Brew Day Report

Saturday was another big brew day as Shawn and I brewed up 10 gallons of Belgian White.

Shawn brought up his newly converted "Keggle" and propane burner and we used them for a Hot Liqueur Tank setup.

We again had issues hitting our Mash Temps, but we kept at it and finally prevailed. I blame the freezing ambient temperatures for most of our problems.

We used the large Mash/Lauter Tun for the first time as well and it performed as expected.

Jess was a big part of the team as well helping out and she even surprised us with a 'tank-o-bloody marys'!

We used our existing lid for the boil although Shawn is working on a new version that will be even better. The biggest foul-up of the day was mine. When I wrote my shopping list for ingredients I had to double the recipe since we were brewing a 10 gallon batch and I forgot to double the hops and spices. DOH! This is the first time I have ever screwed up a recipe, but I think the beer will be fine. It will just be sweeter than intended.

Overall it was a great day. Shawn finally got a brew session under his belt and we've got a total 25 gallons of All Grain beer fermenting in the basement. We have a long way to go with regards to working efficiently (something over which Shawn and I both obsess) but we're on the path.

One of the big thrills if the day was seeing and tasting the Hefewiezen that I brewed 2 weeks ago. The color is amazing (see the carboys in the picture) and it tastes fantastic - totally different from the extract version.

Batch #19 - Whitetail Holiday Ale

Brew Date: 12/6/08
Recipe: See Brew Sheet


I brewed up five gallons of this holiday ale for a friend's snow-tubing party that takes place in February.

This, my second all grain batch, went much more smoothly than my first attempt. My new thermometer worked well and I generally fumbled around less.

Shawn had built a top for our kettle (with an adjustable steam port) out of lexan which worked great. It took much less energy to keep the boil going and we didn't loose so much wort to boil-off. The only problem: the lexan started to loose rigidity due to the heat, sagging almost an inch. We'll have to start over with another material.

The big lesson I learned was this: I get tired by the end of a 7 hour brew day and start making mistakes. More experience will help but having a brewing partner on Saturday for the next batch will be great.