| By Tom K on Dec 20th 2007, 11:55 pm | Permalink |
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Bouncing back from a 6 month brewing hiatus while we got out of debt. Did the Dave Ramsey thing, and we're debt-free except for the house. Feels great! But the closet is bare, and it's time to restock with brew. Started with a cream ale that I will add vanilla to in secondary this weekend. Using part of the cake for a brown ale tomorrow, and then will use the whole cake from that to do an american barleywine (recipe TBD). After those I want to do a belgian golden ale to practice having a light touch, and then use the cake for a rochefort 8 or 10 clone. Seems like I'm planning my beers around my yeasts these days. I used to pitch a new vial and not reuse it. I also want to start planning brews for competition. I'm not looking to gratify my competitive streak (though it exists!), but I think that I need outside input and more discipline if I'm going to keep improving at this point. And maybe the wife will be impressed if I put a few ribbons on the wall.  |
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| By Tom K on Jan 5th 2007, 4:53 am | Permalink |
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I've been lurking and occasionally posting in the forums for about a year, but I just stumbled into the journal today. Love it! I brewed today, and it was supposed to be my first AG. I'd done a few mini-mashes in the pot or a cooler, but I haven't put together my cheap-n-easy yet. I did a batch today that was basically two mini-mashes instead of one mini-mash and extract. My pot is 3 gallons, so to do a full boil, I have to do it half a batch at a time. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a big hassle. It is. But I haven't geared up all the way yet, and I'm in flux on the job thing right now, so I don't need to be buying brewing gear until I'm making more money. The wife wants us to be all responsible and stuff. Anyway, I was shooting for a scottish ale, on the border between light and heavy. 1.035. I'd been talking with a buddy about oak, and so I threw this one out of style and into weird territory by adding some bourbon-soaked oak chips to primary. We'll see what we get. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First half of the batch went well, and I was doing the second half when I got weak in the knees. My last mini-mash was only 60% efficient, and the LHBS had had problems crushing my grain this time. Had to run it through twice. It looked good, but I lacked confidence. In my moment of weakness, I tossed in a half-pound of dry extract, just as an insurance policy to keep from brewing water. You see where this is going, right? Got it all in the fermenter, ready to pitch at 75F, and I check the SG. 1.046. 73% efficiency. Crap. Fired me right up into export territory! Pitched the yeast, and I'm headed to bed. I'm not annoyed or anything. I'm glad my efficiency is climbing, and it'll be a fine beer. But I'm not going to have predictable results until I get my setup together. Time to raid the piggybank and get that 30qt pot and a cheap-n-easy! |
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