Brew Session 9/18/10 (Brown Ale)

So the date 9/18/10 held true for my latest brew session. This was my 2nd all grain brew and did not go nearly as smoothly as my first...go figure. Pretty much anything that could go wrong, did...never did RDWHAHB (Relax, don't worry, have a home brew) ring true more than it did tonight.

First the mash started poorly, I over calculated the temperature to mash in and the water did not lose much temperature. So the mash was around 168...a good 12 degrees higher than I wanted it. So after mashing for a good hour it was time to sparge, which I did just fine...pretty easy when you brew in a bag with all grain! After the sparge it was time to bring the wort to a boil which was easy going...a little to easy.

I was anticipating the hot break, was ready for it, handled it with ease..no boil over! Wooohooo! I then added the hops and bam...instant boil over....my first one of my young brewing career. Life goes on...boiled for 60 minutes, hit all my additions on time and was back on track again...or so I thought.

The one highlight of the night was my new wort chiller...this was the first batch I was able to use it and it worked great. If only the tap water in Phoenix would get cooler than 90 degrees it would have been more efficient. So after about 15-20 minutes of letting the warm tap water circulate through the chiller to cool down the wort, I was ready to siphon into the fermenter...finally. I should tell you this evening began right around 6:30pm...I was finally siphoning at around 10:15pm...a bit behind schedule.

Anyways, after siphoning it was time to pitch the yeast which I have done flawlessly numerous times, figures on 9-18 I would end up screwing this very simple procedure up. So I sprinkle the yeast on the wort, fairly easy to do right...well at the very end, I was shaking the package to get all the yeast out and bam....package slipped from my hands right into the wort...I quickly pulled it out, put the lid and airlock on and placed it into my newly completed fermentation chamber.

So with all the mistakes made it should be interesting to see how this brown ale turns out...I'm expecting it to finish with a higher F.G...which will make for a sweeter than anticipated ale....only time will tell! Here are a few pics from this brew.

Heating up the water for mash in

mash looking good

Evidence of boil over seen, new wort chiller in action

Until next time...

Brew day approaching

T minus 2 days until brew day. This will be the first brew day in months as I have been working on obtaining more equipment. I recently acquired a Haier NuCool refrigerator which I must say has to suck as an actual refrigerator, however, makes for a perfect fermentation chamber. I connected a digital temperature controller so I now have a chamber which is a constant 60 degrees, which I'm guessing will put the actual fermentation temperature around 65-68 degrees.

Welcome!

Hello Ladies and Gentleman! This is my first attempt at a blog and will chronicle my brew days and everything that has to do with brewing from my home....aka, Diamond Street Brewery. Yes, yes, how original I know, but I kinda like it so deal with it.

I've been home brewing for about 3 years now and have some good batches under my belt....and some not so good batches under my belt. All in all this hobby rocks and I can't wait to share this will all of my followers, which reminds me, how many do I have, yep, that's right, 0.

I shall update as often as I can which is as often as I brew, which isn't often these days, but that will about to change, hello temperature controlled fermentation's!