The obligatory pre-brew photo…
The mash-in went perfectly! We hit 149 degrees on the mark.
Once we looked at just how much a bag of cane sugar is, we both decided to back off from 6 pounds of sugar to 5 pounds.
Per Jamil, we’re doing an extended mash – 80 minutes.
The OG seemed a little low after the sparge (pre-boil) at 1.036, but we still have a ninety minute boil to go, not to mention five pounds of cane sugar:)
Sampling the style we’re brewing…
It’s in glass! OG is 1.084…
I was really worried about the 1388 yeast. I made the starter Wednesday evening and never saw any activity. When I got up Thursday, nothing was going on. I cooled the starter so the yeast would drop out and by late Thursday evening, there was a really nice yeast cake on the bottom of the flask. I fed the starter about 400 ml of wort on Friday morning and it took off like a banshee after just a minute or so on the stir plate. Four hours later, there was no activity! I chilled it once again and then decanted off about 500 ml of nasty starter beer this morning, fed it another 300-400 ml of wort, and again it burst to life, fermenting out in about 2-3 hours! Jeez – this 1388 yeast just chews through the wort. I’m expecting a quick, violent fermentation in my carboy:)
Damn! Brenda and I were planning on seeing one of our favorite performers, Paul Thorn, in a small intimate venue in Nicasio, in Marin County, next week. I called to get tickets today and they are sold out! I’m really bummed. Were were planning on staying overnight at a friend’s cabin in Inverness after the show, as it is only 20 minutes away. Paul just released a new CD last month, A Long Way from Tupelo, and I was really looking forward to hearing the new cuts live. You can download several of his live shows, in MP3 format, for free! He’s playing in Redwood City and Santa Cruz also next week, but it is less attractive to think of having to drive home for several hours after the show (and a couple of ales:). Oh, well. Chances are we’ll be able to see him again at the Sonora Blues Festival this summer. He’s performed there the last three or four years. Last year, we saw him with the band on the main stage and then in a “workshop” where it’s just him, a guitar and about a hundred people. I got to request one of my favorite songs last year, Give Them Their Roses, and hear it live, about 10 feet away. Great stuff!
Back to homebrewing! I pulled the two 1388 smack packs out of the fridge this morning, broke open the nutrient pack and left them on the counter all day. They bloated up the best I’ve ever seen Wyeast smack packs perform. I made the starter, pitched both of the smack packs, oxygenated the starter wort, and set it off on the stir plate. I’m expecting this starter to take off like crazy, and still give me time to feed it a couple times before Saturday’s brew day.
And yea, that’s a bottle of Meantime IPA 
