A day of firsts

Today was by far the most interesting brew day to date. It was the first time I was able to use my Glock box stir plate for my starter. It was my first BIAB. It was my first brew with my new 10 gallon aluminum kettle. It was my first IPA. It was the first batch to use my homemade counter flow chiller.

Had a few small learning curves along the way. Started out with 7 gallons of water. Between grain absorption, burn off, and slopping wort from the counter flow chiller, I ended up with only 4 gallons in the primary. The main difficulty was in not yet having an opportunity to install a valve in the kettle, so instead I took the risk of syphoning from the kettle using the racking cane. Between the hoses popping off and hot sticky wort spraying everywhere, the valve and possibly a thermometer are going to be a high priority. I was very pleased to see that the counter flow chiller worked as intended, and I'm very excited to see it function by allowing the wort to simply gravity feed through it into the carboy. The chiller based around a piece of 20' copper tubing, and it came out at slightly colder than room temperature.

This IPA was Northern Brewer's Dead Ringer all grain kit. I usually call them by their given names, however my brew partner and I decided that given the struggles of this batch (not bad overall, just a challenge for so many new techniques) that this beer deserved a special name. About that time my two girls (4 and 8) started coming out into the deck, which had been covered in sticky wort. When the girls were told to stay inside while we finished, they asked the obvious question "why", to which I sarcastically answered "because daddy's angry". I am now looking forward to the 4 gallons of Daddy's Angry IPA that should begin fermentation soon.

I LIKE it!! Daddy's angry!!!!! Very good. By the way, if it's an IPA I'm assuming it had a bunch of hops. Especially if they were whole hops they soak up a TON of wort!!!! You can NEVER allow for enough hop soakage, so the 4 gallons in the primary isn't so bad!

Also... the fact that you typed that whole post without any spelling errors leads me to believe that you weren't drinking enough during the brew session. I usually wake up the next morning when I've brewed with a buddy hoping I remembered the yeast!

Fairbanks sucks by the way! Lol ha ha just kidding!!!
Hey.. do you guys have a decent local brew supply up there?
Cheers!

It had 4 ounces of pellet hops added, and one more in reserve for dry hopping. Since my brew partner doesn't like IPAs, I can only assume the 1 gallon loss was his sacrifice!

It was also the first brew where we were able to pull cold, fresh pints of homebrew off the kegerator! We took it pretty easy, since there was a lot of new part to our technique. The pale mild was light and crisp to start out with, and the coffee porter went very well with the ribeyes for dinner!

There are two LHBSs in town, if one place doesn't have it the other probably does. I've found I have to plan my brews ahead of time, so if I can't did what I need locally I can order it. I'll be in Anchorage in June, and plan on stocking up on some grain and hops to have on hand. I love Northern Brewer products and service, but their shipping costs more than the kits themselves.

worksnorth said:

I LIKE it!! Daddy's angry!!!!! Very good. By the way, if it's an IPA I'm assuming it had a bunch of hops. Especially if they were whole hops they soak up a TON of wort!!!! You can NEVER allow for enough hop soakage, so the 4 gallons in the primary isn't so bad!

Also... the fact that you typed that whole post without any spelling errors leads me to believe that you weren't drinking enough during the brew session. I usually wake up the next morning when I've brewed with a buddy hoping I remembered the yeast!

Fairbanks sucks by the way! Lol ha ha just kidding!!!
Hey.. do you guys have a decent local brew supply up there?
Cheers!

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Oh, forgot to mention it was my first boil over too! Thankfully it was outside on the deck. I was preoccupied with trying to diagnose a water leak that it snuck away on me!