Belgian Pale

Just finished cleaning up from today's brew sesh- 4 gallons of our Gold medal Belgian Pale Ale. The original recipe was written for 8 gallons, so instead of converting to 5 gallons, we just chopped the recipe in half. It was smooth brew day, we hit our volumes and numbers, and from start to finish, including cleanup, it was a 4 hour day.

The fermentation fridge is being used for this batch although I am a little wary. The garage at this time of year is usually around 59-60, and when we arent brewing the fridge will be at that temp after 3 or 4 days. When it gets colder I have seen the fridge get down as low as 53 and the next few days its going to be very cold here in Denver. We are finally going to get some snow, but the overnight lows on Thursday and Friday are below 0. The Belgian yeast we use likes warmer temps, 67-71ish, and to make sure that it doesnt get too cold, I wrapped the fermenter in a blanket in the fridge. If it doesn't stay warm enough in the fridge I will have to bring the fermenter inside, but it will be harder to maintain a constant temperature. Hopefully the beer starts fermenting by this evening and will generate enough heat to keep it warm to last through the weekend.

In other news, we have purchased a grain mill and it should be here on Friday. With the new mill, we will be able to mill our own grain right before we brew. Some people say using fresh grain makes a difference, I dont know about that, but I do know we will be saving a lot of money. I bought a sack (50 lbs) of Pale 2-row which is our base malt thats makes up ~75-90% of a grain bill in most American styles of beer that we brew. Normally, the Pale 2-row is $1.50/lb, but I was able to get the sack for $45.50 or $0.90/lb. $45 is still a little high for a sack of grain, but now that we have a mill we can get in on a group buys with other hombrewers in the Denver area and get sacks for ~$25 ($0.50/lb). The grain mill was fairly expensive, but after a few sacks of grain, the mill will have paid for itself and we can a lot less expensively. Hopefully we will get the mill on Friday and I will post some picks of the mill and the sack of grain that we have right now.