I was supposed to go into work yesterday but I got the word that I could have the evening off which meant only one thing, time to brew! I had picked up everything from Princeton Homebrew earlier in the day and was ready to go by 2:30.
All of my grains were steeped in one bag, filling the kitchen with those delightful aromas that no one else in my house seemed to enjoy. My recipe was pretty simple and things went much smoother than my last batch which was a real mess. I was much more diligent in taking temperature readings and what not, I felt pretty good about the whole brewday.
I was a little nervous about my yeast given the problems I had with my pumpkin ale and it was also the first time I had used liquid yeast. I had originally thought I was going to use Wyeast's British Ale II but after going over some other strains with Joe I decided to try White Labs' Pacific Ale. It came recommended for the style and should create a maltier profile which I'm hoping will balance out some of the bitterness from the coffee.
This is the first time that I've set up a blow-off tube which really calms my nerves about any explosions that my parents would not appreciate with the carboy sitting in the dining room. I'm probably going to let this one sit in the primary for about a week before racking to the secondary where I'll add the coffee. I have basically just enough time to have this ready for the December 7th competition so I hope nothing goes wrong.
Cheers!
Sounds like it's going to be great! I love homemade coffee beer.
ReplyDelete