Bringin' the funk

What a smell!

I am doing the 090603 Half Wit in a plastic bucket primary. There are three disadvantages to this that I have detected so far. First, you really can't see what it looks like without opening the lid. That's not really so bad as it argues for patience in brewing. Another problem I have noticed is that you have to take the lid off to do a gravity test. That gives more opportunity for random junk to get into the batch, like your fingers. Just try taking the lid off without getting your fingers into the funk that has collected on the underside of the lid.

The gravity came in at a temperature-adjusted 1.013, which is right on the prediction from BeerSmith. The taste was OK for being flat and 70 F. I think this one may go to the keg in the next couple of days for force carbing. I'm going to have to shuffle the kegerator around a little, but I think the 090502 Honey-Brew List may be hors d'combat (another post on that later).

What was the third issue with the bucket? The crud that accumulated on the lid and in the airlock (from the krausen blowout) absolutely stunk. It had a pronounced rotten-egg smell. There was no taste of it in the sample though, so I will rack from that bucket to the keg, just being careful not to introduce any of that nasty gunk during the process.