6/15/08 - Made a 2L - 2 Cup DME starter (w. yeast nutrient), pitched the yeast and held at 60 degrees.  Yeast was very sluggish to start, didnt show signs of fermenting until three days later. 

Have been swirling the starter several times per day to increase the yeast growth before Saturday.

6/21/08 - Started brewday super early (5:30 am) used 5.2 mash stabailizer in the mash water (but not sparge water) and mashed for 60 minutes.  I overshot the 153 temp i was shooting for, I came in closer to 158-159 in some areas, the grain might have been warmer than I calculated.

I crushed a bit finer than normal which caused me to have a bit of trouble lautering, I spent a lot of time recirculating and was never really happy with the clarity.

I took my time with the sparge thinking I would get a better extract but I ended up two points lower than the recipe called for, I think it was a combination of temperature (I didnt mash up to 170) and I probably created some channelling in the grain bed by pouring the recirculating wort on top in the same spot every time.

On a positive note, I was able to chill rather effectively using 40 lbs of ice (4 bags) in a cooler and pumping it through the chillers.

Pitched the yeast starter and had activity within a few hours. Held the temp around 60 until fermentation seemed to stop at which point I raised the temp to 64 for a diacetyl rest.

6/29/08 - Racked to secondary, took a gravity reading (1.012) and a taste (lots of woody flavor from the NB hops, clean lager finish).

Will lager around 40 degrees for three weeks.

7/12/08 - Got impatient and put this on tap earlier than planned, hop taste seemed to fade away with colder temps but nice light lager characteristics.