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!
Leave a Reply