Refinements

I've been looking for ways to make the process more efficient. Here's what I came up with:

I've been told that if I'm using bottled water I really don't need to do the pre-boil of 3gal. to top the wort off with. I'm thinking if I put three gallons of bottled water in the fridge the day before, it will be nice and cold by the time the wort is finished boiling and bring the wort temp down rapidly. The other option I have (other than bottled water) is to use tap water and boil it the day before and put it in jugs in the fridge overnight. I don't want to be pouring hot water into the wort next time. [I should also find out how long it will take before a gallon of water in my freezer will freeze. If I time it right I can put it in the freezer and take it out when it is as cold as it will get before freezing, just at the time the wort is off the boil.]

So in my next attempt I'll:

1.) Put 3gal. on the turkey cooker, which will take about 20min to boil

2.) During that 20min, I'll do my sanitizing, and measure out the hops

3.) When water boils, I'll remove from heat, add extract, put back on the heat.

4.) I'll add my bittering hops after the hot break and start the 60min boil time from there, and compleat the hops schedule.

5.) At end of boil, I'll put the pot in the sink full of water and add the 3gal. of ice water to the wort to bring up to 5gal. I'm hoping this will save a lot of cool down time.

6.) Take the O.G. reading

7.) Pitch the yeast, transfer the wort, put the lid and airlock on and move the fermenter to its resting place.

I tested out my turkey cooker and was able to get a rolling boil in 20min. I might be able to do it faster than that, but I don't want to burn it either.



My first batch is doing well in the fermenter. Plenty of airlock action, now I wait.