Saturday, February 5, 2022

Batch 255, Panama Red, First Brew in Baja

 I finally got enough stuff together to brew at our place in Baja. I'm splitting the rent on a garage with another guy, so it's a nice size space to brew. Since it was the first time doing it here, things went wrong, of course. Lots of trips back and forth between my house and the garage -- the garage is about 2 blocks away from my house. 

What went wrong:

  • One of the connectors for the pump leaked, broken o-ring, fortunately I had one more. I lubed them all.
  • Power was out for the first part of the brew, so I couldn't use the pump.
  • The satellite internet guy decided he needed to run cables exactly where I was brewing.
  • Missed my volume by a lot, I only got 3.5 gallons when I was aiming for 5.
  • I don't have a way to measure volume well, I'll need to figure that out.
  • No connectors for the chiller, so I just put the hot wort into my chest freezer and let it sit over night, pitched the yeast the following morning.
  • It's Panama Red, I've made this recipe a lot, but I'm using this as a 5 gallon system (it could to 10, I suppose, but I don't have fermenter space for 10), so I'm pretty sure I put in 4 oz of chocolate malt rather than 2 oz as would be right for 5 gallons.
5 gallon batch

11.5 lb 2 row
3/4 lb wheat
3/4 lb crystal 60
2 or 4 oz chocolate malt

FWH 1 oz Mt Hood
60 1 oz Centennial
30 1 oz Cascade
15 1 tsp Irish Moss
5 1 oz Cascade
5 1 oz Mt Hood

60 minute boil -- I usually do 90, but I was afraid to boil off too much as it seemed a little short in the boil kettle.

US-04 dry yeast. I didn't bring any liquid yeast down as I wasn't sure I had any way to keep it cold.

We'll see.

I really need some shelves or something to get organized.