Bamf Beer

This is the second time we brewed this beer. Another 10-gallon batch. We didn’t tweak the recipe at all, really. We just wanted to do the same beer, back to back, to really try to nail down our efficiency and streamline the process just a tad. Matt also wanted to try a different yeast strain. [...]

First brew of the season, and also the first time I (brian) have brewed completely solo. My wife, Natasha, helped me multitask more effectively by doing lots of the cleaning and temp-reading chores, and generally keeping me company.
Quick Summary

There were a few new additions to the equipment list this time around: new quick disconnects, new [...]

The original recipe was based on Papazian’s 5-gallon recipe for “Silver Dollar Porter”, modified for a 6.5 gallon batch size.
Here’s the *original* recipe and mash schedule for 6.5 gallons.
10.4 lb 2-row
1.3 lbs munich
0.65 lb crystal
0.65 lb black
0.65 lb chocolate
1.2 oz perle hops (60 minutes)
.5 oz cascade  (60 min)
.75 oz cascade (5 min)
20 minutes @ 122F, [...]

So here are pics from our brew day last week.
Click on the pics to see descriptions and stuff – Enjoy!
http://flickr.com/photos/bkjones/sets/72157594275146311/

So, as per our usual procedure, Matt put together the recipe for this one, and it looks really good. Also, the little bits of the wort we tasted as it was going into the fermentator were promising!
Here’s the all-grain, 6.5 gallon recipe, followed by a play-by-play of our brew day.
5lb American two-row pale malt
1lb German [...]

Oh man. Where to start. I guess at the beginning.
We went to buy our ingredients, and the guy didn’t have Kent Goldings, or Challenger hops. He also took *forever* to get our order together. Maybe this was an omen, but we didn’t even blink.
We put our grain into the mash tun, heated the strike water, [...]

Some prep work had to be done on brew day. This is my handy work – a hole cut in the top of a keg that we’re using for our boil kettle. Don’t do it this way. I was under pressure to get it done, so I used a sawzall, which doesn’t cut in circles. [...]