Final Update For 2015

Brew-wise its been a whirl-wind fall of collecting and cleaning long lost gear, configuring the home microbiology lab and generally re-learning what had in the past almost been muscle memory, but the first batch is safely in the bottle and conditioning. This is always a relief even if I did manage to waste nearly a gallon (about 10 bottles) by not giving a siphon hose the attention it deserved; gravity, damn gravity! So far no signs of contamination.

Fortunately, all of the old gear was still functional although I did miss my kegging system at several points along the way (being able to gas purge carboys and do pressure transfers, doing secondaries and dry hopping in stainless, etc.). The only new gear of any significance was a couple of PETE carboys to try out and help free-up the glass for a future mead run.

Brewery status as of today:

1) Boar Snout Amber Ale (my everyday house ale): in the bottle and due for a first taste on January 16, 2016.

2) Son of Weihenstephan Dunkelweizen (my seasonal dark weissbier clone): is in the secondary fermenter and smelling spectacular. We shall see.

3) Culture and freeze-down of Wyest Labs #1007 and #3068: German Ale #1007 is my go to house ale strain for many different beer styles. It is of low flocculation but high attenuation making for vigorous quick-start pitches and clean after-taste. Alcohol tolerance is up to 11%. Weihenstephan #3068 is rumored to have originated from the Weihenstephan brewery (circa 1040) although after all of that time I doubt it could be of the exact same genetic background. It has a similar profile to #1007 but in the presence of wheat malt and with proper pitch rate and fermentation temperature will produce the classic ester flavor profile (particularly the clove-like taste) that weissbiers are known for. As with all Wyest products both strains were clean and I now have several vials in the chest freezer to get me through 2016. I will be missing access to an ultralow freezer for long-term archiving.

Skol!