Tuesday, October 22, 2024

2024 Will-o-Wisp Autumn Ale (Batch 363)

Well ... as you may have figured out from what I've been posting on this blog, at some point I made a decision to brew SheppyBrew Seasonals for every month this year.

Somewhat surprisingly I've stuck with this so far, and now that we're in October, the beer I identified a couple years ago was Will-o'-Wisp Pumpkin Ale.

However, although this is one of one of SheppyBrew's Most Brewed Beers, it was never one that I was really a fan of.

The SheppyBrew Beer Model always wanted it. 

But, since I don't drink much of it, it tends to stick around quite awhile and last year, the Beer Model told me I shouldn't brew the Pumpkin Ale.

Instead, I took the base beer of the Pumpkin Ale and brewed it without spices or pumpkin ... 



This is actually a pretty good compromise. I can make a pumpkin spice tincture and anyone who wants can dose the Autumn Ale (or really any other beer we have on tap) with the pumpkin spice.

She never really did that last year, but it is certainly an option none-the-less.

And the Autumn Ale gets consumed in a reasonable time period.


Anyway, this past Sunday, I brewed Will-o'-Wisp Autumn Ale (no pumpkin).

I started around 5am. I had some trouble getting the recirculation speed right and I ended up floating the grains a bit.

Not a big deal, but it does make cleanup of the malt pipe a little more challenging.


Other than the recirculation speed, everything went as planned. 

I split the brew day up by going to the 8am church service. One great thing about the Foundry is that I can set the temperature to just below boiling indefinitely if I need to.

It works out well for Sunday brewing so that I don't have to hurry to finish up before having to leave.


My pre-boil gravity and volume was right on plan.

After getting back from church, it took a few minutes to get to boiling. The boil also went as planned.

My OG was right at the 1.054 planned gravity.


Chilling was slow, but I wasn't really in a hurry.

When I got the wort around 70 degrees, I racked into the fermenter.


It was cold enough out that I decided to leave the fermenter out to continue to cool, which was a mistake.

I went for a bike ride and by the time I got back, the fermenter was in the sun, and my tilt said the temperature was 79 degrees (which is hotter than I like)

But, once I got the fermenter in the basement and out of the sun, it cooled back to the high 60's pretty quickly. So, I think the Tilt over measured being in the sun.




I'm just hoping the beer doesn't taste sunstruck when it finishes. I'm not smelling that skunk, so hopefully I'll be fine.

Fermentation took off strong before bedtime and was rocking by the next day. I'm hoping to keg this before November so I can have it on tap for Learn to Homebrew Day.


If you follow along at Sheppy's Blog: Will-o-Wisp, you'll find out how it turns out.

As always, stay tuned on the regular SheppyBrew Channels to see what is happening with beer and other things: SheppyBrew's Facebook PageSheppy's Twitter FeedSheppyBrew's Instagram Page; and SheppyBrew's Website.

Go Blackhawks!

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