Well I finally brewed in 2010. I brewed up simple Amber Ale with all German inspired hops (I’ll post the recipe eventually). Actually I had planned to brew up the Extract Brown Ale. But when I was crushing my specialty grains, I accidentally knocked the hopper off of my mill and spilled all but a small amount of grain in the floor of the garage. I stood there looking at the mess and almost called it quits; it just wasn’t meant to be I figured.
However, I rallied and changed gears. I was out of chocolate malt for the brown ale, but I had plenty of crystal 80L, 120L and some roasted barley. So I went ahead with my back up brew the amber ale. I used the same WLP001 yeast starter that was intended for the brown ale and all went well.
The next near miss came yesterday. I came home to a blown off stopper and foaming yeast climbing down the side of the carboy. Thankfully, I was able to run to the garage and get a cap and blow off tube set up pretty quickly. Funny thing was that the foam wasn’t even down to the floor yet, so it must have just popped off before I got home from work.
I pitched the yeast at 66F, the cool basement brought the beer down to 64F. It’s now comfortable fermenting at 68F under its own residual heat. This should be one clean tasting ferment at those low temps.
John
Yay! Good to see you rallied. A brewing warrior, you are…taking on challenges.
Mike
Thanks for the support. I was pretty close to just calling it quits, but I am happy I have toughed it out. Hopefully the beer will be top notch to reward the effort.