Happy New YEAR!!!

What better way to start the new year than by brewing beer? And why start a new blog documenting it while I'm at it? I'm hoping that by keeping this blog, I'll become a better homebrewer. I plan to detail every aspect of my homebrewery--equipment, recipes, process, etc. Call it a new year's resolution if you want, we'll see how it pans out.


Today I'm brewing a stout, specifically my Superbowl Stout, which is a sweet stout which will be ready to drink by Superbowl Sunday. Here's the recipe; I have to figure out a better way to post them than a cut and paste from Excel:

Brew Name
Superbowl Stout
Category
Stout
BJCP cat no.
13
subcat
B- Sweet Stout
recipe type
all grain
batch size
13.5 gallons
Grain Bill
18lbs 2 row
3 lb instant corn grits
14 oz Fawcett pale chocolate
27 oz lb 80L caramel
22 oz carafa III special
2 oz roasted barley
18 oz chocolate
Mash type
single infusion
Mash schedule
1 hr 150F with 2.5 tsp baking soda
Sparge type
batch
Total Boil time
100 min
Hop additions
2 oz galena 13% 100 min
3 oz northern brewer 30 min
2 oz northern brewer 0 min
additional ingredients
2 lb lactose sugar last 15 min
Yeast type
Wyeast London 1968
Starter info
1/3 on 1 lb DME 1oz carafa III special 1 gal water, 2/3 on yeast cakes from hotspur mild
Primary fermentation
10 days @ ~70F
OG
1.060
1.059 anticipated
FG
1.020 anticipated
abv
5.3 anticipated

The 1/3 that is on the starter is already fermenting vigorously, just 2 hours after pitching. The batches pitched on the yeast cakes haven't started up yet--the yeast must have gone dormant. For future reference, I'll either do a starter for all, or I'll try to wake up the cakes by adding frest wort from dry malt extract first thing in the morning.