Ok. I realized the other night that the last time I made beer the propane burner was upside down. Don’t ask.
Today the weather is beautiful. K. is hanging out in the garage with me. The burner is right-side up.
The recipe is a slight variation of Papazian’s Silver Dollar Porter, but I changed it, so I get to rename it. Here are the ingredients:
- 8 pounds 6-row malted barley
- 1 pound Munich malt
- 1 pound dark (120 somethings) crystal malt
- 3/4 pound chocolate malt
- 1/4 pound black patent malt
- 1 teaspoon Gypsum
- 1/2 teaspoon Irish Moss Power
- 2 oz. Goldings hops (boiling)
- 1 oz. Northern Brewer hops (finishing)
- 1 thingy of Irish Ale Yeast
Throughout the brewing process I will be working on organizing brewing supplies and (I shouldn’t have to say this) cleaning up from the last brew. Here goes.
| time | notes |
| 12:52 | Added 9 quarts of water at 135 degrees to grain in thermos. Temp stablized at 124. About 18 minutes to go on 30 minute protein rest. |
| 12:58 | I just realized that the Papazian recipe calls for adding the gypsum in the protein rest. I am going to add it now. |
| 13:10 | I am heating the wate in smaller batches this time… just enough for the next step. Heated 3 gallons for the protein rest, not heating 2 gallons for the mash. |
| 13:18 | Added 6 quarts of water. First quart was nearly boiling. The 6th quart was down to about 180. Temp stabilized at about 150. Leave for about 15 minutes. This is one problem with boiling small quantites… the temp drops faster. |
| 13:44 | Added about 3 quarts of radiply boiling water to get temp up to about 156. Leaving for about 15 minutes. Notice that it the first step of starch conversion lasted much longer than 15 minutes. |
| 14:17 | In the process of sparging. I put two big rocks on the plastic filter in the lautertun to hold it down. Seems to be working. |
| 14:40 | On to the boil. I’m eating some of the spent grains for lunch with a little sugar and milk. |
| 14:58 | Rolling boil for the last few minutes. Had to stir down the foam. Added the Goldings. Will boil until I have only 5.25 gallons left. Started with 6 – 6.5. |
| 16:06 | Added Irish Moss. Boiled for a bit. Added finishing hops. Boiled for about 2 minutes. Chilling. I didn’t have time to make the new chiller, so I’m using the old one. |
| 16:36 | Pitched at about 76 degrees. Specific gravity 1.052. Boiled away too much… down to about 4.5 gallons. |
When the going got tough, I relaxed, stopped worrying, and had a can of coke.
I have been out of touch, lost in my own little world.
How did the beer turn out?
How were the spent grains with milk and sugar?
I need to brew SOON. It’s been too long.