New Adventures in All Grain - Part II

Well the beer has been sat there for two weeks, allegedly fermenting. And that's kind of the problem.

It started looking good, nice head and trub on the beer after 2 days. After 5 days, I took a gravity and skimmed and roused well. 1026. Ok, some to go.

After 9 days, the gravity had plummeted all of 2 points, and it has remained there for the rest of the fortnight I let the beer ferment for. I am a bit nervous kegging at such a high gravity, but nothing o could do seemed to shift it, so I wonder if it was done. If this is the case, then the high mash temperatures really screwed this up. I have invested in a digital in situ thermometer, so it is easier to regulate temperature next time.

But what about the beer? Well, it now sits at just under 3%, perhaps it might make 3% on conditioning?!! But it is nowhere near as thin as I had feared...perhaps those high mash temperatures did do something after all. It is not sweet exactly, as my hop bill was relatively high as my extractions were expected to be higher with Hopville's (now defunct) calculator. In fact, where as I had designed it to be about the same bitterness as the last extract brew I made, it was, in fact, twice as bitter. Still, it is not over whelming, so I am happy to wait a fortnight or so, and drink on. At 3% one might be shifting a lot of this in one evening :-}