Seawolfe
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 71
- Reaction score
- 3
Hubby and I are in So Cal, and last weekend we decided to get back to AG brewing after a 5 year hiatus. Happily we had a pretty detailed brew log, so the shopping was easy. Most of our gear was in good condition, except for the tubing (I had been using the ss racking cane on the fish pond and jacuzzi 
)
We batch sparge, so we had a bit of a trouble remembering what temps to use to get a good strike temperature - thank goodness for Google! And we hit our OG targets! Woot! We got a late start, and it was 0230 in the morning by the time we got the wort cooled and the yeast pitched on two 5 gallon batches - what a day!
While we were cleaning out the garage we found a 5 gallon keg of forgotten steam beer
Believe it or not, its still good! Its lost some of the base bitter flavor, and gained a little bit of a twang (kind of like a wit beer), but certainly drinkable. Who knew?
We were surprised by the hop shortage, but thankful that we still have about 5 lbs of whole-leaf hops in the freezer. Most are still in the original seal, and they all smell good. So we upped the hop additions by about 50% to compensate for the potential degradation of the hoppy oils and aromatics.
Both 5 gallon batches are now burbling away in primary. I'd forgotten how satisfying that is! I'm excited to get back into this, and I have a ton of research to do. Cheers!
)We batch sparge, so we had a bit of a trouble remembering what temps to use to get a good strike temperature - thank goodness for Google! And we hit our OG targets! Woot! We got a late start, and it was 0230 in the morning by the time we got the wort cooled and the yeast pitched on two 5 gallon batches - what a day!
While we were cleaning out the garage we found a 5 gallon keg of forgotten steam beer
Believe it or not, its still good! Its lost some of the base bitter flavor, and gained a little bit of a twang (kind of like a wit beer), but certainly drinkable. Who knew?We were surprised by the hop shortage, but thankful that we still have about 5 lbs of whole-leaf hops in the freezer. Most are still in the original seal, and they all smell good
. So we upped the hop additions by about 50% to compensate for the potential degradation of the hoppy oils and aromatics. Both 5 gallon batches are now burbling away in primary. I'd forgotten how satisfying that is! I'm excited to get back into this, and I have a ton of research to do. Cheers!
