Two weekends ago, I decided to give the brewery a good workout by turning out two batches. On Saturday, I fired up the kettle and made an oatmeal stout. Then on Sunday afternoon, I made an IPA. So, how did all this go down???
Friday / Saturday:
Well, on Friday night I created a starter for the oatmeal stout. I wanted to make sure there were ample yeast to get this batch going. After all, I’m not going to be the only one drinking it. My Black Stone Stout will be featured at the Charlotte Oktoberfest, woot!!! Well featured may not be the most correct word to use, but it will be available in the homebrew tent for the masses. Here’s hoping that the attendees will enjoy it as I do. I will not be upset if I’m carrying home an empty keg; I’ll call that a success!
There were no real surprises with the brew day other than missing my mash temp a little bit and running out of propane right before the boil. 
After the boil had ‘officially’ started, all was well. I pitched a healthy crop of yeast and fermentation had started before I went to bed Saturday night.
Sunday:
Now, on Sunday I rebrewed my IPA. Rebrewed, huh, what? Well, the first time, back in July I had to toss it out as the batch had become infected. Long story short I had a vial of mostly dead yeast cells. Pitching the yeast directly from the vial (without creating a starter) was not a good thing to do. For what it’s worth, this was the first time that has happened to me. It took the batch 5 days to show any signs of fermentation… After sitting in the fermenter for 14 days, I decided to see if it was salvageable. I don’t know about you all but ‘beer’ that smelled bad and tasted like vinegar and crap wasn’t worth racking to the secondary. So, down the drain it went… 
Well, I wanted to give it another go so Sunday was the day. Man, it was pretty hot outside but I ‘suffered’ through the day. No surprises or interesting ‘events’ on the day. I had created a starter the day before so I knew I had healthy yeast cells. After pitching it Sunday night, I woke up the next morning to some bubbly.
I will have to say that two batches in a weekend was a good bit of work, but it was a great way to spend a couple days. I’m hoping that in two’ish weeks I’ll have some decent beer.
Cheers!
