Diacetyl rest before the crash

Took the McBee’s out of the fermentation chamber (fancy way of saying old coal room in the basement) today. She looks a lovely creamy butterscotch in the carboy that translates to a light straw color in the hydrometer test cylinder. There’s a metric butt tonne of trub sitting at the bottom of the carboy. SG reading was a bit higher than anticipated–1.015 instead of the expected 1.009.

Given that it’s been on the cold side in the ol’ carboy what with us actually getting a cold snap the last week I’ve pulled her out and set her next to the furnace covered in a tshirt and pillow case. Probably leave it there until Wednesday to give it time to warm up, kick out any diacetyl lying about and wrap up any remaining sugar.

Going to cold crash this by setting the carboy out on the back porch for two or three days before bottling. This assumes the weather cooperates. This should help settle anything else out. I have to say, though, it was pretty clear even though I gave up on running it through a filter on the way to the carboy because we were running short of time. Looking to bottle this next weekend if I get steady SG readings over the next week.

Drank a few swallows out of the sample tube and I think this one is going be an excellent session beer.