I love fall. Or, alternatively, today was a great day to brew.

I love Fall! Kicked out of work a bit early today and got home to a full-swing krausening starter and 60 degree temps and got to work on my version of the ***** Creek ESB clone in byo which I call Terrible Creek ESB, named after the creek in my backyard (no, I don't use the water from it...).

Hit all my mash targets (well, just the one...saccharification), no stuck sparges, and squeezed out an efficiency ~70%, or 5 points more than usual. I was boiling in record time and sipping homebrew and smoking a cigar while measuring out the FIVE hop additions (not counting the dry hopping) in this recipe.

I did lose more to evaporation than anticipated due to the dry air, I suppose, but on the other hand the temps were in the 40's (my apologies to those who work in Celsius) by the time I finished boiling so cooling went super quick and I was pitching in ~4.5 hrs and finished with cleanup in <5.

The stars were truly aligned. Or something.

Its always nice to have a brewday go so smoothly.

I'm also glad the cooler weather is upon us. Brewing in 98° and 95% humidity SUCKS.

Tell me about it! Sometimes just having a constant stream of sweat stinging my eyes is enough to make me kick the neighbor's cat. Just having nice crisp weather and the garage actually being pleasant was probably enough to give me the mental attitude to have a nearly flawless session.

Of course, I won't really know for another 4-5 weeks...

man, it's actually getting too cold already for my ales in the garage. The temp out there is dropping down to the mid 50's at night.

I had to bring Pandora's Box inside (where it's staying a comfortable 70 degrees).

The temp in the garage is nicely suited for my 80/-, but I'm going to have to either make lagers or turn my temp controlled fridge into a temp controlled warming box soon.

-walker

I've got one of those 'aquarium' thermometers on most of my carboys/buckets and I've been watching one in the garage hover around 55 (not sure about middle of the day) which is making me consider trying a lager, although I certainly don't have the capability to lager for months close to 32. I think I could ferment, however.

My house is finally at a good temp for ale fermentation, around 68-72. My wife would never turn the A/C on, not even in August, if it were up to her (it's not, but I can't get it past about 78).

I saw plans (most likely in byo) for a warming box which was pretty simple...sized for a carboy and used a mechanic's light (like you hang from a hook) to provide heat. Looked pretty effective, but I would always be worried about coming home to a big pile of ashes!

a 25 wat lightbulb will probably work fine.

As an experiment last night, I put a lamp with a 25 watt lightbulb inside of my fridge in the garage and set the external thermostat to 62. I also plugged an old 3-hand analog clock into the same outlet that the thermostat controls so I could find out how much time my fridge spent fighting the warming power of the lightbulb.

This kept the fridge between 58 and 66 degrees all night, and the fridge compressor was only running for 30 minutes over a 10 hour period.

If I could find a smaller watt lightbulb, I'd use it, but 25 was the lowest I could get at the grovery store right around the corner.

the lamp and fridge are now a team that will hopefully keep my beer fridge in the proper range thorugh the winter.

-walker