FG: 1.025

That's a little high. I probably should not have racked to secondary at all. Every smells saison-y. There was some stuff floating in the beer. I am wondering if that was just yeast or some other wild organism that made it into the fermenter. I'll know in a little while once I crack open a bottle. I ended up with only about 4.5 gallons total yield, likely due to racking loss.

For an early Christmas, my parents bought me another amber ale kit. I will use this as batch 6 instead of the Free Beer project, since I don't have the equipment to do all-grain brewing.

I did replace my hydrometer; the new one has a built-in thermometer too! I am also receiving a secondhand stir plate for making yeast starters tomorrow, hopefully.

Tonight I racked the saison to secondary, as the recipe recommended. Those keeping score will notice that I only have a single fermenting vessel. What I did was rack it to the bottling bucket temporarily while I cleaned and sanitized the fermenter, then racked the beer back to the fermenter. The recipe said to get rid of the sediment. I hope I didn't clear all the yeast out of the wort. I need to get the brewing store soon to pick up a new hydrometer so I can test that things are moving along properly.

A few months ago I picked up one of these saison kits from Beer & Wine hobby. Tonight while m0xiee was at work, I did the boil and put it into the fermenter. In 3 to 5 days, I will rack to secondary (meaning I will hold it in the bottling bucket, clean out the fermenter, and rack it back to the primary) to clear out the sediment.

Notes on this batch:
- The wheat it came with was not cracked. I didn't realize this until I got back from the store, so I used the blender to crack it.
- the instructions involved numerous muslin bags. Unfortunately, it came with one too few. In sequence, they were supposed to contain (1) wheat malt (2) Hallertau hops (3) bitter orange peel (4) bitter orange peel, coriander, grains of paradise, cracked peppercorns. Unfortunately, when I tried to add the orange peel to bag #2, I spilled some into the wort. I don't think this will cause a problem as I fished all the peel bits out with a spoon.
- It looked like the wort was supersaturated with malt!
- My cats stole the dust cap for my fermentation lock, just after I had thrown the old one away! I can't find it, so I am using a piece of saran wrap for now. Stupid cats.
- I purchased a Thief for sampling wort and beer for the hydrometer. Unfortunately, I managed to break my hydrometer while putting it back into its case. The bottom fell out and the hydrometer dropped to the stone floor. B&W has them for $8, or one with a built-in thermometer for $15.
- OG was 1.058-1.059, exactly what the kit specified.

What with all the equipment I have to replace, homebrewing is definitely NOT cheaper than buying it in the store, unless you have VERY expensive taste!

I also picked up four bottles of Flaio (two each Primitivo and Negroamaro), an Ayinger Celebrator (Doppelbock), an Aventinus (Wheat Doppelbock), an Anventinus Weizen-Eisbock, a Cisco Baggywrinkle Barleywine, and a St. Amand French Bière de Garde. That last one isn't very wintery, but the rest should last me until spring 8)</lj>