So the brewing continues. After getting the year's first brew transfered to its secondary fermenter, and getting the chaos of the holidays behind us, it was time to get going on the next brew. As I had mentioned in "The Dark Side of the Pint Glass", the latest batch of liquid bread to find its way through my 'brewery' was a twist on the mundane Red Ale, the India Red Ale. Since I'm not a huge hop-head like many you'll meet in this part of the country, I scaled back on the hops included in the recipe. I was looking for a nice balance of hops and malty sweetness so instead of using the 5oz the recipe called for, I opted for 4oz; shorting the 2nd hop addition by 1oz. The brew session was a success and resulted in my O.G. reading 1.070 (I believe) and roughly 10% potential sugar. As of yesterday, 9 days have gone by it was time to transfer it to secondary and take another reading to see how things were coming along. I don't exactly recall the gravity this time (nor do I have my brew book with me), but I think it was in the 1.024 range and roughly 3.5% potential sugar which means it's currently sitting at 6.5% ABV. She's going to cozy up in the secondary for the next couple of weeks and hopefully we'll have a bit more alcohol made and the flavors should meld nicely.
Side Note: I used a carboy for primary this time around and before I do that again, I need to revamp my airlock 'system' since the lack of decent head-space really causes problems. And with a hoppy beer, a ton of foam riddled with hop particles and a small capacity airlock don't add up to a great situation. I had a freakin' geyser in my utility room that was spewing foam and anything else that could make it through all over the ceiling and floor. Since the foam and goodness filled the head-space, the hops-filled-foam made a nice paste on the top of the carboy; see the pic below for details (thanks AHF!) All is good now, and we'll be drinking some sweet nectar soon...
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