(3/30/2010)

A lot has happened over the last week. I finally managed to brew the cream ale and I think it turned out as the best brew day on the system so far, and hopefully it will turn out to be my best brew to date. I (for the first time) hit all of my numbers within a one degree window and I hit all of my volumes to within a pint. With a final volume of 80 pints (10 gal), that's maintaining a margin of error of only 1.25%. My efficiency was a little higher than the expected 80% but only by 2 or 3%. The increase in efficiency was really a surprise considering I used an abbreviated cereal mash to save time.

On another front, my centennial rhizome is back to life and has sent up three shoots. Over the last two or three days the shoots have tripled in length and put out a total of 14 leaves. In the next day or two, I will be installing a trellis capable of holding a second centennial and I will be transplanting the rhizome from a large pot to the ground.

A little further down the road, I have been thinking about putting in some winter wheat at the end of the growing season. I think it would be great to try to make an organic witbier with all the wheat grown here. It's still just a thought for now...