brewing an oberon clone

written much earlier | just cleaning out the drafts drawer

Sunday after state finals for tennis. Lacrosse finished the week before and I feel almost like I can exhale. On my departure from Kalamazoo, I left the courts and went immediately to the Bell's store where I picked up a few favorite new additions to my wardrobe and an Oberon Clone All Grain kit. Sunday was going to be my brew day.

My h. left for golf before 10 and told me I should get up and get moving. I slept another 2.5 hours and felt like I could have continued to sleep but it was just getting weird. When your 11 year old comes in -- it's like, oh well, she has a lot of energy, I'm going back to sleep. When your 16 year old comes in and you are the one still in bed without a) hangover or b) illness, it just feels wrong.

I'm super rusty with brewing. I think the grains were a bit too fine and the filter was clogged up, making the transfer to the car boy last forever -- a tiny trickle. I kept checking the valve and making sure it was open, so I surmised there must be a clog and when I started cleaning, there it was -- a nasty green clump of hops and sediment that I had to scoop out with my hands. It was gross and reminded me of disturbing diapers that the girls would have with the off colors that made me question what I had fed them that day.

Another concern is the output was less than normal -- a lot less. I held off on adding too much additional water because in the past my grainfather brews haven't seemed to have much richness to their flavor and felt a bit watered down. Now I feel like it is a lot less output and I'm nervous its final gravity could knock anyone who tried it over.

My new idea is to have a brew off between concentrate and all grain clones of a favorite brew and test it against its control. That way I can see which is closer and what the hell I'm doing wrong. While the concentrate is a lot simpler, the all grain feels a lot more authentic -- but I need to get it down so that I have one brew I love and can make it over and over again. Argh! Much harder than it seems, especially when you factor in the cleaning -- the other negative of all grain brewing. I love my Grainfather but it seems like there must be an easier way!

Ugh -- I know I'm probably being a freak show with cleaning -- but my clog was annoying so I'm full guns into steralizing this thing so I don't have any question marks lingering. I think the grain was too fine but I should have used my spider and I was lazy and actually just forgot about it. I did put the thermal jacket on this time but realized that you have to really do this pre-wire hook up so that it actually can fit all the way around. My version was kind of like eating too much and undoing a button of your pants with your shirt draped in front so nobody will notice. Considering the whole thing is an additional add on, I kind of think its not essential anyway so a 73 percent wrap around is good enough and just don't try to check out the breezy opening facing the wall (aka her arse).