8 AM Dunkel Brewday

I'm up and ready to brew. Unfortunately my HLT (hot liquor tank) is not. I just checked the temperature, and it's around 150F, instead of the 170F I need. I think it's low for a number of reasons. One, I started out with colder tap water than last time. Two, it's colder outside so I'm losing more heat from it due to the larger temperature differential. And three, my outlet timer didn't kick on at exactly 4am. It was more like 4:20. I know this because I got up in the middle of the night, at about 4:15, for reasons entirely unrelated to brewing today. However, since I was up, I decided to check the timer. It's a mechanical timer, and not completely accurate. It was in the process of switching the outlet on when I checked it, and since I was half asleep, I decided to let it do it's job instead of just using the manual switch to turn it on. So it looks like I'm going to mash in closer to 8:30.

On a side note, since I'm blogging live, while I am taking photos, I don't want to be constantly uploading them to the computer. So if you're reading this as it happens, I'll add photos all at once later.

Finally, (at least for this post), as regular readers of this blog know I try to detail my mistakes, so I and others can learn from them. So here's a little warning. While heating extra sparge water up on the stove, make sure your computer keyboard is a safe distance away. It can and will melt. As I said above, photos to follow.