And lo the day hath arrived!
Grains were mashed, water and wort were heated, boiled and chilled and all and sundry was washed, rinsed and sanitized. 'Twas a great day, with many wild successes and few setbacks which in truth ended up being minor in nature and highly educational. We ended up feeling like things were intuitive enough and our errors largely avoidable in future. Lets be honest here though, we could have messed it up considerably and still probably made a decent beer. But who wants decent beer? I vote for exceptional beer every time.
For starters we couldn't have asked for a better day in Edmonds, WA. It had been grey and rainy the whole week prior and driving north that morning things were looking a little misty from the Interstate. But the sun prevailed and everything had burned off by 10am. Being able to brew outside was great as using propane tanks the more air circulation we could get the better. And the above timing provided the first lesson of the day - start early! After a 'quick' sit down to go over the schedule for the day and to get on the same page for the various upcoming tasks, we didn't really get going in earnest until about 11:30am. Things didn't seem too bad though, as we planned on a 6 hour brew day and with Winter receding here in the PNW we felt we had a decent buffer. Word to the wise - finishing up the boil and cleaning up in the dark isn't a deal breaker or even that challenging, its just ultimately better planning and easier on the brewers to get things done before sunset. So I'll be looking forward to some dawn brew days in future. That and maybe buying a flood-light...
