IPL: Lager Miser

[BlackDuck]

The mash is on. And my assistant brewer is at the controls!!!

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[Beer-lord]

The alcohol and beverage folks are watching.
How can you work without stopping for a hug every 5 minutes?

[Inkleg]

[BlackDuck]

Well damn it!!! My BeerSmith locked up on me in the middle of the boil. I normally write the recipe on the descktop version then send it to the cloud to bring over to my iPad. This is the first time I wrote it from start to finish on the iPad. I got a javascript error a couple of times while entering the recipe.

Well. I started the timer for the 90 minute boil and proceeded to clean some things up. Came back to the iPad and it was locked at 01:29:01, with the same javascript error. I am GUESSING that it has been boiling for about 15 minutes....DAMN IT. So I started the timer on my cell phone for the 75 minutes. I guess I'll measure the volume after that and see if it's close to the post boil volume, if it is, then I'll turn it off and I'll go from there.

[Beer-lord]

It's all good. I also forgot the timer but guesstimated.

[BlackDuck]

I'm all done. I ended up going by gravity reading instead of volume to tell me when the boil was over. I hit 1.056 instead of 1.057, BUT, my final volume was off a bit. I transferred 5.5 gallons into the fermenter, but that was with ALOT of the hop crud also. So really, I probably missed my volume by 1/2 gallon or so. Oh well, not too bad considering my BeerSmith failed me. I took a screen shot of the crash and I'll send it to Brad to see if he has any ideas on what's going on.

[Kealia]

I'm sure its going to come out just fine. The Force is strong in this one. Plus, you had your Padwan nearby!

[BlackDuck]

She really helped me out a lot on this batch. Went to the store with me on Saturday to get all the ingredients. She loved walking in the big walk in cooler where the hops and yeast are kept. AND...she even threw in the first wort hops into the pot right before I started the sparge. She was thrilled to help out.

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[Inkleg]

Green toe nails? She is a Super Hopper!

Even I don't go to that extent.

[BlackDuck]

I am going to give a different lager method a try on this one. I am going to follow the Brulosphy Lager Method. I am a little past 50% attenuation, but that shouldn't matter much, and I'll adjust the temp every 24 hours instead of every 12. This morning I adjusted my controller from 51 degrees to 55 degrees. I'll adjust 5 degrees per day, so on Thursday morning it will be at 65. Then on Monday, I'll take a peak at it and most likely take a gravity reading and see where we are.

[Kealia]

Oh, that's really going to screw things up

I've never heard of that approach - interesting. It seems like (according to the page) that this was 'developed' to turn lagers around quicker. I don't see any harm in that, I've just never heard of it before.

Best of luck to ya!

[BlackDuck]

Yup... I think it was Inkleg that sent that link to me. Might as well give it a shot right. I mean, isn't that what this is all about...experimenting and trying new things.

[Inkleg]

Correct, so if it goes wrong I'll take the blame. You're right though, it's all about trying new things and post our results so that we can all learn.

[BlackDuck]

I was out of town most of this last weekend....so the fridge temp was set at 65 last Thursday and it sat there all weekend while the yeast did the D-rest and finished things up. I checked the gravity last night and it was 1.013, which is exactly what BeerSmith had for the final gravity. So I dry hopped it and I'll leave the temp set at 65 for the next 5 days. Then I'll start to reduce it 10 degrees daily until it hits 30. Then I'll leave it alone for a few days to crash and clear up. Taste from the sample was nice. Clean with a bit of fruity character to it. I could not detect any off flavors from being at the higher than normal lager temps for so long. So far, so good.

[BlackDuck]

DAMN IT ALL.
So the carboy the beer has been through the dry hop, the temp has been slowly adjusted down 10 degrees per day and has been sitting at 35 for the last two and a half days. Checked the carboy last night and all was good.

Just checked it a minute ago and the fairy that must be living in the fridge poured the half gallon of water from the blowoff jug into the carboy. No kidding. No more water in the jug and the liquid level in the carboy is higher than it was last night. This is one of the best suck jobs I've ever seen. Hopefully, other than watering this down, it didn't ruin it.

Here are a couple pics. As you can see the liquid level is way higher than the Kraussen ring. And you can also see how much it had to up-suck the water to get it all in the carboy. The jug is completely empty.
DAMN IT ALL.



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