09 March 2009

Frye?...Frye?

OK, it's been a month and this page has gotten more stale then yesterday's doughnuts. What's going on?

Saturday I took advantage of the nice 70° weather and a yeast cake of WLP833 from my Maibock and brewed 10 gallons of Dopplebock. It was a little bit of a logistical concern, since my mash tun and kettle are both 15.5 gallon kegs. 25 pounds of grain at average grain/water ratio is pretty much the max for the mash tun. Each 5 gallon batch called for 20 pounds of grain. I could've double mashed, using wort from both batches to fill the kettle, but the preboil volume was 14.5 gallons---a little too close to the maximum for comfort and feasibility. So I boiled the first while mashing the second. In all, it took about 6 hours and I hit my target OG and volumes with no problems. I had 40 pounds (dry) of spent grain when done.

Prior to that, I brewed 10 gallons of Centennial IPA with a fellow local brewer. He brought the Centennial whole leaf hops and his computer and the brew session was broadcasted on his Mogulus channel. If I can ever get a notebook and a wireless internet connection here, I'll be doing more of that!

Lastly, I have a German Pilsner and a Maibock that are lagering and awaiting the day when we can be acquainted! Late April/early May will be the date.

Oh, and one more thing...I apologize to those who've linked my blog; if you previously noticed that the favor wasn't returned, it wasn't intentional. Once this blog was upgraded to the new Blogger interface, I lost a little info. If you don't see yours on there, please let me know!!

Cheers!