Brewing out on the deck in 90+ F weather makes mashing interesting. I mash in a kettle, so I can step mash by incrementally adjusting the temp with a bit of heat now and then. With the surface of the deck being over 110 degrees in the sun, I find I can bring the mash up to 156 F, walk away for an hour, recheck and it’s still at 156!
In the last three weeks,
Saison, Oatmeal Stout for coffee infusion, IPA, Red Ale (truly a deep burgundy ale), Pale Ale and Quadrubbel.
Fermenting in the heat means getting fermentors into the cool basement. Except for the Saison and Quadrubbel, of course.
I like teaching brewing, in part, because I’ve made my share of mistakes. I like to pass those on in my troubleshooting section of class so others can avoid doing the same thing. I found a new mistake this week. Inserting an immersion chiller, forgetting that the burner was still on, and walking away for half an hour. The cold water and the burner battled it out for that time, and the burner, being a good one, nearly won by boiling off quite a bit more wort before I discovered my mistake.
There’s lots of problems to discover in 39 years of brewing!
Research shows that moderate beer consumption can help prevent heart disease and strokes, provide important vitamins and minerals, is low in fat and helps increase good cholesterol (HDL).