Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Halfway through the mash you can see the effect of recirculating liquid through the grain. The husks and perforated bottom are filtering as they should and the cloudy liquid from 30 minutes ago is much clearer.

While I wait for the mash to complete, I take notes in a notebook I've used for years to track my brewing. This makes it easier to repeat beers I like, and review my notes if something doesn't work out.

Now we mash for an hour. The pump recirculates liquid through the grain. Enzymes (alpha and beta amylase) in malted barley convert starches into sugars (maltose and glucose). Each enzyme has different but overlapping ideal temp ranges to convert starch, both are active at 68C.

Now we add our pre-crushed malted barley to the water a bit at a time, stirring in between. This process is called "douging in" and you are basically making a giant barley porridge.

As the water heats up I drop in the mash tun insert. It has a perforated bottom that prevents most of the grain from getting through, and it plus the barley husks in my mash ultimately act as a filter so only liquid gets through as we recirculate it.

Step one, add the "strike water" (what we steep the grain in) and heat it to 68C, the temperature we need to "mash" the grain (essentially steep it like with tea).

Let's brew a Bock! I'm using a Grainfather brewing system, essentially a giant computerized electric kettle with an integrated mash tun and a pump at the bottom. The process is similar to when I brewed with a big pot on a stove and a modified cooler for mashing, just automated.

My German Altbier is boiling along. Tomorrow I'll document my whole brewing process on here as I brew a Bock, explaining how I make beer with a Grainfather brewing system so if you are interested in brewing stay tuned.

It's been one week since the grocery
Still out of pasta sauce and wipes and TP
Five days since I saw Fauci, saying
Keep social distance, not enough testing
Three days since a shave and groom
I disable my camera when I talk with Zoom
Yesterday, someone coughed on me
So it'll still be two weeks `til I'm out of quarantine

What things are you #3dprinting to keep your kids occupied while on lockdown? My son's current favorite is this robot (we're printing a multi-colored army of them). https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2887306

With so many relying on video conferencing at home, it's more important than ever to disable your camera w/ a hardware kill switch when you aren't using it. If your laptop doesn't have one, cover up the camera when your call is over. #privacy https://puri.sm/learn/hardware-kill-switches/

There are many remote work guides out there, but most describe proprietary tools w/ vendor lock-in. @purism has not only been a remote workforce since the beginning, we've done it ourselves with FOSS tools. This article describes how: https://puri.sm/posts/our-essential-list-of-free-software-for-remote-work/

@ers0 I have an antique German travel safety razor with a nested handle that fits into a small square metal case. Maybe it's due to how the small metal case shows up in X-rays but I've never had a problem traveling with a single blade inside it.

The thing about shaving with safety razors and $0.10 blades is you order 100 at a time. Just checked my stock and at 2 weeks/blade I'm good for 2+ years before I have to sharpen my straight razor. #lockdown

I can't go any other place, when I think of COVID I don't touch my face.

@Torrone I was just hoping to be able to make some ales too, for a faster turnaround time.

@Torrone I have a full-sized fridge in my garage I use to store finished beer kegs so interestingly enough I'm going to the opposite approach--I set it to its warmest setting which happens to be around 50F--perfect for fermenting lagers...

My beer fermentation fridge broke and while shopping online for a replacement, I didn't expect to see panic buying of small chest freezers in the Bay Area...

@keverets This happens to be a lager so it won't be ready for awhile, but I specifically picked a lager because my small fermentation fridge broke so I'll have to warm up my keg fridge to lager fermentation temps. I might do two different batches around the same time so I can cool them down together.

One thing I was missing in my disaster preparedness kit was a keg full of homebrewed beer, so I just ordered ingredients to brew a Märzen actually *in* March for once!