OH YEAH! About the Rye brewing last Wednesday. Everything went pretty well. I will say, it is A LOT more work by yourself. And a lot heavier when lifting things… I did hit all my mash temps though, produced a beautiful golden/copper color, and it smelled great the other day when I checked on it fermenting.
The only things that went poorly were 1: getting the wort from the kettle to the carboy. Pellets make it tough, man. I ended up having use the racking cane and consequently sucked up more trub than I wanted. It settled out nicely though. I think I can clear it off the top. And 2: the boil-off was more extreme than I predicted. Almost 2 gallons in an hour. I guess you gotta learn from doing and from your particular equipment what affects what and revise it in the recipe.
Regardless, I was actually extremely pleased and more confident after the brew. Even the numbers were very close, which has not been a big concern to me until recently. But I found a happy medium between the Art and the Science of brewing and I feel like I opened a new door of experience with this brew!
Brew from 592 