1) Treated water and got strike water up to 160 before mashing in. Mash was fairly straightforward but had to heat a couple times as mash sat around 152-154. I stirred 15 mins in and raised the heat to get up to 154 then let mash rest for the remaining mash time.
Mash PH: 5.7
2) Boil went as planned, added hops as recipe called for. I did make a last minute decision to add the 5 min boil hops, but pulled those out of what would've been all whirlpool. Thought it might impart a little more flavor.
3) With 5 mins left in boil, I added the corn sugar and boil hops then at end I immersion chilled to 160 and dropped the whirlpool for 30 mins.
4) I continued chilling which got to about 80F then transferred to the fermenter, moved to temp controlled ferm chamber to cool to 68F before pitching yeast.
OG: 1.064 - missed by .02 from recipe - I did measure this when the wort was still about 80 degrees and was filled with trub so not sure if that had an impact...
5) After temp was stable at 68F, I pitched the ballooned packet of activated yeast and shook the fermenter like hell. *Thanks amazon for not delivering my aeration kit today as you were supposed to...
6) 12 hours in and fermentation is going very strongly. I have a blow-off tube in a jug of sanitizer that is bubbling every 5 seconds. I'll continue to check ensuring their is no clogging from krausen.
7) Dropped Dry Hop as scheduled and pulled a samp!e at 7 days to check gravity. Its reading 1.010 which is off target. Beer tastes very good though. Checked again 2 days later and its still at 1.010 and even better aroma and taste with the second dry hop kicking in.
8) Lowered temp to 38 to cold crash for 2 days to prior to kegging.
9) Kegged with no issues and set carbonation to 2.3 vols. I sampled after 4 days and it's fantastic. Nice milky/pillowy mouthfeel, slight bitterness, and tastes like straight Orange juice.
