BrewBrain Sports Investing

I tasted the half-carbed base recipe for my grain school batches last night.  As expected, it is a very good beer.  It’ll be a pleasure trying to drain that keg quickly to make room for batch #4.

I haven’t decided what Batch #4 should be yet.  While the brewing in the immediate future is primarily for educational purposes, I want to also have more than one style available on tap at all times.  This may require some non-school batches from time-to-time, such as the amber I’ve got in the fermenting chest right now.

Speaking of that amber ale, I tasted it today while taking a gravity sample.  It’s a weird duck, but pretty tasty.  I think it will be a hit.

At the last second, I decided to use S-04 yeast instead of my standard American Ale yeast - S-05 so I could save all of that for grain school batches.  It’s definitely got that English Ale fruitiness about it mingling with the Centennial and Amarillo hops, which are covered up somewhat by residual sweetness than I expected due to a hotter than planned first 15 minutes of the mash.  Somehow I managed to get the mash up to 156 for a while.  I thought it would cool down quickly by stirring it, but it took 15 minutes or so to get back down to 154.  I just closed the lid at that point and decided to take what I get.  Sure enough, my FG reading was 1.019 instead of the expected 1.016.  Not horrible, but not exactly dry either.

One thing is for sure - it’s a smooth beer.  It tastes ready to drink already, but isn’t scheduled for crash cooling for another week.  I’m still three weeks from drinking it.

I put the Munich Grain School batch in the crash cooling fridge today.  I’ll keg it next week, making room for a new brew day.

I love playing with my beer:)