Sunday, March 25, 2007

Got my JooJoo on in the brewery Saturday night


Tonight was an epic night in the basement brewery. I racked 30 gallons of beer in various stages of fermentation all while brewing some Pale ale. I racked the American Pilsner to kegs last night. Now I have them conditioning in my lager chamber. I racked the Altbier that I brewed last week to secondary fermentation. I may end up cold conditioning this beer prior to putting it into kegs. As I briefly mentioned above I brewed an English style Pale Ale tonight. No shortage of hops here either. This baby went into the books with 45 IBU's and 1.5 ounces of Challenger hops at knockout. I fell short on the gravity for this one, which is no surprise lately.
My target was a lofty 1.060, and I ended up with 1.056. Despite my shit for efficiency, it will still be a fine beer. I'm going to invest in a new mill soon to remedy this situation and hopefully improve my efficiency. Right now I'm running at approximately 55%. With a more efficient roller style mill, I am certain that I will be a able to get my efficiency up to 80% which would not only be ideal, but permit me to brew higher gravity brews without maxing out my mash tun.

Taking full advantage of my time in the basement also afforded me a complete cleanup of my gear ready and prep it for the next brew session. I'm already thinking about my next batch. Maybe we'll shoot for a dark beer like a stout just to balance things up around here, as well as bring additional diversity to the beer selections on tap.
Coming to visit us soon? Something you would like to taste? Let me know, and I'll see what I can brew up. haha! Unfortunately no Belgians will be brewed until that new mill arrives.

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