BeerBorg

Well the airlocks have been silent for several days now and I plan on raising the temperature set point from 68F to 70F in a day or two before taking a final gravity sample. I'm not sure why but I'm really excited about this beer, ok I do know why I want to drink it.

Sounds good!

Well this morning I took a hydrometer sample from both fermentors and they both finished at 1.012 which will give me a nice 5.2% alcohol beer. The beer had a beautiful lightly roasted, bready aroma that held it's malty flavor well into your next sip. I am really excited to have this beer ready in time for the holidays. The dry yeast worked wonders, it fermented the wort quickly and then settled down to the bottom of the fermentor. The first four ounces from each bucket got tossed out but the eight ounce pours that followed were clean and clear. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season and a full pipeline of their own great tasting home brewed beer.

Yesterday morning I bottled and kegged my Irish Red Ale and managed to add a good amount of washed yeast to my yeast library. I liked the way that Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast worked it delivered a nice 76% apparent attenuation for a 5.2% alcohol beer and dropped straight out of suspension once it was done. This strain of yeast is very flocculant and it left the beer extremely clear even before cold crashing. I'm planning to use the S-04 a lot more this year now that I've got so much of it. I filled up two 2.5 gallon corny kegs and they're force carbonating at 15psi in the refrigerator now to be ready in time to drink at this weekend's family dinner. This time of year is keeping everyone pretty busy with parties and other holiday tasks but this Sunday I'm planning on brewing an IPA anyway. I've been thinking about this Irish Red Ale a lot partly because it's the first time I'm brewing the style but mostly because of the way it tastes. I know from the hydrometer samples I've tasted that it's a style I will keep in my brewing rotation.