So yesterday morning I decanted the starter "beer" and added another 1/2 gallon starter on top of the yeast slurry and headed off to work with brewing to look forward to upon my return.
I came home to a starter with a nice krausen on top and 6 gallons of strike water at the perfect temperature (SWMBO is so awesome!!!)... it's Tripel time :rockin:
Everything just seemed to go smoothly:
- The mash only lost 0.4*F over 75 minutes (more grain, less headspace I'm assuming)
- Sparge volume ended to up being exactly what we wanted
- The starter was the proper size and pitched at high krausen
- Hit 72% efficiency (have been having problems lately not getting over 68%)
Even when I realized with 5 minutes left of the boil that the bucket we had already cleaned/sanitized didn't have a lid to go with it, we simply got the proper equipment sanitized to transfer our maple cream ale into a corny and cleaned it's lid in a calm and efficient manner and didn't let it phase us. It took a little over a year but I believe we have our set-up dialed in and completely figured out. It's a great feeling, considering the severe ghetto nature of our rig.
What this post really boils down is I wouldn't be to this point if it wasn't for the great talent and patience of everybody on HBT. Through all of you I have learned in three years what could have taken twice as long on my own.
Thank you!
I came home to a starter with a nice krausen on top and 6 gallons of strike water at the perfect temperature (SWMBO is so awesome!!!)... it's Tripel time :rockin:
Everything just seemed to go smoothly:
- The mash only lost 0.4*F over 75 minutes (more grain, less headspace I'm assuming)
- Sparge volume ended to up being exactly what we wanted
- The starter was the proper size and pitched at high krausen
- Hit 72% efficiency (have been having problems lately not getting over 68%)
Even when I realized with 5 minutes left of the boil that the bucket we had already cleaned/sanitized didn't have a lid to go with it, we simply got the proper equipment sanitized to transfer our maple cream ale into a corny and cleaned it's lid in a calm and efficient manner and didn't let it phase us. It took a little over a year but I believe we have our set-up dialed in and completely figured out. It's a great feeling, considering the severe ghetto nature of our rig.
What this post really boils down is I wouldn't be to this point if it wasn't for the great talent and patience of everybody on HBT. Through all of you I have learned in three years what could have taken twice as long on my own.
Thank you!
The yeast is a beast and smells amazing. 
