1/1/09 - heated 3.7 gals to 170 and mixed with crushed grains to mash in at 154 for 60 mins.  I topped the remaining space in the mash tun off w/ boiling water to raise the temp of the mash and came in around 165. 

I heated about 8 gallons of sparge water to 180 deg and sparged slowly to collect 8 gallons of wort.  I took several refractometer readings during the sparge, the first runnings were 18 brix (1.075) my last runnings were 4 brix (1.016) and the preboil reading was 9 brix (1.036).  From this I figured I would undershoot my target og and intended to try to boil more of the volume down.

I substituted 1.8 oz of Northern Brewer hops for the Perle that the recipe called for. The recipe calls for a 90 min boil however I ran out of propane 45-60 mins into the boil and had to run out to get more.  This resulted in the hops sitting in the hot wort for about 20 mins during which time I assumed there was still some isomerization although not as much as 20 minutes of boiling would have provided.  In order to try to hit the intended IBUs of the recipe I added .2 oz of the hops and boiled for 20 more minutes before removing the hop bag and adding the 15 minute hop addition.

My final post-boil volume was about a gallon more than I normally shoot for (I probalby would have got a better efficiency than the recipe called for if I took the time to boil down to the correct volume.  The final refractometer reading was just under 15 brix (1.060) and prior to pitching I took a hydrometer reading and it appeared to be 1.062 to 1.064 which is right what the recipe calls for.

Chilled to 70 degrees and pitched a 2.5 liter yeast starter that I started about 4 days earlier.  Airlock activity was observed within 2 hours.

1/2/09 - 4:45 AM - The fermenter for this batch was kept in our bedroom since it would be kept warmer than anywhere else in the house.  I heard this strange popping noise so I got up to investigate.  The entire airlock and stopper had been launched out of the carboy and hit the wall, so I promptly replaced it but noticed the krausen was right up to the top of the top of the carboy.  I decided to attach a blowoff hose instead of the airlock and when I got up two hours later the entire hose was filled with junk and the water bucket was disgusting.  Glad that didn't end up on our bedroom floor!