Brew day

I have been distracted for the last few days, due to an auction of a brewery in Boulder.  The Colorado Draft House in Boulder closed in January.  They had a nice building a few blocks off of the Pearl Street Mall (read high rent), a 10 bbl system, and only average beer.  A friend of mine brought the auction to my attention, and I bid on three things.  I need a mash paddle, and there was a lot of them with some "glassware" (a box of hydrometers and other test equipment and a few books and binders), hoses (which was a pile of various hoses, including approximately 50 or more feet of the silicone hose I use (3 bucks a foot everywhere else), and about 400 pounds of Canadian and German malts.  I quickly bid up the malt to about $150, and last I checked was $220.  The hoses went up into the high tens (my last bid was $60), and I actually retained the highest bid for the mash paddles....but alas, I didn't get it as the whole brewery was also offered wholesale, and that bidding went up to $118,000 (which in my estimation, was a decent price) at the end, which netted more than the piecemeal lots.  So, I lost.


Also, got done with another brew day, still working on the heat exchange system, more work needs to be done.  We started hot and stayed that way.  Mashed about 160.  It is a brown ale, so I am not worried about it, but it wasn't what was desirable....also, lesson learned....stainless steel is hot (duh) and the edges will slice like a razor....ouch....my hand has multiple wounds.  Here is some pics of our fermentation.  Outside, the Marzen/Oktoberfest continues....inside the keg, brown.