Yesterday, I had some time and I brewed up a double batch of the one gallon Hefeweizen kit. This is only the second time I’ve been able to brew in the last 13 months since my son was born, so I figured it would be a good way to ease back into it and remember all the things I’ve forgotten (like what gear I needed to pull out, sanitizing stuff, and all that other stuff you don’t think about). I was going to just do one gallon, but figured if I’m already committing my time and energy, why not double up? And because its a lot of work for just 10 bottles, so 20 for the same amount of work and I already have the jugs. Call it a practice run before I do my partial Speckled Heffer.
Was going to do it inside, but it was so nice outside, I went ahead and fired up the burner. Everything went well, no problems. Got it all done in just over 2 hours, but I know I it was because I was rusty. Split the wort into two gallon jugs and then dry pitched the yeast. Put it in a cooler in my guest bedroom with a little bit of the water and some ice from my ice batch. Checked it later last night and it was down to 51 degrees, so I took it out of the water and just left it on the floor, figuring it would be fine since we leave the heat off in that room. Got worried later about dry pitching the yeast, but Googled it. Some said that’s ok to do, some said not to, but at that point it was too late. Fingers crossed.
Got up this morning to check on it, temps around 63-64, fermenting along happily, so I’m relieved. Plan is to let it ferment 3-4 weeks, bottle it, forget about it for a month and then try.
Anyway, long story short, I’m not an idiot, I didn’t forget as much as I had feared and I should have beer soon that my wife and I will hopefully enjoy. Now lets see if I can post some pics. Haven’t done that before on this site.