Anyone who knows me or regularly reads this blog knows I received my all-grain equipment two months ago, and made big plans to brew a Belgian Witbier. Two months later … where’s the f’n beer?!?! Well, we hit summer here in the high desert of Central Oregon, and I didn’t have air conditioning. The fermentation temperatures would have been way too hot for doing what I wanted to do. I wanted a clean, slightly-tart, Wit, and the house temperatures of around 80° F would have been way too hot for fermentation and conditioning. So I waited and started looking into ways to control the fermentation temperature.
My wife is at home during the day. She had finally had enough of the miserable house temperatures, so we pulled the trigger on air conditioning for the house. First of all, how the hell did it take us this long? It was getting to the point where it was so hot in the house that I was barely able to think (much less fire up the burners for a batch). Now the house is sitting at a very comfortable 72° – 73°. Sounds like the upper range of the idea temperature for many ale strains, no?
So I’m back in the game people. I’m going to formulate the recipe and slot the time to actually brew this week. I’ll post the plans when I have them.
Think positive beer thoughts, people.