Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Celebration must wait


I couldn't get up this morning in time to do the decoction and still get my daughter to school and myself to work on time. My wife convinced me that Saturday would be a better day to make an Oktoberfest. But since I'm trying to have a real blog, that is, one that gets updated more frequently than once every two weeks, I still have matters to report on.
I checked the starter last night when I got home from work and did not see much activity. I had it resting at about 58 degrees since it's a Bavarian lager strain and I want the growth to be somewhat within the normal parameters. I gave it a shake and put it on the counter top in the house to wake it up a bit and this morning it looked good and ready to brew. I put it back in the fermentation vault and set the temp to 60 to let it grow slowly until Saturday.
I hope this will not be too late for an optimum ferment.

More this weekend.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Octoberfest !!

I made a yeast starter this afternoon for an Oktoberfest I'm making tomorrow. I know that this beer should be made in the Spring and consumed in the Fall but I'm making it out of season anyway.
There will be a decoction involved and a challenging wort chill as well.
I'll try to post photos and narrative tomorrow when I'm finished. But I'm covering a city election tomorrow, and just getting to work on time will be a challenge.