Ellie's Brown Ale

So here I am making beer for Ellie's beer party. We thought we would throw a party to raise money for her race in Ireland. I was thinking about what beers to make and I thought a brown ale and a wheat beer. Those are beers she likes. So we will start with Janet's Brown Ale. It was a brown ale I've made and we really liked. I've changed the recipe slightly. I thought there was too much coffee notes in the beer so I backed off a little on the chocolate malt. Could find some of the hops so I made a substitution. Not sure which yeast I used the first time but this time we are using WLP002 English.

Here's the ingredients:
12lbs 2-Row domestice
1lb White Wheat.
1lb 4oz Crystal 40L
7oz Chocolate malt (Tasty had this at 8oz)

2oz Northern Brewer 10.6%AA @60min
1oz Northern Brewer 10.6%AA @15min
1.5oz Cascade 6.2%AA @10min
1.5oz Cascade 6.2%AA @1min
2oz Columbus 15.2AA drop hop (was Centennial. Could find it at brew shop)

WLP002 - Aug-18-12 - Lot # 1002PBLSKYA1

Whirfloc @10min
Servomyces @10min

Dad was supposed to come by but wasn't feeling well. We rode with us to COH yesterday. I know it dorks up his back. He know it does too which is why he travels with pain killers. He didn't use any on the trip. I know he was hurting. But it's cool. That means that Ellie and I get to hang.

Made a starter last night. All went well with that.

Woke up this morning, ran, ate, went to store to get water, ice, and propane.

10:00am: Started cleaning.

12:30pm: Heating strike water. Wanna get a mash of 154-155F. It should be nice and malty.

12:54pm: Mashed in. Mash temp 154F. Hit it. Awesome!! Added 5.2. Half a tablespoon this time. I'm thinking I'll never need as much buffer power as they provide for the worst case with a full tablespoon. Mash tun leaking a little. Not too bad though. Just put the pitcher underneath. Should be fine.

1:17pm: Started to clean the keg. E bought a gate so Snickers can brew with papa. It looks bad ass. I've got to get that dog a brewer's assistant shirt now.

1:40pm: Heating sparge water. Hanging with Ellie.

2:56pm: Sparged. Didn't get out very much sugar. A little sad. I wanted to get 1.055ish and got 1.047ish. So I added some DME until I got to 1.055. I added a little at a time and then checked. The only thing I can think of was that the second sparge temp was low and it didn't dissolve the sugars as well as it should have. So note to self, get the sparge up to 170F.

Tuey came over. We drank beer and he helped out a ton. The beer OG is 1.069 which is where is should be. i'm glad I added the DME. Looks like I did that part right.

The boil and such went well. The cooling did not. I really need to think more about a more efficient way to move the thing over to the basin, get the pump primed, and cool the wort. Tuey was assigned to hold the pump but it got too hot. The pump needs to to be below the spigot and we put it on the mash table and it worked. Getting ice water through the heat exchanger is not easy. The whole system I got going is awkward and clumsy and it seems I always run out of ice. I really need to think harder about the process.

It's really hot in the garage. Hot and humid. Got to get inside now.