Busy night Friday night in the garage.

I brewed up my Oktoberfest recipe; aptly named Mike-toberfest.  The brew session went well, but I didn’t really pay attention to my evaporation rate, so I ended up with 4 gallons of 1.065 beer instead of 5 gallons of 1.055 beer.  At the end of the boil I was thinking I should add some more water, but I didn’t and I regret it a little bit.  Should have checked the gravity one last time.  It was getting late and I think I was just tired.

No real worries though because I think I might try adding some clean water back to it when I keg it.  The mash temp came in a little higher than I wanted so it may stand up to a little dilution before lagering.

I also kegged up my ordinary bitter and the berliner weisse brewed up a couple weeks back.  The O.Bitter is going to be a great drinker I think.  The hops were a little weak, but that’s what I get for using US Goldings when East Kent Goldings were unavailable.  Hoping that after carbing it might be all right; just more malt focused.  I’ve got that in the kegorator under pressure and it should be ready for Monday Night Football tonight!

The Berliner Weisse was a little disappointing.  It fermented down to 1.009 without a problem.  But there is barely any sourness to it yet.  This is to be expected from what I have read.  I put it in a keg and I am storing it in my basement furnace room.  In another month, I’ll draw a sample and see where its at for sourness.  Hopefully, the warmer temp will get that bacteria going.

I was surprised with my brewhouse efficiency this time around.  I started at 8PM and was basically done around 1AM.  Usually, I take about 6 hours to brew.  I am pretty sure with a few more mods to my process (and better pre-night prep) I can trim my brewing sessions down to 4.5 hours.  Better for the wife and family for sure!

BREW ON!