02/25/2012 – Brew Day

Added 14oz corn sugar for 1% alcohol boost
Included 1/4tsb yeast nutrient.
Reused Kolsch yeast cake in Texas Blonde fermenter (potential for lemongrass flavor carry-over)
Aerated by shaking
OG: 1.056, 14.1% Brix
Beginning fermentation at 60° F (due to large yeast cake)
Kreusen never grew large or anywhere near the blow-off. 3-piece airlock would have been better.
Fermentation slowed in 3 days… increased temp to 65F for 19 hrs then to 68F for 4 days

03/04/2012 – Rack to secondary

Very cloudy. Lots of yeast in suspension
Added finings in secondary to clarify.
Tasted of lemon with almost no hop aroma. Lemongrass did carry over… avoid this in the future.
Planning to dry-hop with Cascade for 1 week in secondary. Postponing due to rusty infuser chain!
IG: 1.011, 7.3% Brix
03/05/2012 – Dry Hopped with Cascade

We decided there wasn’t enough hop aroma, so we added hops to the secondary. We added the hops into a stainless steel hop infuser that fits through the opening into the carboy. Before inserting into the carboy, we soaked the hop-filled strainer in vodka to allow the hops pellets to swell before being added.

03/11/2012 – Bottled 12 and kegged the rest on

More hop aroma, but not as much as expected. good balance now. Small lemon aroma still, but hard to pick out if you aren’t looking for it. Acceptable recovery.
FG: 1.008, 7.1% Brix, 6.29% ABV