This is my first all-grain batch since 2004.

The tale of the tape, courtesy of Beersmith:

Brewed 4/20/2008

10.75 gallons

21.00 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess)
1.00 lb Caramel Malt – 10L (Briess)
1.00 oz Magnum (US) (old 2) [12.24 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
1.00 oz Magnum (US) (old) [11.66 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop)
2.00 oz Cascade (old) [1.81 %] (15 min)
2.00 oz Amarillo [8.30 %] (2 min)
2.00 oz Cascade (new NB 2) [6.90 %] (2 min)

Fermentis US-05 yeast

Measured Original Gravity: 1.054 SG
Bitterness: 44.8 IBU
Est Color: 4.2 SRM

Odd observation — I pitched the same strain of yeast into both fermenters, but from two different lots and vendors. The yeast I bought from Northern Brewer, lot number 11 2008 OQBC, had a much longer lag than the yeast I bought from MoreBeer, with lot number 05 2009 VWBC. Has anybody else noticed this?

• 6.6 pounds Briess Pilsen malt syrup
• 4 pounds clover honey
• 2 pounds Briess 80L crystal
• 1 ounce Yakima Magnum pellets, α = 12.5, 60 minutes
• 2 oz Mount Hood pellets, α = 5.2, 15 minutes
• 2 oz Mount Hood pellets, α = 5.2, 2 minutes

The batch was split 5/5.5 gallons (I didn’t try to make them completely equal.) A 3-quart starter of White Labs WLP-001 was decanted to 1 quart, and split into two sanitized pint containers. One pint was dosed with 0.5 ml of flax oil and pitched into the 5-gallon batch, and the other was pitched into the 5.5-gallon batch, which was aerated by 1 minute of vigorous shaking (this is a departure from plan, as I could not find the hose that goes from my oxygen cylinder to my diffusion stone.)

Five hours after pitching, here’s what it looks like (the foam on the right is not kräusen; it is left over from the agitation of aeration):

So far, so meh, as I have been saying.

Update 2/19/2008 22:00

It looks like there is a little airlock pressure in the aerated batch. No such from the oiled batch, but it is showing signs of yeast activity. Photos after the break…

The two fermenters after 30 hours. The foam on the right is probably mostly left over from aeration, but there is probably a little kräusen mixed in.

A little speck of foam forming in the oiled fermenter — there are several of these forming about a half inch from the fermenter walls.

The airlock of the oiled batch is still not up, but due to cooling effects it was actually sucking water upwards a bit when I checked it at 05:30, so the internal pressure has increased a bit.

The aerated batch is up.

A little on the cool side for WLP001, but at least I’m not worried much about the lag.

Update 2/21/2008 10:22:

Yesterday morning, after noting that the aerated batch was already bubbling and the oiled batch was not, I declared a lag-time champion, but it turns out I may have been a bit hasty.

When I got home last night, both fermenters showed a dense head of kräusen, about a half or three-quarters of an inch thick. However, the airlock was not up on the oiled batch, even though it was obviously working at this time (roughly 52 hours after pitching.) Inspection of the airlock showed that the level of water was low enough to possibly allow pressure to escape without raising the center cap. So it is possible that, had its airlock had enough water in it, the oiled batch would have been bubbling yesterday morning as well.

The smell coming out of these airlocks is awesome.

OG: 1.104.

9.9 pounds Briess Pilsen liquid malt extract
1 Pound 40L Crystal Malt
1 ounce Columbus pellet hops (13.5% α, 60 min)
1/2 ounce East Kent Goldings whole hops (6.3% α, 15 minutes)
1/2 ounce East Kent Goldings whole hops (6.3% α, steep 15 minutes)

Safale S-04 yeast / Safale US-05 yeast (split batch)

Had some trouble brewing this one — two boilovers in a half-barrel boiler (!) left hops from both boiled additions sticking to the sides and lid.

Also, my damned digital thermometer began lying to me, so I ended up chilling this way below pitching temperature — the S-04 had about 24 hours lag, and the US-05 still hadn’t fired up.  I didn’t aerate the wort much, but with the large amount of yeast from the dried yeasts, that shouldn’t matter much.

Black Death 3 still remains to be brewed, although it might be postponed indefinitely for something more in the Trappist vein.

• 6 pounds Briess Pilsen dried malt extract
• 3 pounds Trader Joe’s mesquite honey
• 0.5 pound 40 L crystal malt
• 0.5 pound chocolate malt
• 1 ounce Columbus pellet hops (13.5% α, 60 min)
• 0.5 ounce Cascade pellet hops (5.9% α, 15 min)
• 0.5 ounce Cascade pellet hops (5.9% α, 15 min steep)
• Safale US 05 ale yeast

Projected OG 1.077, 46.3 IBU

EDIT: I am considering dialing back the hops and using Safbrew T-58 for more of an abbey ale (trappistoid?) style.