| 2007-05-04 15:00 | Started with 4 gallons RO water and a gallon RO ice. Smacked yeast pack and floated the plastic jar of LME in sink with 130°F tap water. | |
| 2007-05-04 15:11 | Set two gallons water in kettle on high burner and stirred in brew salts. | |
| 2007-05-04 15:32 | Hit 163°F, dropped to gas 5 and added grain sock | |
| 2007-05-04 15:35 | Oops, heat off as per instructions | |
| 2007-05-04 15:40 | Looks like 155°F, turned on to gas 5 | |
| 2007-05-04 15:44 | Hit 163°F, removed from heat for a minutr, back on gas 4 | |
| 2007-05-04 15:46 | Back up to 163°F, off heat | |
| 2007-05-04 15:51 | Down to 154°F, back on at gas 3 | |
| 2007-05-04 15:53 | Hit 156°F, dropped to gas 2 | |
| 2007-05-04 15:57 | up to 160°F, dropped gas to low | |
| 2007-05-04 16:01 | Down to 150°F, drained bag and back at gas 3 | |
| 2007-05-04 16:03 | Down to 148°F in spite of heat, back on high until hit 155°F | |
| 2007-05-04 16:06 | Hit 163°F. Off heat, grain bag in strainer and rinsed with one pint of hot water. Added one gallon RO water, LME, and DME. Added a pint of hot wort to LME can to add viscosity. Back on high heat. | |
| 2007-05-04 16:57 | Kettle boiled over (had lid). Dropped to gas 6 and added boiling hops. | |
| 2007-05-04 17:20 | soft boil, bumped back to high. | |
| 2007-05-04 18:00 | Removed from heat, sat in ice bath until about 130°F. | |
| 2007-05-04 18:15 | Added to one gallon room-temperature RO water and gallon ice, now at 53°F! | |
| 2007-05-04 18:30 | Still only at 55°F. Tried to float 130°F LME jar in wort but no change | |
| Sample at 60°F showed SPGR of 60 for gravity of 1.060. Qbrew estimated 1.058 so this will be a big one... | ||
| 2007-05-04 18:36 | dropped fermenter into 130°F bath in sink | |
| 2007-05-04 18:52 | Pitched yeast at about 60°F | |
| 2007-05-04 21:19 | Does not look like fermentation has begun at 64°F, set outside of chiller | |
| 2007-05-05 06:30 | Fermenting at about 74°F, moved to chiller at 70°F | |
| 2007-05-05 18:30 | up to about 68 bpm at 71°F, dropping tem a couple degrees | |
| 2007-05-06 18:52 | Fermentation gone wild. Trub and foam in airlock, a couple tablespoons of beer on lid. Cleaned out airlock, sanitized and filled with grain alcohol. Replaced and now at 84bps | |
| 2007-05-09 22:10 | Seeing down to 55 seconds for 5 bubbles at 69°F | |
| 2007-05-10 17:55 | Racked about 4.25 gallons to secondary, using both canes and tube. At 68°F SPGR was 14, so corrected gravity was 1.015 | |
| 2007-05-10 17:55 | After chilling, tastes very smooth, but with a very alcoholic smell and aftertaste | |
| 2007-05-10 21:45 | Read recipe, says to secondary for eight days or until 1.010 to 1.012, but Qbrew forcast a final gravity of 1.015. At this rate, even 1.012 would yield 6.5% ABV | |
| 2007-05-16 16:37 | At 68°F the reading for SPGR is 1.014, corrected to 1.015. Smells like alcohol and animal. Chilled sample in glass is very smooth and mild. Added 1/2 tsp Geletin for clarity. | |
| 2007-05-19 21:17 | Bottled at SPGR 1.015. 5.8% Alcohol by volume. | |
| One 67.648 oz growler | ||
| Sixteen 22 oz bottles | ||
| Eight 12 oz bottles |
Afterthoughts:
At first, it had a very distinct butterscotch taste, syrup-like alcoholic taste. Deemed undrinkable by even the inebriated. After another week of bottle-conditioning, taste smoothed out and improved. By early June this was my most popular brew and wa a hit at a friend's birthday party.