Maibock Gravity Reading
I took a gravity reading yesterday following my own advice about how to do it. My hydrometer read 1.015 which is a little lower than my target, but in the ballpark.
I tasted the sample to see if I had a diacetyl problem. I didn’t get any overwhelming buttered popcorn or butterscotch taste. The sample did leave a bit of a coating on the roof of my mouth that was kinda slick.
Mike came over the house because we were going to a scotch tasting in the afternoon. (I betcha didn’t know we were Scotch dudes too!) He tasted it and came to the same conclusion.
Anyway, I brought my fermentating bucket up to the ground floor of my house and I put it in the front hall closet. It is sitting pretty at 62° F and I will probably leave it there for a good 36 hours. I hope the yeast still has some oomph to clean up the diacetyl.
Tomorrow night I will rack the beer to a glass carboy and let it sit in my beer fridge for a month or so.
More on the fridge later.
on February 1st, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Scotch is essentially distilled beer. It is one of my favorite things. If I were forced to choose between either scotch or beer for the rest of my life, I’d have a tough time choosing.
on February 2nd, 2010 at 8:35 am
John,
A 24-48 hour diacetyl rest should do the trick. What was your pitching rate?
Glad to see the attenutation got you down to 1.015, even if it is a little low. I would rather have beer that is a little drier, than a beer that’s a little sweeter.
Keep us up to date on the brew.
Best Regards,
-JW
on February 2nd, 2010 at 11:22 am
Hey Chemgeek. Yeah, we didn’t know much about scotch, but the tasting event was pretty cool. We learned a lot and hope to attend others as time goes on.
JW - I made a 7 liter starter using two vials of WLP830. I pitched just the slurry.
on February 3rd, 2010 at 11:16 am
Good luck, sounds like things are headed in the right direction.