Porter Deux Brew

What a great day. Spring fever hit hard as temps were in the 70's after shoveling 4 inches on Monday. What better way to celebrate than to get my brew on with the porter. 8am found me at Cabelas becoming the proud new owner of a stainless steel 30qt pot, and the cabelas fish cooker base. More than I wanted to spend, but oh well. I look at it as an "hey, it wasn't cancer" present. Used 70$ in cabelas points so it evened out.

Brew went well, up until boil almost started and I realized I was 1 oz short of fuggles. Keystone was open and hazed me appropriately. I could no be happier with the outcome so far. Pitched at 63 degrees!

Burner only used about 2 lbs of propane??? Is that possible?

2:25 2.5 gals in steep pot with grain bill of .5 Crystal 60, .5 Chocolate, .5 black patent and .75 Carapils
2:56 152 degrees
3:10 cranked up stove to Med High
3:13 158 degrees. Fired burner outside with water level up to 2 inches below "min fill mark"
3:30 Moved hot liquor to brew pot. Sparge 1.5 gals @ 172
3:42 Pot level up to bottom rivets.
3:50 Emergency shut off and race to Keystone for 1 oz of fuggles because I am a dumbass
4:26 Pot fired up. Added 6 lbs of dme which took to within 1 inch of the top. Took time with heat to avoid boilover
5:05 Tossed 1 oz bramling cross pellets in a bag and stated count down
5:50 1 oz fuggles and whirlfloc. Whirlfloc damn near caused boilover.
5:58 .5 oz fuggles
6:02 .5 oz fuggles
6:05 flameout and chiller in
6:55 Started transfer, wort at 64
7:20 Pitched pretty weak bag of 1028 London Ale at 63 degrees dated Jan 20 that smacked at 1pm. This yeast better not screw me by being old.

OG 1.055

Tasted a shot of the liqor at 152, post 152, 158 and sparge. Pretty interesting profiles. Could definately tell it was thicker at 158, but that may just have been due to time.



March 28, 2009- Bottling day. I have to say, it is good as it is. I think the carapils did the job. I will be interesting to see how the carbonation and rest change things, but at the moment, I couldn't be happier with a flat warm porter and I am drinking the schwag as I speak. FG 1.013

Original Extract 13.55
Apparent Extract 3.32
Real Extract 5.25
Specific Gravity 1.021
Apparent Attenuation 75.5
Real Attenuation 61.3
ABW 4.4
ABV 5.7
Cals/12oz 188