The In the Red Red

We were going to take a hike today, but the iffy weather and Cindy's b-day make it the perfect day for brewing! It was awesome to see Kelly Patterson and Mike at Brew Craft today. This is our first brew with the new equipment and without any of our senseis (CD, Snake, or the Arbses). We are departing from the pale ale/IPA track briefly to try a West Coast ( = hoppy) red ale. If it's yummy, I'm hoping to do the same recipe substituting mugwort for some of the hops. We'll see!

Pavement on the hi-fi, cats helping out, leftover Mexican food to sustain us. And only two calls to Snake.

Grains:
2 lbs Maris otter
1/2 lb 30-37
1/4 lb aromatic
1/8 lb ?caraffee (can't read Griz's writing)

Malt extract:
6 1/2 lbs

Bittering hops: Northern Brewer and Willamette
Aromatic hops: Willamette

1 tab clearing agent

Yeast: California ale

Learning points:
1. As Snake already knows, less wort is betta in terms of heating up/cooling down time. Start with pot 1/2 full (vs. 2/3) and sparge sparingly.
2. The dextrose is not the gypsum. (So there wasn't any gypsum in this one. What difference can a tsp really make with our good SF water, anyway?)
3. As far as the endgame, we put 1.5 gallons of cool water, added all the wort at about ~85 (though all we really know is < 100), pitched the yeasties, and topped off with about another gallon of water, then stirred. Vigorously indeed.

Should be ready to drink on Earth Day (4/22)!