Sweet Sixteen - Continued

Sorry folks.. I'm posting a little out of order here. I'll follow up to what Moss said:

Saturday, March 27th was an absolutely beautiful and perfect day for brewing. I mean really, upper 60s/lower 70s in Houston with a nice breeze? Why wouldn't you be brewing? :)


If you remember what happened during our last triple brew, we decided to take it upon ourselves to not drink until the boil. Now we didn't say which boil, but the idea was no beers until boil...

Ok so we didn't last that long, we cracked open some cold Lagunitas IPA during mash and enjoyed the wonder day and brewing. :)

Here's a pic of Moss and checking temps in his mash and Fred surfing midget pr0n or something like that.


As Moss mentioned earlier he was making a German-style hefeweizen, while Fred was also making a hefeweizen and I was making a pale ale from a kit I bought from Austin Homebrew. Here's the recipe:

• 9# 2-Row
• 1# Medium Crystal (40L)
• 1 oz Sorachi Ace (14% AA) @ 60
• 0.5 Cluster (8% AA) @15
• 0.5 Sterling (8% AA) @ 15
• 0.5 Cluster (8% AA) @ 5
• 0.5 Sterling (8% AA) @ 5
• Target OG: 1.051
• Target FG: 1.012
• Est. ABV: 5.1%
  

Definitely been a while since I've done something even remotely hoppy, and I was curious to try out the Sorachi Ace hops (granted, they were pelletized). Have to admit, when I opened up that pouch and took a whiff, those hops weren't playing around! Here's a pic of the 3 kettles almost boiling in unison. Funny how 3 propane burners can warm up a garage :)


The mash was uneventful if not slow. Total mashout time including sparge was something ridiculous, like on the order of 1.5 hours. Boil was pretty straight-forward as the hop schedule was pretty standard. Finally at this point we cracked open a few ice-cold Pine Belt Pale Ales from Southern Star Brewing.


Racked the ale to the carboy, aerated (shook the shit out of it) and done. Might have been a hair under 5 gallons, but I hit my gravity at 1.052. I'm also digging the amber color, say thanks to the Crystal 40L and ask her how her momma durn!


Flocculation started pretty quickly, I happened to take a peek at her early Sunday afternoon where the pleasant smell of hops were being pushed out of the airlock. Looking forward to this one for sure.

Next up? Who knows... I still have beach bier (witbier) ingredients sitting here looking at me, and Moss and I are dying to crank out another 10 gallon. Stay tuned!

Prost,
Jeff