Time to wake up the brew after 60 mins mashing time in the beer-bed .
I now unwrap the pot and bring her back out side and pop the lid.
Mmmmm.......Nice intense malty aroma just what we want! You can actually give this stuff a taste just to get an idea how the level of maltyness in the final beer will be . Very sweet stuff aye..... brewers actually call it "sweet water".
I pick up the heavy bag and let the rest of the sweet water pour into the pot which is great for my biceps! The bag can get real heavy with all that grain and liquid so what I do is when my arms get tried from holding it up I place it into another big pot to drip out . Another way of doing this is to get an "A" frame ladder and tie the brew bag to the top of the ladder over the brew pot and let it drip out that way.
Time to put the big brewpot full of sweet malty goodness on to the burner to start the boiling process. Once the brew has come to a good rolling boil I add whatever liquid is remaining in the smaller pot as well. Some people like to sparge some hot water over the remaining grains to get more malty goodness out and add that to the brew too. Personal preference I don't do this as I am quite happy with my past results without doing this : ) .
Time to get the hops ready!
Woo-hoo-- Hops! One of my favorite things in the world! These are Czech Saaz hop pellets which are basic compressed and extruded hop flowers which are great for home brewing. I have added a bit more hops than the recipe calls for as I had some left over Saaz from a previous brew day and I 'coz love my hoppy character in beer. This single hop addition will change the sweet water's flavour and aroma from sweet and malty to something a a bit more bitter and aromatic that resembles beer in its purest form.
So once the brew has come to a good rolling boil I add my first and only hop addition for this simple recipe @60mins. The count down from 60mins starts now. Some other recipes such as big IPA's can have 15 hop additions throughout the boil at different intervals. Usually the first addition at is for bittering and towards the end for the boil eg @10-15mins the hop addition is for taste and finally @zero mins the addition would be for aroma either in the brew pot or as a dry hop in the fermenter.
Now at of the boil ten mins to go I add my whirlfloc tablet to assist in clearing the brew and stir the brew to make sure it dissolves properly. Once the count down has finished I turn off the burner (flameout) and put the lid back on the brew.
I use the Aussie no-chill method to get the brew down to a suitable temp for pitching the yeast... As it is Autumn here in Australia at the moment and the temp is around 10-18 degrees C at night here I let the brew cool on my cold garage floor making sure the lid is on securely and not letting any nasties in. If you are in a warmer climate I suggest putting the pot into an ice bath or I have even heard of some brewers using their swimming pool as a solution! The best way is actually with extra equipment such as a wort chiller or plate chiller which i'll be asking Santa for later this year!
So the brew (wort) is going to take another rest overnight to cool next to it's final home my PROPERBEER kegarator fridge!
Part three will be up in a couple of days!
