Brew Day - English Brown Ale

Today I thought I would document my home brew session. I have purchased a kit this time because when I stopped by my supply store, I didn't have any other recipe in mind. So I went with the Brewer's Best kit as it has never led me astray. In keeping with my tradition of reminding myself why I home brew, I have my 2 Miller Lite 24 ounce tall boys by my side.

I have chosen not to follow the provided directions exactly. I came up with a method I call MicroMashing. For anyone who knows about home brewing, it's like an Extract / Specialty grain method. Instead of leaving the grains in my pot for 20 minutes at 160, I keep them in my Fry Daddy "Mini Mash Tun" for an hour at about 150 after heating my strike water to 170. This method really seems to extract a lot of sugar and flavor. That is the main difference though. I have included some pictures including my brew house set up. It isn't much but I do have some upgrades on order.

(pausing to make sure that I don't get a boil over.)
(missed it and added the Hops anyway)

So now I have conversion, sanitation and flavoring going on. The wife says it smells like feet but I disagree. But no matter who it right, I am still in the garage.

55 minutes have passed. Time for finishing hops, Irish moss and dipping the chiller in for sanitation. 10 minutes on the timer.

All done, Reading 1.060 which is a little higher than expected for my SG if you are keeping track. Should result in about 7-8% alcohol. Temperature is a little high so it may be closer to 6.5 by the time it is all done. Either way it will be tasty.
I will have to do a follow up for sure.

Here's the main setup / control center. It allows for brewing, blogging and drinking.....


Here's my home made wort chiller. It isn't counter flow, so it takes about 20 minutes to go from the boil down to about 80, then I can add enough cold water to top off the fermenting vessel and get it down to about 70....