Honey Wheat

6:40 pm
grain sack bag... too small to wrap on lid. thought it would float. nope.

thermometer is out. using the indoor/outdoor one.

7:14 pm
Got 'er going. about 9 minutes left with the grains. outside thermo didnt stand to 170, meat thermo did though.

7:30 pm
added malt extract & hops. waiting for boil. used green spatukla

7:48 pm
boil on

8:00 pm
am noticing a lot more agreesive boil with the lid, which should be good. using wyeast liquid activator - 3068 from 31MAR09.... some threads say to pre treat the yeast a few days before, well i dont have that liberty. so it was out of the refridge about 7:40 and I "smaked" it... didn't feel any activating pouch or anything though. will see. about 30 minutes more for the boil.

8:20 pm
still no activity from the yeast. not sure about it. ah well. the boil is on, smells great.

8:30 pm
added first bump (.5 oz) of the cascade pellet hops, boil for another 12 minutes

8:35 pm
while that was on i filled the carboy using the water from the fridge and the funnel. worked very well. hope the water is good, took about 5 minutes to fill to 3 3/4 gallons. temp was about 57F

8:42 pm
2nd bump of hops, boil for another 3 minutes, during this time i setup the basement. brought the hydrometer, funnel, carboy, ice holder, and airlock down and set it on the washer. excellent setup.... need to remember this for next time.

8:45 pm
done with the hops, now need to cool to under 190F... which turned into a Celsius reading cause the thermo went nuts. 190 is roughly 87.7C. So got to there then added the honey.

8:55 pm
finally.. now adding the honey.

9:00 pm
all set, brought the wort down and put it next to the washer, added the ice and water and away we go, let's chill.

9:18 pm
chilled to about 90ish... depending where the thermo reads. very fast, very pleased.

9:20 pm
transferred chilled wort to the carboy using the funnel. then shook the carboy for a good minute or so WITH THE THIEF IN - this helped reduce the splashing alot. maybe shook for more than a minute. lots of bubbles. one thing is i didn't dump all the hops into the mix this time, left about 1/4 of it out, maybe more. will see. big thing this time was aeration.

Added the airlock... whoops, forgot to fill the hydrometer. airlock out, thief in, filled the hrydo.

9:25 pm
laid the dwarves down this time so the carboy rested on it. try to trap some of the warmth, temps are looking like 62F.

9:30 pm
all done (except for cleaning)

9:44 pm
typing it all up.

og looking like 1.056 (oh please, oh please ferment!)

9:50 pm
looks cold downstairs, should i heater it or xmas lights... ?

10:10 pm
done

12:30 am
looks like a little starting