Last night I was able to squeeze in my scheduled March brew session. This was a bit of a relief as I’ve been aiming to brew every third thursday or friday night of each month. (The wife actually challenged me to do this, can you believe it?)
Regardless, last night was an amazingly smooth session. After four batches down with my new equipment set up things are really starting to roll. My entire session was done in 4.5 hours, with not prior set-up prep! I usually try and get setup the night before, but no luck with that this time. I went into the garage at 6:00PM and was walking out around 10:30. I couldn’t believe it.
I hope to profile my newly designed set up in upcoming posts.
Anyhow, my last four brews had been malt forward or lighter fare type beers. I am not a hop-heady guy, but I do on occasion crave a pint of something hoppy. Not to mention my wife loves hop forward beers. So if I am going to keep the monthly brew session alive I need to toss in a hoppy beer a couple times.
I was shooting for a 1054 OG and hit it at 1052. It was actually sort of tough because after the mash I had 7.25 gallons of 1054 wort in the kettle. So I had to add a gallon of water to the kettle prior to boiling to not end up with 1.065 beer. 1.065 wouldn’t have been a bad thing, but I didn’t have the hops to really make this an IPA. I need to go back into my notes but I think my system is more efficient that I planned. Which is fine, I just need to start pulling my recipes back a little bit to account for it.
I pitched two packets of dry US05 Ale yeast, and oxygenated for almost 2 minutes. I pitched at 62F and set the fermwrap for 64F. I need to go out and check in this morning and see if its starting to ferment. In a couple days, I’ll crank it to 68F to drive it to finish dry.
I am going to dry hop this with some whole leaf cascade. I might do this in primary to save time; compared to doing it in the keg like I planned. We’ll see…
Recipe to follow soon (and maybe a fermentor pic).
BREW ON!
Chris
That is a fast brew day. I am around 7 hours. I do clean absolutely everything. I am retired, so time isn’t really a factor. I only brew when my wife is at work 🙂
Mike
I have worked to make it fast because of kids and family commitments. However, it isn’t so fast that I am stressed about it. Normally, I take about 5 hours. This session seemed to go pretty smooth and ended in 4.5 hours.
Winfield
Yeah, 4.5 is where I land most of the time since I switched to AG. Have yet to see a brew day go smoothly though. 😉
Mike
I think I might be able to get to sub-four hours if I work a plate chiller into the process in the future. But first I need to feel confident in hop separation from the wort upon transfer. The idea of clogging a Therminator or Shiron chiller and cleaning it out freak me out.