I purchased some hop rhizomes from my local brewing shop. I got Cascade and Magnum. Which are supposed to be two varieties that are both hardy and popular for beer recipes. For once the layout of my yard is really working to my advantage. I have a side of the house that faces south without anything else going on over there. I followed their instructions for planting and they should be ready to grow up some twine to my roof line.
January 24, 2009
Started Irish Red.
Should have made starter a couple days ahead per instructions. Used WYEAST 1056 Propagator. Did make starter, used for ~2 hours.
Used a ~5 gallon pot. Didn’t have any problems with over foaming.
Cooled the wort by placing pot inside fermenter and adding ice to sides and inside while stirring. Only two applications were required.
The stirrer did an excellent job of cooling and aerating the wort. Angled at ~45 deg did a great job of getting air into wort. SG = 1.05 @ 78° F.
All ingredients smell great.
Made up water with 4lbs ice to cool and half gallonish for volume. boiled 4 gallons of filtered water for wort.
February 1, 2009
Specific Gravity = 1.012@ 65° F
Huge yeast colony on bottom of primary. 1-2 inches thick. Topped off with 1-2 quarts of filtered water.
February 13, 2009
SG = 1.011 @ 68° F
Using the starting and ending SGs a value of 5.3% alcohol/volume was found.
Roughly 47 bottles were made.
Had enough beer for at least two more bottles.
March 6, 2009
Beer tasting day. This beer tastes quite good, enjoyed by all.