Brewday: Thanksgivingfest

I learned a very valuable lesson yesterday. I had measured my hops into little glass bowls, all identical, and I had put them in order and assumed I would remember which one was which.

I did not. I got out there, and put them down, and realized I had no idea which one was which. The aromas were similar enough that I didn't want to chance mixing up the wrong one, and completely adjusted my hop additions on the fly, because I had .75 ounces of each of the variety still in the bag, which had initially been intended for late additions of aroma and flavor. Instead, I used the lower hop variety - Santiam at 7.2 AAU - at .75 ounces for the Bittering Charge, and saved all the potent Magnum for the end of the boil because too much Magnum would overpower the malty Oktoberfest flavors!

So, what I learned is this: Carefully mark your hop additions because in fifteen minutes you can completely forget which is which, and unboiled, they can smell very similar to each other. Sure, Cascade is quite different from Magnum, but Santiam and Magnum are both noble-hop-esque and the danger of over-hopping the Oktoberfest with the high-alpha Magnum was very high.

Here's what I did, instead:

6 gallons of spring water
(+1/2 gallon of boiled tapwater starter of Wyeast Bavarian Lager and 1 pound of Golden Light DME)
5 pounds of Bavarian Pilsner Malt
2 pounds of Vienna Malt
2 pounds of Munich 10l
1 pound of Munich 20l
1 pound of Caramunich III (58l)
.75 ounces of Santiam Hops @60 minutes
.25 ounces of Santiam Hops @15 minutes
.25 ounces of Magnum Hops @15 minutes
.75 ounces of Magnum Hops @0 minutes

I mashed for 60 minutes at 153 in my brew-in-a-bag rig. The supremely hot day made it very easy to keep the mash temperature up. I didn't have to do much fiddling with the nozzles to hold mash temp when I was only trying to hold it about 50 degrees hotter than the air, itself, in full sun, with all metal equipment on a concrete pad.

Woof. So hot. I'm still rehydrating.

The boil went well, with lots of stirring.

I sent a lovely helper to the store to get bags of ice because I was concerned that the hose along the outside of the kettle simply wasn't enough to get the wort cool enough to put into a plastic bucket for refrigeration. Instead, I used an ice bath and the hose water to get the temperature down enough to pitch the yeast.

Now the waiting game. I have to wait for the yeast to chew through all that malt, and then transfer to secondary for a long lagering. No Oktober-drinking here. It won't even be close to ready by the first two weeks of Oktober!

This will be a Thanksgivingfest. It will be served to family at Thanksgiving.

As it will be hogging my fridge for four or five months, I will be limited on my brewing options. This is fine by me, because it is ridiculously hot outside, and getting hotter, and I stocked up on plenty of Honey-Witbier and Red Ale to keep through the longest, hottest months.

See ya in September and happy brewing!