Thursday, December 25, 2014

Brewing Again

Has it really been three years since my last post? There was an excellent batch of mead (Hafdan's Viking Mead) a couple of years ago, but nothing since then.

My wife and I brewed our first batch together about a month ago. To keep things simple, we went with "Whitey's Gone Fishin' Pale Ale" (p.171), with some substitutions on the hops. We subbed Hersbrucker for the Strisselspalt at 10 minutes, and finished with Galena instead of Sterling at the finish. I wanted a more citrusy finish, since that's what my wife prefers.

It spent two weeks in primary, and then went into the keg. The fermentation wasn't quite finished, but re-racking it would likely have stopped it at that point. The result was good, nice and drinkable, and the fermentation seems to have gone a bit further in keg.

All said, we're happy with it. I need to get a new hose for rinsing before we brew again, since the old one had since been repurposed. I'll probably want it for cleaning the keg, too; otherwise I don't have a great way to rinse it out.