2012 Q3 SheppyBrew Stats

Can you believe we are into September already? I don't know about you, but for me, the summer has just flown by.

Since another quarter has ended here at the SheppyBrew Brewery, it is time again for me to share some more of my brewing stats (see SheppyBrew 2009 Stats, 1st Quarter Stats, 2nd Quarter Stats, 3rd Quarter Stats, SheppyBrew 2010 Stats, 1st Quarter Brewing Stats, 2nd Quarter Brew Stats, SheppyBrew Stats Q3 2011, 2011 SheppyBrew Stats, 2012 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats, 2012 Q2 SheppyBrew Stats).

Q3 started out a bit slow. In fact, after my last beer in Q2 (Summer Lovin' American Wheat), I did not brew again until the first weekend in August with Ello Poppet Czech Pilsner. As I mentioned in Ello Poppet and Root Beer, I really had to squeeze that brew day in.

So, all my 3rd Quarter brewing was done in August. I got 3 batches done (Ello Poppet, Rocktoberfest Lager, and Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale). This brings my 2012 total to 15 so far. Last year, I did 23 batches. There is no way I am going to do 8 batches this quarter to match last year.

Only one (Ello Poppet) was a new recipe. This brings my new 2012 recipe total to 10. That matches the total new batches for 2011. I will almost certainly brew a new recipe in the the next 3 months to beat 2011 in this category.

I only brewed about 16 gallons in those 3 batches, so my total so far of 2012 is almost 70. Last year, you may remember I brewed 98 gallons. It is possible, but I don't think I will be able to brew 30 more gallons before the end of the year. So, I will probably come short of 100 gallons again this year.

2 of my 3 batches were lagers in Q3, bringing my lager batch total to 2 for the year. I did 3 in 2011. Chances are good I will brew at least one more lager before the end of the year.

Cooling down Rocktoberfest Lager

All 3 of my batches were all-grain this quarter. So, I have done 13 all-grain batches so far in 2012. I did 18 all-grain batches last year.

Obviously, my extract total for the year is still 2 and my partial mash total is still 0. I did no extracts and 2 partial mashes last year.

I kegged Ello Poppet and will keg Rocktoberfest Lager soon, so my keg total for 2012 is already 11. In all of 2012, I kegged 10 batches, so I actually beat last year in this category. I am sure I will keg some more before the end of the year.

Ello Poppet into the Carboy

Deja vu: I still have not done a sour beer yet. I have the recipe (see Rationalité Poison d'Ereeeek) and have blogged about the process (see SheppyBrew and the Sour Mash). I have been unable to get the sour beer into the schedule, though. I think it will happen this quarter, but to be honest, I thought I would get it done months ago. Oh well. Don't worry. It will happen sometime.

I tried a new technique for lager temperature control on Ello Poppet (see Ello Poppet and Root Beer). All of my lagers before this one have been fermented in Mr. Beer fermentors, which fit nicely in my conditioning coolers. Frozen water in  milk jugs provided cooling. For Ello Poppet, I used my 6.5 gallon carboy and cooled the wort in the Gott cooler with ice. After cooling, I just left the carboy in the water. I added ice about once a day to keep the whole system cold. I feel like (maybe) I had slightly better temperature consistency this way. I think I need to try this again.

The technique of cooling with the carboy in the gott cooler seems to work well too. I have used this for all 3 batches in the 3rd quarter. I use the immersion chiller to get the wort cool enough to go into the plastic fermentor and then put the whole carboy into an ice bath. This got me down to 50 for the lagers and 60 for the ale. My immersion cooler gets down into the 70's quick, but takes a long time to get down to the mid-60s, and in the summer I have never been able to get lower. The ice bath lets me get to the temperature where I want to pitch much easier.

Boiling the Laser Salt

I cannot think of anything else to tell you about my 2012 3rd quarter brewing. Stay tuned in Q4 for more SheppyBrew Brewing adventures.