If you're new and brewing today clap your hands! *clap*

Finally doing my second batch today; a Robust Porter. The plan is to brew today and let it age till Christmas eve where I plan to crack one open by a warm fire and reap the spoils of my work and patience (yay for aged beer).

If you're brewing a batch today post a pic of how things are going. When I get into my mash I'll snap a few and post them up myself.

*EDIT* Mash is started and I hit my temp right on at 152. Now I just have to wait and see how well my Cooler keeps it at a constant temp. It's 10:15, so I did ok hitting my 10 am start time. Considering I hung out and did some stuff with my GF this morning that I wasn't account for. Time to clean and sanitize some a Carboy! All is good in brewing world.

*EDIT 2* Having trouble hitting 152 and keeping a constant temp with my grains. I'm at 150ish and just can't get it to raise another 2 degrees. =( How will this affect my brew in the end. =/ Just read a part in Palmer's book. Says temps around 150 produce a lower bodied beer. Not great for a porter. =( Man, I wish I could get it up another 2 degrees. =/

Well I was planning on brewing a Kolsch this morning, but I got some tickets to a sold out concert last night at the last minute. Needless to say I am in pretty bad shape this morning. Pounding head, upset stomach, bleeding ears, etc.

I bottled yesterday.

Cool cool! Yeah, I'm rocking out pretty hard. Got a lot of bubbles in my tube when I transfered my mash to my kettle. I know there is a potential to worry about hot side aeration there, but then again I've heard a lot of people say it isn't that big of a deal. Thoughts?

*EDIT* First hop addition just added to the boil. Boy, it's freakin hot to be brewing. Good thing I'm replenishing fluids with a nice Blue Moon. =D

Finished. Shot for an OG of 1.065 and hit 1.075. I'm now boiling 1/2 gallon of water to get the gravity to my estimated 1.065.

On a completly random note, I had a neighbor come introduce himself and admire my setup. He said he was a brewer from about 17 years ago. Needless to say I invited him over for my next brew day. He was more than happy to come out and lend a helping hand. Yay for meeting people through brewing.

Finished my brew day. Here are a few pics for those interested.

Draining out the mash:



Sweet Sweet Boil, and my drink of choice for the day:



68 Degree Wort, and boy was it a pretty color:



The beginning of a 3 month journey:



All in all, it was a good brew day. I had some troubles hitting my temps in the mash, but that's something I just need to learn for my system (150-151 instead of 152). I also missed my OG by 1.010 and had to quickly boil and chill some extra water to bring it down. Again, note to self to toss and extra half gallon in the boil. Although straggly enough I had no problem with using 6.5 gallons in my boil last time. I'm guessing that more grain this time sucked up the extra water meaning I needed a bit more to hit my OG.

I'll let you guys know how it is on Christmas Eve.

Right on man! Welcome to the obsession.

But are you REALLY going to wait until Christmas to sample that porter. I dunno -- looks pretty yummy to me!

Seriously, you want to wait. So you better brew something low and light, so it is ready to drink quick!

Cheers, and best of luck in your upcoming brews. Looks like you have a nice setup there -- hop you get lots of use of it all in the near future!

Looking sexy dude! I love seeing pics of peoples brew days! It's inspiring!

After reading your post I decided to make myself feel better. I brewed a pot of coffee, took some aspirin and ate some food. I don't have the energy to do a full out brew, but I did rack my Blue Moon Clone to secondary, and I'm going to bottle my West Coast Red Ale.

Great equipment. I'm still doing my extract thing. One day......

Oh, I'd be brewing too if my yeast starter would start more vigorously.

FlyGuy said:

Right on man! Welcome to the obsession.

But are you REALLY going to wait until Christmas to sample that porter. I dunno -- looks pretty yummy to me!

Seriously, you want to wait. So you better brew something low and light, so it is ready to drink quick!

Cheers, and best of luck in your upcoming brews. Looks like you have a nice setup there -- hop you get lots of use of it all in the near future!

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Thanks man, it's pretty awesome. I have a Weizen that is almost done and am toying with the idea of doing an all grain dunkelweizen to pitch on the yeast cake. >_< Note too sure though, depends on how I feel. Also, I should be getting two Carboys in from morebeer.com on Tuesday and plan to brew sometime on Wednesday or Thursday (Pale Ale) and then once again this weekend (Saturday hopefully for a yummy Pumpkin Ale) since I have to start back to work again on Monday.

On a final note: it is my personal goal not to taste this until a roaring fire is going in my fireplace Christmas eve... It will be hard, but well worth the wait I hope. =D

mrb said:

Great equipment. I'm still doing my extract thing. One day......

Oh, I'd be brewing too if my yeast starter would start more vigorously.

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I'm in the same boat too, well... sort of hanging off the gunnel.

I was going to do a double brew today (dopplebock and some sort of ale with the second runnings) but the oktoberfest from last week isn't done with the primary, and I need the yeasties from there for the dopplebock. Checked the gravity yesterday and it's at 1.024 from 1.060 - close, but i'm hesitant to rack too early. Tomorrow it is!

Just sampled what I had in the tube for my hydro, and I must say it's very tasty even at this point. I definitely get a little toastyness as well as some chocolate. Can't wait to see how it goes once the good old yeasties have their fun with it! Only 3 more months. =D

You are a VERY patient man!!!

mrb said:

You are a VERY patient man!!!

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Good things come to those who wait. =D I'm just hoping that the wait pays off!

Wow, you're inspirational. I'm going to have trouble waiting 6 weeks for my porter, let alone 3 months! Maybe I can convince myself to let a few bottles wait til winter to see how it ages... maybe

Sigafoos said:

Wow, you're inspirational. I'm going to have trouble waiting 6 weeks for my porter, let alone 3 months! Maybe I can convince myself to let a few bottles wait til winter to see how it ages... maybe

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Yeah, this is going to be very tough. I just went into my fermentation closet to check out the progress. It's starting to bubble pretty fast, about once a second, and I'll be darned if the co2 coming off doesn't smell wonderful! I can't wait to taste the stuff if this is what the yeasties byproducts are smelling like!

*clap*

Great looking kit and beer Jekster. Quite inspirational.

My very first brew is happily bubbling behind me as I type. Keep looking at it, checking the temperature, trying to smell it. Might keep it in the bedroom tonight...

I really want to get my wit going. I was going to do it last weekend, but a bunch of stuff came up and I'll be gone this weekend. I want to do it tonight, but the yeast is still in the fridge. Maybe I'll cook up a starter and get it all good to go for Friday night.

I'm a bit hesitant to let it go when I'm not going to be around since it's my first time using the WLP Wit yeast. SWMBO will flip if she comes home to beer on the ceiling. I was going to just jam a piece of racking hose into my bucket lid as a blow, but I'd rather be around for when it really starts to take off. We'll see.

adx said:

I really want to get my wit going. I was going to do it last weekend, but a bunch of stuff came up and I'll be gone this weekend. I want to do it tonight, but the yeast is still in the fridge. Maybe I'll cook up a starter and get it all good to go for Friday night.

I'm a bit hesitant to let it go when I'm not going to be around since it's my first time using the WLP Wit yeast. SWMBO will flip if she comes home to beer on the ceiling. I was going to just jam a piece of racking hose into my bucket lid as a blow, but I'd rather be around for when it really starts to take off. We'll see.

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Your wit will take off, especially if you use a starter. Mine, using WLP 320, needed a blow off about 24 hours after I pitched the yeast. I would say, just start it with a blowoff and you'll be fine.