Brew Day

Well brew day was a huge, huge success. Mostly because of my new cart and the elimination of my counterflow wort chiller. Mounting the water filter and buying some new dedicated hoses also added to the smoothness of the operation.

I am certain that this is my last extract brew. Certain.

I opted to go with a whole boil versus the reduced extract boil I am curious as to how hoppy the beer will come out because I did not adjust the hops. On the downside, I came up a little shy of 5 gallons. I already added an additional gallon at the beginning, but in hind sight I should have added even more than that.

I secured the Bazooka-T with a clamp, so that managed to stay in place the entire time. Also, my new joints held well and when I drained the kettle it perfectly maintained a siphon until the very end.

The wort chiller was great. I dropped it in the last fifteen minutes of the boil and it reduced the wort to 80 degrees in about 20 minutes. It could have gone faster, but I had the coils spread to far apart; an easy fix for next time.

Nate stopped by for the boil and shared a bottle of The Drew's '07 holiday brew. It was a mild English ale with a hint of orange and clove. Really good stuff.

Well I am stoked at how well my setup worked. I have a brew in the secondary and today's in the primary. I need to make room because I am brewing again...soon.