Earlier this week, on the date above, I brewed this batch. This is the second of the two batches I bought at The Witches Brew that I mentioned in my last batch, the 90 Minute Imperial IPA. It's now the following Friday, and it's just now starting to ferment. I'm wondering if the yeast was too weak to get started after being in the refrigerator for too long. Last night, I made another trip to The Witches Brew and bought a Safale 05 packet to throw in, as well as ingredients for a couple other batches that I'm planning on brewing in the next two weeks. I'll write about them when the time comes, but for now, I'll stick to this particular brew.

I was thinking that a nice simple brew, one that I'm hoping only takes a month to be ready to drink, will allow me to stock up on some long term, as well as short term brews. I'm currently drinking the Phat Stout from a few months ago, and after that, I'll only have the Russian Imperial Stout, and the 90 Minute Imperial IPA. Both of which I'm planning on saving for quite a while. This batch will hopefully be ready by the middle of April, and I'll have something to drink for the near term. One of, if not both of, the next two batches will be short term. Though one may be a little longer than the other.

Anyway, I'm rambling, so I'll get the the ingredients, and then the process:

1/2 lb.	Peat Smoked Malt
1/2 lb.	Biscuit Malt
1 lb.	Crystal 200
7 lbs.	Amber LME
1 oz.	Fuggles Hops
1 oz.	Kent Goldings Hops
1/2 tsp.	Irish Moss
1 Packet	Wyeast 1098

I'll make this a quick story on the process, since I pretty much do the same thing for every batch now-a-days. I steeped the grains at 150-160º for 30 minutes. Brought to a boil after adding the LME, and added the Fuggles hops for 45 minutes. Added a 1/2 oz. of the Kent Goldings hops and a 1/2 tsp. of Irish Moss for 10 minutes. And then added the other 1/2 oz. of Kent Goldings for five more minutes. I then cooled as usual, and poured into the fermentor.

This is where I think that the whole batch may be off. I had gotten out the yeast, popped the inner bag, shook it, and let it sit for a number of hours before brewing. The bag never swelled. I'm wondering if it stayed in the fridge for too long. I decided to try adding the yeast to the wort, but as of Thursday, nothing was happening. That's why I bought the Safale 05, I was hoping to jump start the fermentation. As of tonight, it seems to have worked.

The SG was 1.058. Once again, I'll update at each step.

Happy brewing.

Update - 3.24.09: I racked to the secondary this afternoon, and the gravity stands at 1.012.

Update - 4.7.09: I kegged this batch today, and the FG is the same as above: 1.012. The ABV = 6.04%. I also sampled a bit, and it is quite tasty.