Andy Chase

Beer, anyone?
Originally uploaded by Usonian.

Well, I stayed up way too late to do that, but it was fun to brew again and now it's done.

Original gravity for this five gallon batch was 1.044. I pitched the yeast at 87°F... it would have been more like 78, but I had to boil some more water at the last minute to top it off at five gallons. This was the "Theodoric of York's Best Bitter" kit from Beer and Winemaking Supplies in Northampton, Massachusetts.

For future reference: The pre-boiled, frozen/refrigerated water approach was fantastic for getting the wort temperature down rapidly. Anything more than the 2 frozen 2 liters would probably be too effective. However, next time the ice has got to be in something that it will just slide right out of. Trying to cut open a frozen PET plastic soda bottle without contaminating anything is not very realistic, and a bit dangerous.

I only hope that I didn't get too many foreign beasties into the wort as a result of wrestling so much with the frozen bottles before managing to get the ice out of them.

The fermentor is down in the workshop. Hopefully the airlock will be bubbling by morning.

Tagged:

• beer
• brewing
• homebrew
• homebrewing
• zymurgy