Homebrew Supply

Next up I am making a double Fat Tire clone from the 150 clones magazine put out by BYO. Since I've been having terminal gravity problems, I wanted to try an extract brew to see if it was my mashing that might be causing the problems.

I tried to go to Rob's Homebrew to get the yeast required by the clone (WY1272 or WLP051). I also wanted to get another vial of WLP001 to try to restart the Big Slick (IIPA stuck at 1.030). They didn't have any of it. I was stuck. On the bright side, they did order a couple of odd Belgian yeasts for me, which should be there this week sometime. But they're a half an hour away, so it's hard to know when I'll get back there.

I still needed my Double Fat Tire stuff. I wanted to try Zok's in Willimantic, but they're not open Tuesdays. So I ended up at Beer and Wine Maker's Warehouse in Hartford. Both are an hour away from me (in Mystic, CT), so it was a toss up. BWMW ended up being really cool. They had everything I wanted, and the owner was there working, and was very knowledgeable. They even had plastic PET 0.5L bottles, which I've been wanting for the NASCAR race this fall.

Funny thing about this recipe is it is an extract-based recipe, but they still have me mash the pound and a half (three pounds, since I'm doubling) of specialty grains. I have to "steep" the grains at 154°F for 30 minutes and then "rinse" them with 170°F water - sounds like mashing to me... So it will still take a long time anyway. I thought I was going to save two hours, but I guess not... We'll see how it goes. Probably brewing on Monday. Pray for good weather.