Obstacle the first: The beer supply store manager forgot the keys. Much conversation was had while we waited for the messenger to return with the keys...twice. We lost over an hour in our already tight schedule.
Obstacle the second; D'oh! In our rush to somehow try to reduce our normal brewing cycle to less than 5 hours...Solson dropped (and broke) the thermometer. A replacement was procured but it turns out baby thermometers don't go up that high.
Fortunately we had done this a few times and our unscientific finger dip test and eyeball steam test told us our mash temperature was probably OK. The amount of water we used for the mash was a bit more than we should have used, an oversight due to the rush. In the end it looked OK, and smelled proper.
Normally although theses obstacle would be bothersome they wouldn't be as critical except we were trying to produce our Red Ale to show it off to other brewers.
Even though we had our issues, some good things did come of our misfortune. We managed to streamline our "production" process by about 30 min. We also decided that we might want to make a dipstick to know our water volumes instead of eyeballing it, while also timing the approximate time to proper water temperature for reference.
Also mulled over the idea for a new recipe based on our honey porter. It will retain it's malty and sweet characteristics but with a different source of added sugar replacing the honey (it's a surprise) and a bit more charcoal. There's a reason behind the madness, but we'll explain the reasons behind such madness later.
Anyway we got our baby done and it should be ready for public sharing just it time. Let's hope that all all the bad mojo is gone and all that is left is lovely lovely red ale. Cheers!
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