Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I will be brewing my first all grain Porter this weekend; fired up the yeast starter last night (Wyeast British Ale).

Last November I brewed my first batch of beer after about a 15 year lapse (kids can do that to you); it turned out pretty good and I am running low on my Hibernation Brews (malt forward beers).

So in celebration of my first year back, I thought I would try to improve upon last year's batch.

This will be my first time using a liquid yeast, so perhaps the starter wasn't necessary. But if I did it right (with proper sanitation) those little guys should be awake and active, and hit the wort running!

Yeast! - we love the crap of it!

Good job! I look forward to it!

Hope it all goes smooth for ya Darryl.


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What hops are you using?

Columbus.

I am using the Historical Porter recipe from Brew Your Own, 1744 Porter, a few months back.

I use fuggles in my porter.

Completed the Mash, should finish up the sparge in the next 10 mins.

Mash tun is working great; first running came through without issue, so I am expecting the sparge will be just fine.

Should wrap up the 90 min boil before 6 PM, have it in the bucket, pitch the yeast, and have everything cleaned up before Sunday night football.

Life's good!

Love Columbus. My primary bittering hop. I use it all over the place and often excessively in IPAs.

The yeast starter really speeds up the start of the fermentation process. Within 12 hours there was activity, within 18 hours I had to put a blowout tube in the top of the bucket and I still had seepage through the lid; it was quite vigorous for about 36 hours. I am back to the airlock, but it still is going pretty good.

I'll rack this batch this weekend and let it age for a week or two...and then it is into the bottle. Might have some samples by Christmas; but it will probably hit its stride in January.

I might seek out some pointers at tomorrow night's meeting on conversion efficiency; I kept my temps stable throughout the mash and sparge, but my conversion efficiency was a little disappointing.

But it looks and smells great.

Practice, practice, practice!