I am brewing version 1.2 (Chinook) of my House Ale today. The weather is odd this morning. There is a thick fog and I am having a hard time waking up.
8:24 Gas is on. Water is heating.
8:53 Yeast packs out and smacked. All have a 6/8/11 manufacturing date. Mr. Malty says that means 93% viability, or 279B cells. I wanted at least 231B, so I’m good to go.
8:58 Water is hot. Moving on to the mash.
8:59 The strike temperature should be 167 °F. In my lexicon, that is the stable temperature of the water to which I add the grains. The water in the kettle is 172 °F. It is my experience that I will lose a few degrees in the transfer to, and in heating up, the mash tun. As an experiment, I am going to go with 172 °F as the temperature before transfer.
9:01 Measuring out the mash and boil salts. I did them the night before for the last brew day. However, since they are salts, and as such they are hygroscopic, they were little piles of mush stuck to the bottom of the container by brew time.
9:05 Transfer complete. Volume is a touch over 5 gallons. The strike water is 161 °F in the tun. It should be 167 °F.It looks like the kettle temperature should have been 178 °F. I have my sparge water already heated, so I am using it to adjust the temperature. Adjusted temperature is just slightly over 161 °F. I add the grains. Half way through I add the mash salts (and I dump the boil salts into the bottom of the now empty boil kettle). I have a bunch of little dough balls on top and I don’t know why. I’m going to say that the mash started at 9:13, put the lid on, and check where the mash temperature stabilized in ten minutes.
9:23 The temperature seems to have stabilized between 156 °F and 157 °F. Since I wanted 156 °F, I am going to say this is close enough. I have set an alarm for 10:13 when the mash should be complete.
10:13 Mash is done. Final mash temperature was just over 156 °F. Awesome. Moving on to lauter, drain, and batch sparge.
10:17 The sparge water is down to about 150 °F. So, while I am draining the first runnings, I am going to reheat the sparge water.
10:18 I observe that the first runnings are insanely clear. I don’t think I have ever seen them this clear. They do not seem as dark as I expected. I wonder if I messed something up, or I did something right that I have always messed up before. I am going to take a gravity sample from the first runnings.
10:20 I thought I had a good lauter, but now I am seeing a considerable amount of grain floating around. Curious. Nothing to do about it now.
10:23 First runnings complete. Moving on to the sparge.
10:25 The gravity of the first runnings is 1.054 at 131 °F. The hydrometer is calibrated for 60 °F. That gives a gravity of 1.067 for the first runnings compared to 1.075 for the Memorial Day brew. Close enough.
10:26 It looks like I got 3⅝ gallons from the first runnings. I was looking for 3½. The color still does not look right to me.
10:44 The second runnings are in the kettle. The gravity of the second runnings was 1.014 at 130.5 °F (1.027). The volume is just over 6½ gallons (maybe a cup more). The boil gravity is 1.038 at 115 °F (1.047). I was looking for 1.052.
10:49 Starting the boil.
11:19 Boiling. Waiting for the hot break.
11:21 The hot break is insane. I do not know what is going on with this brew. It’s pretty close to the last ones but the differences are weird. Maybe since I got the mash salts in at the start of the mash and the mash temperature where it was supposed to be and the boil salts in at the start of the boil means that this is more like what this beer is supposed to do.
11:24 The hot break has subsided. Adding bittering hops.
12:09 Flavor hops are in. As are the Irish moss, the yeast nutrient, and the immersion chiller.
12:24 Aroma hops are in. Flame is off. Lid is on loosely. Letting hops steep for 20 minutes.
12:44 Started chilling and lifted hop bag to drain.
1:24 Wort chilled to 70 °F. Turning off and removing chiller. Removing hop bag. Stirring to form whirlpool and letting the wort settle for 20 minutes.
1:44 Draining. Final gravity is 1.058 at 72 °F (1.059). 1.059 expected. Ooops! Forgot to read final volume.
2:03 Drained. Aerating.
2:16 Wort in fridge. Set point at 68 °F. Pitched. Will lower to 64 °F for fermentation.
Saturday Morning The refrigerator overshot my target temperature and the nascent beer is at 60 °F. There are a few floating yeast colonies and some CO₂ formation, but nothing like I would expect at this point. I have the thermostat off and the door open in hopes that the temperature will get up to the bottom of the range for the yeast: 64 °F.
Saturday Evening The beer is up to 64 °F and there is a nice floc forming on the surface. I am closing the door and setting the thermostat for 66 °F. There is a 2 °F range on it, so when it comes on it will push the temperature back down to 64 °F.
Sunday Morning Beer is fermenting nicely at 63 °F.
Sunday Evening I have raised the set point on the thermostat to 67 °F.
Monday Morning Beer still fermenting at 63 °F, but kräusen is falling. I turned the fridge off and opened the door.
Monday Evening Beer has reached 67 °F but it looks like the yeast is nearly finished. Either fermentation is complete — it probably is — or it flocculated from the cold. I am taking the carboy out of the fridge to sit at room temperature for a diacetyl rest. I would like to keg the beer on July 1. I plan to cold crash the beer for three days, so that backs us up to Tuesday, June 28. I like to dry hop for five days, so again, that backs us up to this Thursday, June 23.
Thursday Evening Dry hopped.
Tuesday Evening Cold crash.
Friday Afternoon Kegged. Stunning clarity. Hydrometer sample was awesome, if slightly “beery.” Final gravity was 1.015. Expected 1.016.
Monday Morning I retrieved the hop bag from the Memorial Day batch I kicked yesterday and keg hopped this batch with it.