Brewing on your counter - You don't need to spend much to make great beer!

As you all know, I struggle to find a balance between my desire for the shiny, flashy, fancy brewing gear I see on the inter webs, and my knowledge that this gear is for the most part, completely unnecessary.   Cool, but unnecessary. After all, I have more brew gear, accumulated over years  of brewing than most home brewers.   When we brew as a group, we use this gear; my keggel, a 100 quart mash tun, my 210,000 BTU banjo burner.  So, we can make some seriously big batches of beer. But, when I brew on my own, what should I use?  So the other night, as a way to fight off boredom and pressing reality, I found myself again looking at cool systems on the web.  Recirculating mash machines, eherms, and rims systems.  I read all about them, and then I found this little disclaimer on one of the websites,  "by adding a sparge rinse many brewers report efficiency of almost 80%"

Excuse me?  80%?  I can do 80% in my sleep with my good ol cajun injector electric turkey fryer.  I thought these things were more efficient.  Turns out they are not.   That is when it hit me, why in the world would you spend money on something that is less efficient and makes beer that is the same or lesser quality?   The only possible explanation is that theses systems are really cool.  And they are cool.  I'll be one to admit they are far out freaky cool neato. Wort is moving around, that seems like a good thing.  Pumps are pumping, that seems more advanced some how.   But at the end of the day they are no better at making beer than a $100 electric turkey fryer.   They are faster, but are they $800 faster?  Again, no.  my cajun injector has a 1650 watt heating element.  I can add a 1300 watt element for under $20, in the form of a bucket heater.  So if I really get worried about how long it takes to come to a boil, I just put in the bucket heater.   Which means, I go from mash out to full boil in under 30 minutes.  Since my kettle is now insulated with foam, I seem to get there in about 17-20 minutes.  I have done the math.  I know it should take 25.4 minutes based on kWs and BTUs but I'm telling you it seems to be about 18 minutes.


So, for me, I will choose my good ol Cajun Injector electric turkey fryer.  And I strongly suggest the rest of you who have not spent big money on a brewing system yet, also consider the same. I am not a spokesperson for Cajun Injector, they aren't even a sponsor.   I just like it. With the Cajun Injector you can do full volume extract, 5 gallon, partial mash 5 gallon, and all grain BIAB 5 gallon up to about 1.060 OG.  Above that you'll have to do a partial mash.




When you are making small batch the Cajun injector handles them easily.   When you are making 5 gallon batches you have to boil with the lid on but a jar.   I have done this literally hundreds of times, and I have never had an issue with DMS.   DMS has more to do with the modification of the grains than anything else. As long as you boil hard, chill fast, and make sure your wort can vent, there is little risk of DMS.

So here is my process for all grain biab in the Cajun injector.

1. I grind my grains fine.  This is the key to excellent efficiency.   My mill is set to the thickness of a credit card.  No, I do not get astringency,  yes I do get some flour.   I don't care what you have read, or what you wish was true.  The finer the grind, the better the efficiency.   Physics is physics.  More surface area equals more enzyme and starch interaction.  
2. I put the basket in, and then the bag.  The bag is big enough to go over the edges of the kettle.  I can hold 11lbs of grain. I think maybe I could get 12 lbs.  But 11 lbs is enough for a 1.055 to 1.060 beer.  
3. I use as much water as I need to create a reasonably thin mash. Somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 gallons of water.   The rest of the water is used for infusion step mashing, or for sparge rinsing.  I almost always step mash or decoct.  It simply tastes better.  The exception is a simple blonde ale for which I use my "set it and forget it process". Ill be posting about this process soon.  
1. Example  Champagne Lager 7.6 lbs of Pilsner, .9 lbs of flaked rice
1. 3.62 gallons of water at 139.7 (140 F) rest at 132 F for 15 minutes
2. Add 3.5 quarts of boiling water to raise mash temperature to 146 F rest for 30 minutes.
3. Add 3.6 quarts of boiling water to raise mash temperature to 156 F rest for 20 minutes.
4. Add 6.2 quarts of boiling water to raise mash temperature to 168 F rest for 10 minutes.
2. Total water used in step mash is 6.92 gallons,  Which leaves 1 gallon for sparge rinse. 
3. I sometimes just use 8 to 9 lbs of grain and just add DME to get a higher gravity.  
4. I also like to do decoction in order to reach mash out.  So sometimes I skip the mash out water addition and pull a thick decoction. Right after the 2nd infusion.  
1. Yes, I am a nerd who enjoys decoction. 
2. For higher grain amounts there may not be enough water for sparge and mash out.  When that is the case I definitely decoct to get to mash out. 
4. I drain the bag on a rack set over the kettle.  Then I vorlauff,  yes I vorlauff.  I drain a gallon or two and pour it through the grains.  Not sure if I have to, but the beer sure is clear.  Then I sparge with remaining water to volume.
5. From here on out it is just like any other batch of beer.  Boil and make hop additions.   The one difference is that I leave the lid on during the boil, but a jar by about 2".  See the video above. 

Many of you have asked about the Cajun Injector Electric Turkey Fryer.  So there it is,  that is how I have been brewing on my own, and that is how I suggest any of you brew who don't want to spend big money on brewing, and who want to brew inside.  But the real point is you can use affordable gear.  You can follow processes that are proven, and fun for you.  And since my life is changing,  I will be brewing lots of small batches.  2.25 to 3.5 gallons.    And the Cajun injector rips through a small batch no problem.  In fact, when I do small batch I tend to just to no sparge full volume BIAB and use the element to step mash.

I am here by promising a full on illustrated step by step brew day with this system.  A 5 gallon batch of an ultra malty, German Festbier, with videos.  Soon the counterbrew YouTube channel will launch. So you can watch our geekery in all of its video recorded glory.  You can also expect more posts from counterbrew contributors.  Mark will be spending time in Brazil and reporting on the growing craft beer scene.  John is going to write about cloning great beers, and using the internet and brew tools to perform due diligence on a recipe.  Jake will be writing about the financial side of home brew, and examining whether it is a cost savings or a money pit.

That is all for now sports fans.  Wishing you peach and good beer.

Cream Ale Brew Day - PROCESS CONTROL BREW

Saturday Brew Day... Cream Ale.   John's First Recipe for the team.

John and Jake trying
Pliny the Petulant

Every now and then you need to to a "process control brew".   A brew that reveals any and all of the potential flaws in your process.   A brew that can't hide any of these problems.   For us... that brew is a very light ale.  Cream ale or Blonde Ale.   Today, it was a cream ale.   So what separates a blonde ale from a cream ale?  They are very similar afterall.  And today's batch was mostly Rahr 2 row malt.  Perfect for cream ale.  Rahr 2 row should be a part of your regular brewing regimen. 

The things that separates a blonde ale from a cream ale are two fold.  1.  Cream ales almost always have corn and or rice in them.   And they always have an adjunct grain  of some kind. Blonde Ales only have barley in them, base and crystal.  2.   Cream ales almost always feature noble hops, or the american version of a noble hop.  Blonde ales often feature another type of hop.  i.e. biermunchers centennial blonde.  Cascade, centennial,  even citra are used in blondes some times.  

I'm actually a big fan of cream ales.  Not only do they taste delicious.  They protect your inventory of more esoteric beer from the muggle hoards who want to "try" your home brew.   You know the type,  friends of your wife who think bud is actually the king of beer.    These people are dangerous to your inventory.

forgot the grate we normally
use, had to raid the oven.

So we set out to brew a cream ale.   John wrote a great recipe.   And we started early Saturday morning.   Well early for the millennials, for me... a certified Gen Xer... it felt like noon.

We doughed in at 156.9 hoping to mash at 149.  But we had a tough time maintaining temperatures.  First time with the electric rig at Johns house.  Now that may seem like a cop out, but trust me, it is not.  The power in the older homes is wildly inconsistent.  We eventually figured out that turning off the accent lights in the family room, gave us consistent power, and mash temps.  It was Me, John, and Jake this week.  MA having fallen victim to some dreaded illness... So, other than the temperature fluctuations, the mash was uneventful.  We followed our normal, taste and see mash method.    The mash was done in just under 65 minutes.  Remember, a mash with corn in it is going to take longer.  The enzymes in the barley have to convert the corn as well...

Despite the ups and downs of our mash, we still exceeded our targeted SG.  This time we just barely overshot.  We hit 82.3% efficiency.  Which is a little low for Johns house.  So that tells us the inconsistent mash did have an effect on our efficiency.

The boil was straight forward with on 3 additions, Mt. Hood, Liberty, and Liberty.  We wanted to stick with American hybrids of noble styles.    This beer after all was originally created by American brewers to compete with light lagers.

Here is the cajun injector in action during our boil.  It really does well with the lid on but ajar like that.  It is so rigorous, and vents so well, DMS is never a problem.

At the end of the boil, we used both immersion chillers to cool the batch.  That is parallel 50 linear feet of cooling power.  The chill only took 15 minutes, for a 5.5 gallon batch.  For fun we left the thermometer in the pot,  It was cool to watch the needle sink so fast.

After chill down, we aerated for a good 25 minutes with the aquarium pump, and then we pitched a very healthy Fermentis S04.  Fermentis says you don't have to rehydrate any more.  But we always do.  We actually rehydrate at the beginning of our brew day.  Lots of guys think because you don't have to rehydrate... you shouldn't.  I'm sure Kevin and the gang at Fermentis would still agree it is preferable to rehydrate.   With the billions and billions of cells we get from a dry yeast package there is no reason to make a starter.  By rehydrating 4 or so hours before pitching, we get amazing yeast action.  Our beers are bubbling away with in hours of pitching.

Overall it was a great brew day.  We were shooting for 1.048, we got 1.052.  So we overshot a bit, but not too bad.   This should be an amazing cream ale.  John reports that the active portion of fermentation is largely over.   The S04 was so healthy and in such a healthy environment that it took off like a rocket.  We'll let it sit for a while to clean up before bottling.  But it is really cool to see such a healthy fermentation.

Trappist Ale and Wimpole Street Brown Ale... Partial Mash

Ill skip the normal... clean the work environment and all of the equipment speech I normally give you right here... But, clean your work environment and your equipment before you brew.

On Saturday I helped a friend brew his first batch.  My equipment, his ingredients.   He chose a Trappist ale.   And we did it the way he could do it at his home.  We didn't use any of my fancy gear. Just a 5 gallon pot, and a good attitude.   Haven't been that minimal with brewing in a long time.  We did use my immersion chiller.  But trust me this guy could make one of those in about 10 minutes.   He's a professional machinist and die maker.    We went to the local home brew store (lhbs) and he chose a Trappist Ale.   My nearest local home brew store has amazing kits.   Several have won fairly major awards.   If your an extract brewer, get to know the local stores in your area and find out which one has the best kits.  You'll find that they all have one or two that are great, but generally one of the stores specializes in kits and in working with new, or casual brewers. In my area that shoppe is Home Brew Pro Shoppe

A little over 24 hours later and the white labs Trappist Ale yeast is doing it's job.   The  Krausen is very high.  Thought I might have to put a blow off tube on, but seems to be subsiding.  (YUP, needed the blow off tube).

I only do a couple of extract a year.  I'd forgotten how easy it is. I kept looking around thinking... "What am I missing".  I might have to mix in some more extract batches.  It was fun and easy.  The only drawback is the cost.   $43 - $55 plus yeast upgrade?  Uh...yeah, I'll probably only do extract if I know my time will be crunched, it's just too rich for my blood.

Wimpole Street Browning  (another archaic literary reference)
I love brown ales.   I like NB Caribou Slobber, I like John Palmers Elevensies, I love Big Sky Moose Drool, heck I even like Newcastle Brown Ale.    This is my brown ale.  I like it the most.  Probably because it is drunk fresh, and because I made it.   Although, on a side note,  I have noticed recently (especially since I started writing this blog) my beer tastes better than most of the commercial beers I try.


Doughed in low, as i prefer to do.   There is a weird fascination with "hitting strike temperature perfect". I believe that is because most brewers either don't have direct heat mash capacity, or don't know how to make the adjustments with water infusions.

You can adjust the temperature of your strike and dough in with either hot water or ice cubes.   It isn't hard to do.   I have direct heat, so I prefer to dough in at 135F and rise to 150.  I find the cajun injector will hold 6 lbs of grain, and 3.5 gallons of water perfectly at 150-151 F when set to 175.   I have to stir the mash throughout the process.   But that increases extraction anyway.   Even if ever so slightly.

Mashed for about 75 minutes total.  The protein rest, the slow rise, and the saccrification rest.   No mash out this time.  Think next time Ill go with a shorter saccrification rest and add a mash out.

The boil was vigorous.   I leave the lid on and ajar. This limits my boil off, but also creates a really vigorous boil that breaks down all of the proteins.
This boil definitely knocked the proteins out.  I had to spray this one down several times.

The dang video isn't working.   But you can see the foamy frothy boil on the top of the wort.

There is no risk of DMS when you are using well modified grains and when you are ventilating your wort as it boils.   DMS fear is a relic of a time when grains weren't fully modified.   With modern mashing techniques and technologies there is minimal risk of DMS.  Still if you cover your mash completely you will create some DMS precursors. So if you, like me, use a lid to increase the boil, just make sure you vent off your boil.

I've gone back to hop bags.   It just saves wort.  So I clip a full sized bag to the handle of the kettle and let it really move around.  I have not
noticed a difference in the amount of hop oils, aroma, or flavor.  But I will keep you posted.   Think I'll do the same with dry hops too, just sanitize a muslin bag, fill it with hops, and throw it in.   I use the big bag so the hops can really move around.

After a 20 minute stand. I chilled this one with ICE. 190 F to 78 in under 10 minutes.   But again I sourced my ice carefully.   I make sure that the ice machine has been cleaned. I sanitize everything.

Overall a great Brew day.  I overshot my numbers slightly.  But, no big deal.   Think I'm just getting really good at using the Electric turkey fryer.  Time for 1 gallon batches again.   The whirloment 2000 is full of good beer.


Coming up is the Ommegang Hennepin Clone 1 gallon batch. After that?  who knows.   What do you all think I should brew next?  I've been thinking a Mocktoberfest 2 gallon might be cool.

Cream ale no cool brew day

It wasn't supposed to be a no chill brew day.  It was supposed to be a treatise on cooling with ice.  But, as I've warned you,  you have to source your ice carefully.  And well the inspection of the ice machine was last Monday, and it hadn't been cleaned yet Saturday morning,  the last cleaning being Friday morning at 2:34 am.  Alright. .. no chill it is.   NOTE this is not the norm for my local Wal-Mart.  They're normally on the ball.  

Whenever I can I try to think about the environment.   As a home brewer you can waste a lot of water.   7 gallons minimum are needed to brew 5 gallons of beer.   Chilling with a wort chiller means another 10 to 20 gallons.   So I try whenever I can to use less water.  I'm currently designing a closed loop system with a sump pump. So that I can chill fast and use less. 

My strategies:
1. Chilling with ice
2. No chill 
3. Closed loop system with a sump pump in a cooler of ice water.

No chill was,  like many recent beer innovations,  invented by the Australians.   They have had a huge drought for many years.  Beyond their normal arid climate.   It occurred to some one some day that there was no reason to chill wort quickly if you could protect it from microbes and just let it cool naturally.    Zero water use.  The only hang up. .. hop oils continue to react with the hot wort.  So it's tough to make super hoppy beers.   They compensate with hop teas and dry hopping. 

But when you're making cream ale... one of the least hoppy styles. Well then, "goodonya, It's all apples mate". (typed in my best Aussie accent)

If Ive said it once, Ive said it 2x ORGANIZE!

So here is my brew day.
Before I start brewing, I wash all of my gear, and organize my ingredients.   In this beer there aren't a bunch of crazy hop additions.  When there are crazy hop additions I tend to split them up and set them on sticky notes with the addition times.

If you don't organize, you'll find yourself running around like crazy trying to find something you may need later.  After I took the picture I realized, I didn't have my pH stabilizer, irish moss, or yeast nutrients out.

Check your grain temps.
Use an online mash calculator. its easy!

I always check the temperature of my grains.  There are many calculators on line that can help you hit your strike temperatures.  Long term I am determined to get the BrauSupply UniBrauMini.  It can easily produce 3.5 gallon all grain and 5 gallon partial boil partial mash. Controlling mash temps is the biggest challenge of the electric turkey fryer. But the more I use it the better I get.   On this day, in this kitchen I nailed it.

The key to getting the strike and mash temps correct on the turkey fryer, is to use the insulation between the walls and the kettle.  Get the water to temp.  Dough in.  Then cover it with blankets and walk away.  I open it at 30 and 45 to check temps and stir.  Thats all.  Just walk away.

Nailed the mash temp.  Got a little hot for while but I stirred
like crazy and got it under control.  

When I boil i leave the lid on and ajar.  It really
gets the boil to a vigorous point.  With the lid ajar
there is no risk of DMS, never had a problem.
Mandy the brew dog is sealing the cat's water
in this photo to the left.  Bad Mandy!

The mash went  smoothly, and I added 2 lbs of DME dissolved in 2 gallons of water.   Then I rinsed the grains with enough hot water to bring my pre boil volume to 6.5 gallons.  (by this point SWMBO had informed me we had plans and I would not have time to chill with my immersion chiller and pitch my yeast).  OK, this beer isn't very hoppy, so I guess I'll no chill it.

As you can see if I put the lid on during the boil, I leave it ajar by about 1.5".  This gives me a rigorous rolling boil.   It also allows the dreaded and overly feared DMS precursors to boil off.   In truth modern malted barley is so well modified, there is very little risk of DMS.  But a rolling hard boil breaks down protein and makes for much clearer beer. 

The beer in the middle is the cream ale. Also
Pictured are a belgian blonde (left), honey brown
(one gallon), and the closet cleaner pale ale. 

So this brings us to the end of the boil.   At the end of the boil, I pulled the hop bag,  and let it drain out completely.  I twisted it to extract all of the yummy hop oils.   Then I wrapped the kettle in saran wrap and foil (not pictured) all the way around the seam, and let it sit.   It is a little after noon now. and the kettle seems to be down to pitch temperatures. So very soon, Ill go let it drain into a sanitized fermenter, hydrate my US05 and put it into the whirloment 2000 fermentation chamber / whirlpool tub.  The whirloment is staying around 66F even on 100 F days. So.  I figure my primary active fermentation is getting up to 69F or 70F. Not bad for Safale US05.   It doesn't kick off anything funky until the
high 70s. If you don't have true temperature control.  And I don't right now due to some a hole scrappers stealing my undercounter fridge as it was out side drying out,  US05 is a great choice.  You can make just about any clean ale style with it.   As of this morning the US05 was rocking. With a nice krausen already developing and an occasional bubble.   Should be another quaffable cream ale.   A Quaffale if you will.  Next weekend I'm having a brew party at home.  Some friends who brew, and some newbies are coming over to learn from the old guy.  

Had a sample of this last night, I was adding gelatin to make it crystal clear... it's freaking amazing.  Cant Wait to get this one in bottles and 2 liters and start drinking it.  

My Partial Mash Process.

My Partial Mash Process.

Scroll to the bottom for some proven partial mash recipes...
By the way... I can turn any recipe into a partial mash... just send me a comment, I'm happy to help.

I brew 5 gallon batches of beer in a 7.5 Gallon Electric Turkey Fryer.   I use the Cajun Injector, but I know there are other models out there.   Part of my basic philosophy is to bring brewing back into my kitchen, to involve friends and family, and to show that brewing great beer doesn't require an expensive outdoor brewing system.

The Cajun Injector will easily boil 6.5 gallons of wort, with the lid ajar.  I keep the lid ajar about 2” and I have never had any problems with DMS.  With the injector configured in this way, I get a hard rolling boil, and I actually have to watch carefully for boil overs.   

My preferred method of brewing is Partial Mash. I also do loads of small batch all grain right on my stovetop.  But those are for perfecting recipes, and experimenting, and also to satisfy my need to brew.   In truth I do more all grain small batch (1 gallon)  than anything else recently, but I still consider myself a partial mash brewer.

Here is why I prefer partial mash brewing.

• More fun than extract - you still get to mash grains and sparge and the fun stuff.
• Better Taste than extract  - Real all grain flavor - I defy you to tell the difference
• It’s repeatable you can brew the same beer with the same results every time.
• More recipe options than extract,  you can brew anything.
• Less cost than extract - extract is expensive, grain is cheap. Especially if you malt your own.
• You don't have to stress over pH & H2O chemistry, you can adjust, but you dont have to.
• Affordable equipment - electric turkey fryer is about $100.00
• Decoction and step mashing are available to you.
• You control the amount and % of grain that you are using.  I have recipes that are 85% grain. The DME is there as a buffer, an insurance policy if you will.
• Takes way less time than all grain. It’s about the same as BIAB

So here is how I do it.

• I always use right around 6 lbs of grain, sometimes more, but never more than 9 lbs
• I mash in 3 gallons of water  In the turkey fryer.
• I do add 5.2 pH stabilizer to the mash water. Some people argue that a thin mash can have a negative impact on pH levels.  No sparge brewing kinda flies in the face of this claim for home brewers. With 5.2 pH stabilizer I don't have to worry about it.
• Two 4 gallon pots go onto the stove.
• In one I heat 2.5 gallons of water for sparge rinse to 168 F
• In the other I heat 2 gallons of water to 160 F at the end of the mash, I add the DME to this pot.  
• I turn off the heat add the (DME or LME) and stir to dissolve.
• I then pull the grains and set them on a rack above the kettle
• I pour the dissolved DME and water carefully into the kettle
• I then rinse the grains with the sparge water until I get to the desired volume, usually 6.5 gallons.
• I have about 5.5 gallons of wort after boil
• I put my hops in hop sacks during the boil to reduce trub loss.
• It does seem to reduce hop flavor and aroma… no problem add a little more hops… right?  I mean who doesn’t love a hoppy beer...
• I chill with an immersion wort chiller
• I take a hydrometer sample.   
• Some easy math gives me a rough idea of my efficiency with the grain, but it is never far off.
• usually my gravity a little higher than I expect.
• I transfer about 5 - 5.25 of that to the fermenter.  
• After fermentation loss I have about 4.5 gallons of yummy beer.   That is 48 bottles.  
• I almost always force carbonate 1 or  2 gallons in 2 liter bottles.
• I keep great records of my brewing.   
• This is one of the keys to getting recipes dialed in...

Notice what I didn’t mention.

I didn’t take a post mash gravity sample, there is just no need to do that.

I didn’t take a pH reading, again no need. Not even sure where my pH strips are.

I didn’t stress over my water chemistry, the extract will buffer the water just fine.  Just a little 5.2 pH stabilizer in the mash water.

I didn’t crush my own grains.   Again, No need.  Ill hit my numbers almost every time with a fine crush from the LHBS

I didn’t spend 6 hours brewing.  I’m generally done in 3 to 3.5 hours.  So If I start early on a Saturday Morning, I’m done by late morning.  

I have never entered a competition with my partial mash beers.  But that will change this year.   I have shared my partial mash beers with competitive brewers, and found that almost all who tried the brews were very positive about their taste and quality.  My Kolsch and American Wheat beers are about as good as any I have ever tasted. I sometimes cant believe I brewed them in my kitchen.  The comment I get most often is “wait? what?… this is a partial mash?”  Yes it is…

Partial Mash is not a panacea.  You still have to follow good brewing practices, you still have to work in a sanitized environment, and you still have to ferment at correct temperatures.   But if you are looking for a process that is repeatable, proven, and fun…give partial mash a try.

Here are some recipes for you to try.  Almost all of my proven recipes can be found at Brewtoad.com. Brewtoad is the easiest beer software I have ever used.  

Champagne Lager An easy lager (without a fridge?)

Everyday pale aleEveryday Pale Ale

Call the Banners - a real hop monster

Wheat BeerWheat beer - a great base for fruit or hoppy wheat beers.

Strawberry Blonde Brew Day 1.052 NO CHILL

Yup, I brewed again.   2 days, 2 brews.  So much fun.  But Today things didn't go exactly as planned. You see, today wasn't supposed to be a no chill brew day but a meeting at church cut my brew day short.   So for the first time we here at counter brew bring you... a no chill brew day.  It's a strawberry blonde ale, so I'm not worried about the hops. We'll see how it turns out.

Of course Ill keep everyone posted, and if it is great beer, I'll probably start no chill brewing when ever I can. To be honest it has always bothered me how much water is wasted in the chilling of beer.  I know the theory is sound, I know that down under guys do it all the time, but I haven't had the courage to try it yet.  But, hey, anything that makes my brew day easier...

Today was a blonde ale... in my crazy head a blonde ale is a cream ale at a little higher OG and with a little more freedom on SRM and gran bill.  I know classically I should use Windsor or an English ale yeast but I usually use US05.  And this one is destined to have strawberry flavor added, so no reason for a yeast with any complication at all. Truth be told this one is for SWMBO and her girl friends.  It is a classic summer beer.   Ill probably brew a wheat next weekend and that one too will have a flavoring added (apricot or raspberry).  Easy way to create fun summer beers.  My new fermentation chamber can hold 6, 5 gallon fermenters so... yeah, lets fill them all.  When that is done, Ill begin my Lagers and Stouts.   I know many of you brew lagers in the winter for summer, but I brew them in the summer with Wyeast 2112.  The idea is to have plenty of non challenging beers around for football season, and to build a series of beers on one yeast cake (standard lager, premium lager, bock, ocktoberfest)

Today was also a traditional brew day.  No partial mash or BIAB.  A relatively small grain bill meant it was time to use the 2, 2 gallon  beverage coolers with the bags as filters.   Using the bags as filters means you don't need to vorlauf.  A quality voile bag will create a clear grain free wort.  Nice time savings.  Even though I could't chill my beer, it was still a fun brew day, and I continued to learn a lot about the Cajun Injector as a brew kettle.  I think I actually figured out my main practices from here on out.   So regardless of how the beer turns out this was a great brew day.  Crazy as it may sound I plan on brewing Partial Mash, most all of the time. A grain bill up to 6 lbs with 2 lbs of DME means I need about 3 gallons of water for strike, 2 gallons of 170 F for the rinse, and 2.25 gallons addition.   It's the addition that makes this perfect... Into the addition, on the stove top, I dissolve my DME.  I bring it slowly to near boiling.  This weekend Ill post a step by step of how I rule the brewing world with my Janky, Ghetto Set Up.

All you really need to make great beer.

Today, I will attempt to make a list of the things you really need to make great beer.  Not just OK beer.  Great Beer.  These are the things you need to make partial mash beer.  UPDATE: I HAVE 19 PARTIAL MASH RECIPES POSTED AT BREWTOAD.  JUST TYPE IN " ( REAL PARTIAL MASH ) "

• A willingness to learn coupled with a willingness to try and fail
• A desire to help others
• 2 Large pots 4-5 gallons each
• Some paint strainer bags
• A 6.5 Gallon Fermenter or two...
• or like most of us 6-11 fermenters
• A colander or sieve
• A wort chiller
• I realize I don't always use one.  I'm not the best example to follow in that way.   But I'm a dinosaur who has been brewing since the 1st Bush Administration.
• Some air locks
• A hydrometer.
• Refractometers are cool, but for my money use a hydrometer, the reading is what the reading is... no conversions, no calculations. 
• A thermometer
• A bottling bucket and some tubing
• A couple of large 30 gallon buckets (think laundry tub)
• For controlling fermentation temperatures
• I found mine at garage sales for $1.00 each. 

You can get all of this for under $250.00.   And with it you can make great beer.  Dare I say competition quality beer.   That's it.   You don't need a $10 K  eHERMs system.   You don't need a 3 tier gravity fed  brew sculpture.  Now those things are cool.  And they make brewing easier, and in some cases more fun.   And I will admit... I may have some of those things.  But I (fingers crossed) kinda promised SWMBO that I wouldn't keep getting too much more... (sorry honey, yes I do need a sliding door refrigerator/fermentation chamber in the garage from the used Restaurant supply place if you want your whirlpool tub back)  I digress, where was I... oh yeah these things are cool...But you don't really need them.

Here are some things that are nice to have.  

• A 5 gallon beverage cooler 
• A ball valve for the cooler
• A bottling wand
• An aeration stone and an aquarium pump
• A cheap turkey fryer with a large pot with a valve.  
• you can do full volume boils with 2 pots on the stove, but one big pot is nice to have. 
• I use and recommend the Cajun Injector Electric Turkey fryer.  it was about $100.00 and yes naysayers it can boil 6.5 gallons of wort.

All of these extra things cost you about $200.00.  So for $500 total you are truly set up to brew.  If you are industrious and if you are willing to go to garage sales, you can probably be set up with everything you could ever need to brew for less than $200.00 total.

This is my firm suggestion to you.   Give partial mash a try before you spend a bunch of money on a wort production system, try partial mash for a year or so.  You may find you never want to brew any other way.  Chris Colby editor of BYO and Beer and Wind Journal has written lots of great articles on partial mash, look them up.   http://byo.com/grains/item/2543-converting-to-partial-mash

If you're just itching to spend money on brewing, your first priority should be a temperature controlled fermentation system.   The guys at NC home brew have a great tutorial on this.  http://www.nchomebrewing.com/diy-mini-fridge-beer-fermentation-chamber-build/

So there you go.  This hobby doesn't have to be expensive, it does have to be fun and delicious.

Cajun Injector worked like a charm

All these guys online talk about the need for massive BTU systems.  They tell you you can never get a quality boil with an electric Turkey Fryer.  I'm here to tell you, they're wrong.

We brewed this weekend with the Cajun Injector Electric Turkey Fryer.   IT HAD NO PROBLEM BOILING 6.5 GALLONS OF WORT.   Boiling Full Volumes of Wort is a real key to brewing better beer.

Now in fairness we did a partial mash, and heated our sparge water on the stove.   Then we did a near boiling water addition to bring our wort to volume and to temperature.  But once we were at a boil the Fryer did fine.  We left the lid on, but ajar.  This created a very large gap for ventilation of Steam and the dreaded DMS.

You can see for yourself in the video at the left.  It is boiling away.  The brew in the pot is our "Risen APA"

Even the guys who are the most scared of DMS would have to agree that is more than enough ventilation to allow for steam and DMS to escape.

Here is another video of the boil with the lid off.  Not quite as vigorous but still just fine for brewing beer.  This affordable kettle should be a tool that any brewer who wants to step up to BIAB or Partial Mash should consider.   There is just no reason to spend thousands of dollars on your brewing system.   Use your head, buy stuff that makes sense.