Posting this so I don't lose it. Just quotable, not rogue:
"When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. "It's all right" we whisper, "I'm here, I love you." and we lie: "I'll never leave you." For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad." - Neil Gaiman from Hellraiser #27, "Hold Me"
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Second All-grain Batch
I will get to blogging about things other than brewing soon. However, one of the things that I use this blog for is as sort of an electronic, wherever-I-may-be, brewing log. That means that today I will be writing all about my latest batch.
After a very late start, I got to brewing again today. I had an Irish Red recipe kit that I had ordered at the same time as the first batch's kit. Irish Red is typically red, malty, lightly hopped with caramel notes. After tasting the wort that I took out for testing, I have to say that it should be just that!
I started off the day grabbing some water over at the HyVee in Iowa City. Coralville's water has a history of being pretty funky and I like how the water I used last time worked, so I got some more today. I also had to get a digital thermometer because of the fun I had with temps last time. So off to the Coraville HyVee liquors this time since they have about the only brewing supplies around here. I still used the big graduated thermometers so I could see when I was getting in the ball park and while I was cooling the wort, so they still came in handy. I also picked up some amber dry malt extract in case I did not hit my expected gravity out of the mash.
Everything went fairly well mashing. I used a little too much water I think. The mash tun is still too big too, so my temp didn't hold as well as I'd like. I only hit about (1.035ish) 60% out of the mash, so I had to use a pound of dry malt extract to get back to my target (1.043) gravity.
I also had to play with the hop bill some as well. Once again this kit had my hops too high for the style, so I held out the Willamette (4.4% AA) bittering hops until 55 minutes and held back the flavoring/aroma E.K. Goldings (5.4% AA) until 15 minutes left.
Also at 15 minutes left I put my new wort chiller in with the boil to sanitize it. It was a bit of a fiasco getting the hose up to my deck, but eventually everything was hooked up and right after flame out I started the hose. I cooled that down to 82 degrees in about 25 minutes. I will be adjusting my immersion chiller so it sits higher in the kettle. I will get much better cooling that way. Overall I was very pleased with my chiller's operation. I just need to watch where I have the outflow pointing next time so I don't soak my pants.
My biggest mistake this time was leaving the wort to cool those last 5-10 degrees without shielding it from the fluorescent light. It sat in the carboy, with the top stoppered, but I forgot to cover it with the dark Tshirt I use to keep light off it and forgot to shut out the fluorescent light before we left for the hockey game. It sat in the light for about 4 hours of so. I hope it will not have any ill effect. After we got home the temp was down to 76, so in went the yeast. The first bubbling has just started, so all looks good so far.
After a very late start, I got to brewing again today. I had an Irish Red recipe kit that I had ordered at the same time as the first batch's kit. Irish Red is typically red, malty, lightly hopped with caramel notes. After tasting the wort that I took out for testing, I have to say that it should be just that!
I started off the day grabbing some water over at the HyVee in Iowa City. Coralville's water has a history of being pretty funky and I like how the water I used last time worked, so I got some more today. I also had to get a digital thermometer because of the fun I had with temps last time. So off to the Coraville HyVee liquors this time since they have about the only brewing supplies around here. I still used the big graduated thermometers so I could see when I was getting in the ball park and while I was cooling the wort, so they still came in handy. I also picked up some amber dry malt extract in case I did not hit my expected gravity out of the mash.
Everything went fairly well mashing. I used a little too much water I think. The mash tun is still too big too, so my temp didn't hold as well as I'd like. I only hit about (1.035ish) 60% out of the mash, so I had to use a pound of dry malt extract to get back to my target (1.043) gravity.
I also had to play with the hop bill some as well. Once again this kit had my hops too high for the style, so I held out the Willamette (4.4% AA) bittering hops until 55 minutes and held back the flavoring/aroma E.K. Goldings (5.4% AA) until 15 minutes left.
Also at 15 minutes left I put my new wort chiller in with the boil to sanitize it. It was a bit of a fiasco getting the hose up to my deck, but eventually everything was hooked up and right after flame out I started the hose. I cooled that down to 82 degrees in about 25 minutes. I will be adjusting my immersion chiller so it sits higher in the kettle. I will get much better cooling that way. Overall I was very pleased with my chiller's operation. I just need to watch where I have the outflow pointing next time so I don't soak my pants.
My biggest mistake this time was leaving the wort to cool those last 5-10 degrees without shielding it from the fluorescent light. It sat in the carboy, with the top stoppered, but I forgot to cover it with the dark Tshirt I use to keep light off it and forgot to shut out the fluorescent light before we left for the hockey game. It sat in the light for about 4 hours of so. I hope it will not have any ill effect. After we got home the temp was down to 76, so in went the yeast. The first bubbling has just started, so all looks good so far.
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