Brew Day 2.19.09

[Superman3278]

Mesa Valley American Ale was the days brew on deck and it went better than expected. Brewing the batch got under way @ 5pm and finished @ 10pm with clean up and gear back in storage.

I started with 15 quarts of strike water @ 168f and dough in 10# American 2 row w/ 1# each rye flakes and crystal 60 for 75 minutes. First runnings measured 1.060.

Next 15 quarts of H20 @ 170f was added to the mash and allowed to rest for 20 min. before draining. The final gravity of the wort came out to 1.052.

Total wort colected was 6.5 gallons. Next up the boil and hops schedule.
Old faithful (my 7.5 gal pot) got busy boiling up the wort and centenial was the first hop to take a bath. Next up was Mt. hood @ 30 min. with kent goldings and irish moss @ 15.

Chilling the wort went well, it took about 6 min. However the IC did become unsoldered at the support weld at the top. Guess the heat found fault with my weld, luckly the imortant one held up perfect.

I used Wyeast Labs 1056 smack pack (first smack pack I used to date) and found it to be as ecpected. I plan to recover the yeast cake for future brews, @ 6.99 a pack I would like to get at least 4 more uses of the little soldiers.

A week or less in the bucket and then another 5 days in a secondary before kegging this nector of the valley.

Well thats my report and I am drinking to it.

 

[Aleforge]

Hey I live close to you (lake st.Louis) let me know when your going to drink it.

 

[Superman3278]

Will do, always glad to share.

 

[Superman3278]

Well it is update time, and here is the final product is kegged and force carbing @ 34* and 12 psi. The fermentaion stopped after 4 days or at least to crawl, so I racked it to secondary until 2.02.09. A total of 12 days has past and then racked it to kegg. The FG was 1.006 for an ABV of 4.6 (1.052 - 1.006 = 4.6 ABV).

The taste was off a bit, not shure why until looking thru my supplies for preparing next batch. My Wyeast 1056 is in the ice box and not the Wyeast 1084, Son Of A B*##% !
Oh well , I now have an Irish Red Ale instead of the American Ale as planned. As for the taste, it is a bit bitter on the end, due to the Mt. Hood and Kent combo. Overall I Like it, and I don't mind the bite at the end. The planned attenuation was higher but we know why it was not.

In the future I plan to use a large white lable to mark the liquid packs as not to get confused again. In closing, I reserved two Pints of unfermented wort (in the soda bottles) and recaputured the Red Soldiers for future use.

BrewHouse efficiancy is 83%

Thats my report and I am drinking to it!