Saturday, September 26, 2009

RDWHAHB - It actually works

That's an acronym for "Relax, don't worry, have a home brew" - advice given by the voices of experience to people like me who encounter a new (to them) adversity while brewing.

When the 090901 Gayle Bait blew out while I was on the road, I sought advice from the HBT forum. The advice was, basically, RDWHAHB - the blowout wasn't going to be a problem. The reasoning was that, because the batch was inside the fermentation freezer the risk of airborne contamination was minimal, and also that the CO2 level inside both the bottle and the freezer would prevent oxidation.

This morning I racked the batch to secondary so I could put some gelatin in and get it out of that nasty bottle. The beer looked really good and there was nothing in it that didn't belong there as far as I could tell. It was already pretty clear but I'm hoping for crystal clear after the gelatin and a cold crash.

I took a gravity and it read out at 1.010, which is lower than BeerSmith predicted. I figure that's because I don't have the right attenuation modeled for the US-05 yeast, because I had to add it to the ingredient list. Edit: here's a thread on US-05 attenuation Anyway, the calculated ABV for this batch is 5.08%. I tasted the sample (of course) and it was very mild indeed. I think this will be a winner. Keg tomorrow and cold crash, carb on Monday or Tuesday.

I may try to brew a Geordie Boy later today, chores permitting. I need to get the cover on the pool before any more leaves drop in.

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