Brewin' up a storm

Yeah, it's about to rain/snow outside. I took an extended break from brewing ("extended" meaning 2 weeks ) to break up the old off-balance cement patio and lay a brick one. Now that I'm stocked up to full on SWMBO goodwill, I'm brewing on the new patio.

Today's plan: 5gal of Denny's Vanilla Bourbon Porter, followed by 3 or 4 gallons (tbd when I see the wort gravity) of pumpkin ale run off the porter grain bed. I'm adding around 2 lbs of 2-row and 2lbs of homegrown roast pumpkin to the mash for the ale.

Porter's starting the boil now- 5.8 gal at 1.073 into the boil for 74% efficiency. Not bad for no-sparge (I normally batch sparge, but I wanted a little more sugar left behind in the grist for my bastardized partigyle).

That's gonna be a big porter!

KingBrianI said:

That's gonna be a big porter!

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Yeah, I was planning for about 70% no-sparge efficiency, or 1.068 into the boil. I'm shooting for 1.078 into the fermenter, but I think I might be a little high .

Did you leave any sugars for the pumpkin ale?

Hope so! We'll see in about 20minutes.

Well, I accidentally poured myself a BSG at 10% instead of a saison at 5% while I was remembering to not worry (and having a homebrew). I put 6lbs of 2-row in for the pumpkin, and got 5 gallons of 1.058 out. I think my Thanksgiving beer might be a little on the strong side as well.