I ended up not having anything else to do yesterday...so I brewed 25 gallons. I picked up 4 more kegs (how couldn't I for $10-$15 each?) on Saturday and had a severe urge to fill them 
I started Monday by picking up all the ingredients and roasting and marinating the jalapenos for one of the brews.
I started off the day yesterday by waking up at 6 and mashing for a Wit Black recipe I wanted to try from CloneBrews.
I hit a snag early by realizing it called for crushed anise, which I couldn't find the night before and wasn't able to find a substitute online, so I posted the question HERE. As the mash drained, I realized why you shouldn't brew so early in the morning. I hadn't stirred the grain well enough in the tun that I am still modifying and hit a terribly low conversion.
At this point I wasn't too concerned with the batch, and decided to go ahead and experiment after adding 2lbs of cane sugar. I went with anise oil, which can be seen here
At the end of the boil, the oils seemed to have dissolved (or maybe been absorbed in the hop pellets?) but it came out clear. The aroma I was left with included a mild anise hint. I think there is still potential.
After that brew, I moved to a 5 gallon batch of the Jalapeno Cream Ale seen HERE
Looks pretty good to me!
After that, it was lunch time. As I was checking the replies to my anise question, I wondered over to THIS post about the new KFC double-down, and decided to recreate it. I used 2 grilled and seasoned chicken breasts layered with lettuce and stacked high with homemade pulled pork smoked for 14 hours.
Pretty big!
I seem to have drawn some attention
I grabbed a homebrewed Vanilla Caramel Cream Ale seen HERE
Here is the final product! I finally wrapped up around 11 last night. It was a very long day(especially without a wort chiller!), but once I got in the groove of mashing and boiling a different batch at the same time it went very smooth.
I started Monday by picking up all the ingredients and roasting and marinating the jalapenos for one of the brews.
I started off the day yesterday by waking up at 6 and mashing for a Wit Black recipe I wanted to try from CloneBrews.
I hit a snag early by realizing it called for crushed anise, which I couldn't find the night before and wasn't able to find a substitute online, so I posted the question HERE. As the mash drained, I realized why you shouldn't brew so early in the morning. I hadn't stirred the grain well enough in the tun that I am still modifying and hit a terribly low conversion.
At this point I wasn't too concerned with the batch, and decided to go ahead and experiment after adding 2lbs of cane sugar. I went with anise oil, which can be seen here
At the end of the boil, the oils seemed to have dissolved (or maybe been absorbed in the hop pellets?) but it came out clear. The aroma I was left with included a mild anise hint. I think there is still potential.
After that brew, I moved to a 5 gallon batch of the Jalapeno Cream Ale seen HERE
Looks pretty good to me!
After that, it was lunch time. As I was checking the replies to my anise question, I wondered over to THIS post about the new KFC double-down, and decided to recreate it. I used 2 grilled and seasoned chicken breasts layered with lettuce and stacked high with homemade pulled pork smoked for 14 hours.
Pretty big!
I seem to have drawn some attention
I grabbed a homebrewed Vanilla Caramel Cream Ale seen HERE
Here is the final product! I finally wrapped up around 11 last night. It was a very long day(especially without a wort chiller!), but once I got in the groove of mashing and boiling a different batch at the same time it went very smooth.
