New Brew: Gutsy's Open Oktoberfest

If any of this doesn't make sense, please consult my first post.

Date: 9/15/07
Name of beer: Gutsy's Open Oktoberfest
Type of beer: Marzen/Oktoberfest
Quantity: 5 gallons
Homage Beer: Sam Adams Boston Lager

Ingredients:
6.5 lbs Amber malt Extract
1/2 lb Belgian Biscuit Barley
1/2 lb Crystal Barley
1.5 oz Hallertau Hops (bittering)
1/2 oz Hallertau Hops (aroma)
American Ale yeast (100 billion cells!)

Process: After THOROUGHLY sanitizing everything, I slowly heated the biscuit and crystal barley in 1.5 gallons of water until it was boiling. I then removed the specialty grains and added the malt and bittering hops. After 55 minutes I added the aroma hops for 5 minutes. I poured the wort (boiled mixture) into the carboy which already had 2 gallons of cold water to absorb the shock of the hot wort. I measured temperature and specific gravity and then pitched the yeast. I put in the 1" inner diameter hose and submerged the other end into a bucket of sanitized water.

Original Gravity: 1.030
Yeast Temperature: 77° Fahrenheit
Taste: It tasted like warm, semi-sweetened ice tea. It didn't taste as bitter as I'd hoped, but we'll see how it goes.

I'm a little bit concerned about the original gravity, which should be in the range of 1.050-1.060. It's not a huge issue, and I'm not going to worry, as worrying will spoil the beer. I'll check in next week after bottling!

If you're curious about the name, I'm naming it after Gutsy Gibbons, the new distribution of Linux Ubuntu that comes out on October 18th. Like many nerds around the country, I am planning on hosting an open-source get-together on that date to unveil this beer, which I can honestly say is an open-source beer thanks to this blog!