Decemberfest Lager (Batch 303) and Pork Butt

I brewed my 303rd batch of beer this past weekend.

It was my 27th batch of beer in 2021, and my 29th brewed in my Anvil Foundry.

It might be my last batch of the year.

Or ... it might not. We'll have to see.

Regardless, this will be my 2nd most volume of beer brewed, behind only the ridiculous amount of beer I brewed in 2020.

I feel like I say this a lot ... but it blows my mind that 2021 is already almost over. I don't feel like I'm ready for a new year yet.

Anyway ... the recipe I brewed this past Sunday was ...

Decemberfest Lager

This is the 2nd time brewing this recipe, although this time I substituted the Vienna malt with some from local maltster Colorado's Root Shoot Malting.

The Root Shoot Vienna malt lists its color as 6 Lovibond vs the 3.5 Lovibond Vienna malt I usually use, so this batch is likely to be a couple of shades darker than last year's version. 

As usual with the Foundry, I got my water ready the night before and used the built-in timer to start heating up the strike water during the night, so it would be ready for mash-in when I got up.

For whatever reason, I didn't add my salts or acid the night before, so I did have to do that in the morning.

Sunday, after getting the mash going, I also started smoking a pork butt on my Weber Kettle.

The mash was a little longer than I usually do on the Foundry, but mostly the process was the same as usual.

After lifting the basket, I "squeezed the bag" to get more extract out. I ended up right on plan for the pre-boil gravity and volume.

The boil went pretty much as usual.

From time to time, I checked the pork and / or sprayed it with Kombucha. 

My OG turned out at 1.055 compared to the 1.056 planned. To be honest, that is close enough for me to consider perfect.

I got the yeast pitched just before 10AM.

It took awhile for the fermentation to kick off. It was going strong by the end of Monday.

I've been bumping up the controller temp one degree per day.

The pork turned out great as always.

Yummy.

I should be drinking by the end of December.

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