Two back-to-back batches of the Hellsmoke Porter are now in the hands of the yeast, which are happily fermenting away since late Saturday. It was a long day, with some brewing time lost when I discovered a leaky connection in the conical fermenter on Saturday morning while filling it one more time with sanitizer. Finally fixed it and got back to smoking some malt for the first batch's mash.

(Unlike meat, grains do not take hours to smoke. I prefer to smoke the grains the day of the brew, they can lose some of the smoke over time.)

Are black labs a good omen?


A little more time was lost when a neighbor's dog came running into the brewhouse. I've never seen the dog (a big, friendly black lab) before, she seemed to be drawn in by the malty aroma during the mashing of the first batch. My entreaties to "go home" were unheeded, her tail kept wagging while she continued sniffing around the brewery. Fortunately, she had a tag on with her address on it. I flamed off the kettles for a bit while I walked her up the road to her home.

The brew session did not seem to suffer, as it hit my target Original Gravity of 1.067.