Journal of Brewing

The first thing I noticed about this recipe from others was that it used a lot less malt extract syrup than I had used before. They also picked a nice selection of specialty grains that I steeped in the water first. In place of another 3.3lbs of malt extract syrup, there was 1lb of dry malt extract (DME) and 1lb of clover honey. This was my first time working with honey in a brew. Its purpose was to bolster the fermentable sugar without adding body to the brew. The 1oz of challenger hops seemed too little at first. I am truly a hophead. Using Figuring Bitterness

IBU = 47.034

Gravity

The O.G. of this recipe came out at 1.045, a moderate number from my research. I know there are calculators online to estimate what your O.G. will be, but it’s just as easy to sanitize the players involved and measure it. Since the aim was fermentation efficiency, I acquired (from Santi Clause) an aeration stone on a 22” long stick, tubing and a regulator. I picked up a 1.4oz canister of oxygen from the local hardware store. I was determined to oxygenate-aerate (oxygenate) my wort. After sanitizing and drying off, I put it in and let her go full throttle.

First off, it whined like crazy. My poor cat, Mr. Earl Grey ran for the hills in a flash. My parents just looked at each other with the “we’ve raised a mad scientist” expression. I let it go for 50 seconds. The wort was rather bubbled. After that I unplugged the starter, flamed the lip, swirled the bottle and pitched it all. Final volume stood at 5 gallons.

Fermentation

In a word, vigorous. It began fermenting only hours after this whole process. By the night it was poppin off something fierce. It continued in this manner on Monday and Tuesday. It really settled and almost stopped by Wednesday. The airlock was still suspended up so I’m sure it was slowly doing something. By Thursday it had almost ceased and I was worried. I couldn’t take it any longer so I set up shop to rack it over to the carboy.