Brew Day 1: Cascading Deliciousness.

Batch #1 is in the fermenter!  I made a few little procedural mistakes, mostly in timing things properly so everything flowed smoothly, but nothing that will effect the experiment.  The Malt extract caused an almost immediate near boil-over.  I was able to stop it before it went over the edge, but it was close.  Next time I'll need to turn the heat down a little.  Using high heat to bring the water to a boil and then turning down the heat to medium or medium-high to maintain the boil might work pretty well.  I've actually heard of home brewers who take the pot off the heat while adding the extract.  I might try that too.

 

Here is what the brew looked like:

 

• 20 c Pocono Springs bottled water brought to rolling boil. 2 c then removed to measuring cup for  yeast starter and miscellaneous purposes.  The additional extra 2 c were to make up for boil-off.
• 1 lb LD Carlson brand Briess DME (This will remain constant throughout the hops testing) stirred into pot.
• Wort brought back to boil, and .20 oz (1.46 AAU) Cascade hop pellets added.  60 minute timer started.
• At 45 minute mark (15 min left in boil) .20 oz (1.46 AAU) Cascade hop pellets added to boil.
• At 55 minute mark (5 min left in boil) .20 oz (1.46 AAU) Cascade hop pellets added to boil
• At 60 minute mark, brew pot is removed, covered, and placed in freezer to cool.
• When wort reads 70 degrees F, wort transferred to fermenter, and 5.75 g Fermentis brand Safale us-05 (This will remain constant throughout the hops testing) in 1/2 c starter with 1 sugar cube also added to fermenter.
• Fermenter closed and shaken for 1 min.

So that's it.  I will check it tomorrow night to see if there's activity in the airlock.  If I can figure it out, I may post a video.  Can't wait to bottle this...can't wait to sample it either.