $1.66/750ml.

__________________
O&B Dream Team
Bill Barber - Bobby Clarke - Tim Kerr
Mark Howe - Chris Pronger
Bernie Parent
Farm: Giroux