- Joined
- Nov 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,899
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For those of you who have followed by posts I finally got my Oktoberfest going without a hitch. Sure it'll be done a month late now, but who cares. Quick previous history:
1. Didn't make a yeast starter, tried fermenting at 40, had ZERO temp control, pitched ale yeast later out of desperation. Ended up dumping, but prob could have been a good steam beer.
2. Thermometer broke during crash cooling. It would have been completely fine I'm certain but SWMBO implored me to dump it.
3. Finally, using smarts and almost no thermometers I had a good brew weekend. The plan was to mash on Sat, then brew on Sunday. SWMBO flips when my brew days take 6 hours.
So, the mash went in Sat night around 8. It was to be a double decoction to Kaiser's methods. Everything went well. I missed my protein rest temp by 7-8°F but who cares. I guess I should have returned more of the partial first decoction that I did.
The best thing that happened was my buddy and his woman showed up. She talk to wifey, and he and I drank beer and sparged and sparged and sparged and sparged. No hydro reading yet, I kept some wort aside because my hydro broke.
Yesterday was an easy boil day, I cooled the wort to 90 with my coil in 15 minutes, then I put it in a corny and it's sitting in the kegger cooling to pitching temps. It should be there by bedtime tonight I think.
Everything went right within reason. There was no fight with SWMBO about the length of time it took.
I am going to take a brew-cation and enjoy my beers for a while. I'm going to try to hold off until end of Sept before I brew again. True story. And I am going to enjoy it.
1. Didn't make a yeast starter, tried fermenting at 40, had ZERO temp control, pitched ale yeast later out of desperation. Ended up dumping, but prob could have been a good steam beer.
2. Thermometer broke during crash cooling. It would have been completely fine I'm certain but SWMBO implored me to dump it.
3. Finally, using smarts and almost no thermometers I had a good brew weekend. The plan was to mash on Sat, then brew on Sunday. SWMBO flips when my brew days take 6 hours.
So, the mash went in Sat night around 8. It was to be a double decoction to Kaiser's methods. Everything went well. I missed my protein rest temp by 7-8°F but who cares. I guess I should have returned more of the partial first decoction that I did.
The best thing that happened was my buddy and his woman showed up. She talk to wifey, and he and I drank beer and sparged and sparged and sparged and sparged. No hydro reading yet, I kept some wort aside because my hydro broke.
Yesterday was an easy boil day, I cooled the wort to 90 with my coil in 15 minutes, then I put it in a corny and it's sitting in the kegger cooling to pitching temps. It should be there by bedtime tonight I think.
Everything went right within reason. There was no fight with SWMBO about the length of time it took.
I am going to take a brew-cation and enjoy my beers for a while. I'm going to try to hold off until end of Sept before I brew again. True story. And I am going to enjoy it.
