#57

Saturday morning, 6 a.m. Not much else gets me up this early in the morning on my days off, 'cept for the kids when they're being ornery. What a great morning. Freakishly warm for January at 63°F! And whisper-quiet outside, hardly any noise other than the constant roar of the HLT burner.

It was time to brew up 10 gallons of Porter for a homebrew club competition next month. And it was also the first time I used the HopStopper (thanks, Santa!) I gotta say I'm very satisfied with this thing. It's hard to judge clarity going into a fermenter with a Porter but from what I saw looked good. No green and brown hop particles/trub going into the fermenter first.

Almost had an incident-free brew day until I got distracted and left the CPC Quick Disconnect on the hot keg seat! Lesson here is always have extra parts. I managed to make a make-shift one with a female QD x 1/2" MPT and a 1/2" FPT x 3/4" female garden hose.

In the end, I knocked out 10 gallons in 4 hours and was just a gravity point short of the anticipated OG. Nice cool wort went into the fermenters and the yeast was ready to go off the stir plate.

Next up: Oktoberfest!