You suffer for your craft in Texas this time of year. It was over 100F yesterday and when you get a couple of propane burners going, it feels like you are at the gates of hell itself. Anyhow, things went along really well. I did a double decoction (30 minute boil for each decoction pulled) and also boiled down some of the first runnings, my whole house smelled like a malt factory (and God how I love that smell). I ended up with about 6% higher gravity that I was shooting for but what the hell, I just can't bring myself to water down wort unless it's really excessive.
I also got to use my newest toy, a magnetic stir plate, when making up my yeast starter. I really think that those little gizmos allow you to build up a bigger starter quicker as the constant stiring beats more air into to starter sending the yeast into a feeding frenzy. I guess I will find out how well it did quickly enough, I should see a good head of foam on the beer tonight when I get home from work if things worked as planned. Anyway, the biggest trick with a brew like this is leaving it alone long enough for the lagering to smooth out the beer and get the flavors to meld well together. Next I will be entering my Belgian phase so I can use my collection of 750ml Belgian bottles complete with corks and wire cages.
