Moving on to All Grain, but first I need a Mash Tun...

I decided I wanted to take the next step in homebrewing, which is undoubtedly the jump from extract to all grain brewing. All grain brewing includes the step of actually creating a sugary wort by "mashing" grains, instead of just adding extract like I have been doing in the first three homebrews. So before the boil starts, you have to soak all your grains at a precise temperature (multiple times) in order to most efficiently break down the enzymes and create a sugary wort liquid. Once there is enough liquid, the wort is brought to a boil and the hops and other ingredients are added, just like in extract brewing. All grain brewing allows you to have more control of the profile of the beer since you can tweak grain amounts and types, where as there are only a hand full of malt extracts to mix and match with.

In order to be able to do all grain, I needed a bigger boiling kettle (I got a 9 gal stainless steel one for a hell of a price online), but more importantly, a mash tun. A mash tun is the vessel in which you soak grains in order to get a liquid rich with fermentable sugars. You can buy mash tuns from local or online homebrew shops, but it is quite a bit cheaper and not very hard at all to make your own. 

Here is what I went out and bought from McGuckins Hardware:

-48 qt rectangular Coleman Cooler

- (4) 3/4" Stainless Steel Washers

-1/2" to 1/2" Brass Nipple

-1/2" Brass Ball Valve

-1/2" Brass Barb to 1/2" FIP Hose Barb Adapter

-1/2" Stainless Steel Hose Barb Adapter (don't know the dimensions but it is a male piece)

-16 gauge Stainless Steel Wire
-Stainless Steel Hose Clamp

-Braided Stainless Steel Water Supply Line

-Teflon Tape

Before I put everything together, I had to clean the brass in a 3:1 white vinegar/hydrogen peroxide mix in order to make it safe to be in contact with the beer. Apparently there is lead in the outer coatings of the the brass pieces, so it was pretty important to take the necessary steps to get rid of that.

The basic steps I took in putting together the spout of the mash tun:

1) Remove the drain pieces from the cooler. It comes off in three pieces, one of which is a rubber washer that is used in the conversion.

2) Stick the rubber washer from the cooler somewhere near the middle of the Brass Nipple. Wrap ends of Brass Nipple in Teflon tape

3) Put together the drainage system by assembling the pieces in this order on the Brass Nipple: 

-Brass Hose Adapter -> (2) Stainless Steel Washers -> Rubber washer from the cooler-> Cooler Wall -> (2) Stainless Steel Washers -> Brass Ball Valve -> Stainless Steel Hose Adapter

Then I made the filter that is inside the mash tun, which allows water the run out the spout while leaving almost all the grains and sediment behind in the cooler. I bought the braided stainless steel water supply line, which is used for appliances like washing machines and hot water heaters, simply for the braided stainless steel mesh. This meant I had to cut the hose adapters off the ends with a hacksaw (I am now a proud owner of a $7 hacksaw!), and finagle the braided mesh off of a rubber hose that was inside the mesh. The braided stainless steel mesh is like one of those Chinese finger traps, so I had to push the ends towards each other in order to compress it enough to get the rubber tube out from inside it. It is a lot easier then it sounds. Once I had the braided mesh by itself, I folded one of the ends over with pliers in order to seal it off. I twisted the 16 gauge wire around a pen and put it inside the braided stainless steel mesh to keep it from collapsing under the pressure of the grains. I then attached the open end of the mesh to the brass hose adapter inside the cooler with the stainless steel hose clamp. 

Finished.

And that is it. One homemade mash tun. All grain here I come.

UPDATE: How the Red Ale (HB#2) is stacking up after three weeks in bottles

It was hard to get a good picture of
the color. The flash made it look like
a stout and no flash was too dark at
night. I ended up shining my iPhone
light from the back which lit it up a bit.

It has been just over three and half weeks since I bottled the Red Ale (HB#2) and over the past week or so, the flavors have really developed, though I'm still not sure if it is where I would like it to be yet...

At exactly two weeks, I opened a bottle and was really having high hopes of tasting a bready, malty, and sweet Irish Red, but that wasn't really the case at all. There was a lot of subtle malty flavor, but it was all over powered by a harshness that was pretty unpleasant. Since it wasn't even that great, I decided I wouldn't write about it until it started to taste okay.

At exactly three weeks I opened one and poured it into a glass. It had a really great red color and much more of a sweet malty aroma than at the two week point, though still very subtle. I was relieved when I tasted it because the dominant harsh flavor had mellowed out a lot. Now their is a prevalent sweet maltiness with some very subtle fruit flavors. The finish is full, though I am hoping it will develop more of a breadiness. All in all though, I am really happy with where the red is right now, especially with how "ungood" (I won't say the b-- word) it tasted just a week ago. I ended up drinking a few more and it really is a half decent beer, especially with food.

It is still possible that the flavors will develop more in the coming weeks, but I would assume it is getting clsoe to the point of being stable. I really don't know though.... We will have to wait and see.

UPDATE: American IPA (HB#3) now in bottles

I had the day off today (12/5) so I decided to transfer the American IPA from secondary, where it has been dry hopping for a little over two weeks now, into bottles. The process was the same as the last two times: clean/de-label bottles, sanitize all equipment and bottles, transfer beer from carboy into bottling bucket with 5oz of boiled sugar in the bottom, fill bottles and cap.

While you would think on my third go at bottling I would have it down to an error-proof science, that was not the case tonight. My method of dry hopping was to simply poor the hops into the carboy and let them float and soak freely. Some people use hop-bags to keep all the hops together, but I didn't in this particular case because it seems like it is a pain in the ass to fish a bag of hops out of a carboy with an opening barely wide enough for a few fingers. If I were dry hopping in a bucket than I would more than likely use a hop bag since there would be zero problem getting it out. Anyways, since the hops were not in a bag, there was a lot of sediment floating around. The first 3-4 gallons siphoned into the bottling bucket went without a hitch, but once I got to the 1 gallon mark things started to go wrong. I noticed more and more sediment going through the siphon and the flow starting to decrease, and eventually come to a stop. The hop sediment gunked up the bottling wand and was not allowing beer to flow through it anymore, so I dug all the hops out with a fork. Unfortunately I also knocked loose a rubber piece that didn't want to go back on, so the bottling wand was a bit leaky. Next time I will put a piece of cloth over the end of the siphon in order to keep sediment from clogging things up (unless I use a hop bag, which would leave the beer sediment free). Lesson Learned: avoid clogging your siphon when transferring dry hopped beer by either using a hop bag or covering the siphon in some sort of strainer.

The gravity was right on target with the recipe at 1.014, which was a bit surprising since I had that sizable boil over that seemed to skew the numbers in the beginning. I tasted it too, and it was delicious despite being uncarbonated. VERY hoppy. I can't wait to drink this beer, I really think it is going to be a keeper.