I'm writing this on Sunday, and day 3 was Wednesday, so this will serve as sort of a wrap up.
Since Wednesday was the day before Thanksgiving, I had to take care of a couple things in the morning before I started brewing, but I did manage to mash in around noon. The technical part of the mash and boil was pretty straightforward, and I hit my numbers until the end of the boil, when I discovered that I had more evaporation than expected, and my gravity was higher than expected after the 90 minute boil.
I had a couple of visitors on Wednesday as well: Bill Grinley and John Kalinowski--both brewers and BFD members. Bill is an extract brewer who wanted to learn more about doing all grain, but he missed the start of the mash and arrived as I was in mid-vorlauf. I enjoyed having the company and a chance to talk beer and brewing with them both, especially as it made the brew day go a bit faster.
My biggest concern on Wednesday was that my Oatmeal Stout was not really fermenting as expected. In fact there was no airlock activity on Wednesday morning, and I put in another sachet of yeast to try to get things going. Nothing happened the rest of Wednesday, and I was away Thursday and Friday, but when I checked on it Saturday, it was bubbling away. For that matter, the IPA had pretty much slowed down, and the Pilsner was bubbling along normally, holding about 54 degrees. Whew! Everything is working, as far as I can tell.
Happy Thanksgiving, and happy brewing to all! I will follow up with tasting notes on these three brews as they finish fermentation and are ready to taste.
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