Tonight's beer is Belgian Style ale from Goose Island called Matilda.
Soft pear aroma, no hop character.
Great smooth taste with a fruity finish with just a bit of bitterness.  Amazing beer.

Tonight's beer

Tonight's beer.
Founders Breakfast Stout.  Thanks Matt! 

Double brew day

Double brew day is now finished and went pretty well. Only issue I had was mash temp on the first beer (should have went with my math and not the software!) The two beers I brewed were an Irish Red and a Nelson Pale Ale (with all Nelson Sauvin hops). Hit my numbers for both beers (actually my efficiency on the first beer was higher than normal). So two beers and just at 6 hours not bad. One brew day is usually four hours for me so add two hours and I get another beer! Only bad news is that I cracked the magnet on my pump, I think when I flooded the pump with hot wort it cracked the cold magnet, now off to find a replacement impeller.

Problem with mash temp being too low, mash just started

Brew Day Irish Red 
1pm started what hopes to be a 2 brew day!

Tonight's beer is Oak Aged Yeti from Great Divide Brewing Co.  Pours thick black with almost no head.
Aroma: smells of wine barrels. 
Taste: first taste is of firm bitterness. Just a hint of oak flavor.  Not tasting much other than smooth bitterness. Maybe a bit of coffee flavor. Lingering bitterness. Thick mouthfeel.

I have a bit of a stuffy nose, but I'm not tasting the roasty flavors I expect from a RIS.

Drank this last night.  Pretty good beer, not sure I would call this a Pale Ale at 7.9% abv it's closer to an IIPA but without the huge hop presence.  It was malty with firm bitterness and decent hop flavor.

Sitting here drinking a Stone Arrogant Bastard, this is a damn good beer, bitter and malty all at once! 

Had an Odell Brewing Co 90 shilling Scottish ale tonight. Very little head. Slight fruity aroma with a small malt aroma.  First taste malt forward but not to thick.  Good balance with some hop bitterness, not as complex as I would have thought but a good malty beer, I prefer Belhavens wee heavy a bit better.  Good beer overall just looking for more from it,. 

Picture of fermentation because it was sarcastically asked for.

Baltic Porter Brew Day

Brew day for the Baltic Porter went well for the most part. Two problems, first was the pump had ice in the housing (this time I took it apart to drain it out), the second problem was it was so cold outside that I missed my strike water temp so I had to boil some water to raise the temp. I also left too much in the kettle (1 gallon) but I can fix that with a tweak of the dip tube.

OG was 1.090, predicted was 1.085 but I didn't figure my efficiency would stay the same with this big of a beer (efficiency is at 80% with my system). Used a starter of Zurich lager that was stepped up 3 times roughly 600 billion cells.

Beer is fermenting as of 9am 1-14-2012.

Recipe:

Malt Bill

11lb Munich Malt (weyermann)

6lb Pilsner ( weyermann )

8oz Pale Chocolate Malt

8oz Special B Malt

4oz Crystal Malt -120

4oz Chocolate Malt

Hops

11gm Northern Brewer 7.5% at 60 min

37 gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker 3% at 60 min

16gm Nt.Hood 5.5% at 60 min

28gm Hallertauer Hersbrucker 3% at 15 min

Note about the hops, there are so many at the beginning of the boil because I am tiring to clean out my old hops. They are all low alpha acid so they should play well with the rest of the beer.

Transferring to the fermenter and oxygenation

Boil is almost done, chiller is ready and so are the buckets of snow!

Boil started

First runnings

20 min left in the mash.
Mash was a single infusion at 149 degrees, ph of 5.5, 60 min total rest time.

Trying to get and hold a temp is a bit hard when it's 35 degrees out

 After a bit of pump malfunction (ice in the housing) we are transferring the water from the HLT to the Mash Tun.

Milling grains with my new drill.

Brewday Baltic Porter GrainsGhetto mill