Wednesday, February 29, 2012

First Lager Starter

I just finished making my first yeast starter for a lager. I used one of my growlers. I decided to give my new chest freezer a try There's my yeast starter chillin at 67 degrees.

Update... Chest Freezer

I've got my barleywine in secondary (2 one-gallon jugs). I tasted it and it's really good already. The IPA for the BBR-BYO experiment is done. It's really good, too (both batches). I preferred the "with trub" half over the "without trub" half. But there wasn't a dramatic difference between the two.
In other news, I bought a chest freezer and external thermostat, finally. I bought a 7.0 cubic foot GE chest freezer from Sam's Club for 200 dollars, and the analog temperature controller from Johnson Controls. I can finally brew lagers. Which is good, because I have ingredients waiting to be brewed. The Surly Smoke kit from Northern Brewer. I plan to make a starter tonight and brew this weekend.
I bought the larger of the two freezers because I eventually want to make it into a 3-tap keezer/kegerator. Later, I plan to buy the smaller freezer, too, and dedicate it for fermentation.