I'm always busy when we put together the September, October, November, December and January-February issues of BYO. Most years, the once-a-month schedule means that my brewing gets scaled back a bit, compared to when we put out an issue every other month. This year, we were busier than usual and now I'm almost out of beer.

So now that editorial on the Jan-Feb issue is wrapped up, it's time to get brewing. I decided to get things started by making a big batch. I normally brew either 5-gallon (19-L) batches for my "regular" beers or 3-gallon (11-L) batches for experimental brews. In the past, I've shied away from making larger volumes of beer because I don't like cleaning and sanitizing multiple carboys and kegs for a single batch. This time around, however, I've (mostly) corrected for that with a few extra pieces of equipment I've picked up over the last few months.

My new pieces of equipment are a food-grade 20-gallon (76-L) Rubbermaid Brute garbage can to use as a primary fermenter, a 15-gallon (57-L) demijohn for a secondary fermenter and a 10-gallon (38-L) Corny keg for serving. (A demijohn is like a big carboy; home winemakers frequently ferment in them.)

I plan to make 15 gallons (57-L) of wort, ferment it in the garbage can, rack it to the demijohn for secondary and package it in two kegs -- my new 10-gallon (38-L) Corny and an old 5-gallon (19-L) keg.

Tonight, I made the yeast starter. I dissolved 14 oz. (0.40 kg) of dried malt extract in 1.5 gallons (5.7 L) of water, heated it to 180 degrees F (82 degrees C) and let it sit for 15 minutes to let the heat sanitize the wort. I usually boil the starter for 15 minutes, but decided to cut my heating and (especially) cooling time by shaving about 30 degrees F (~18 degrees C) off the top. Malt extract has already been boiled, so why boil it again if you're not boiling hops?

After cooling the wort in my sink, I transferred it to a 3-gallon (11-L) carboy, aerated (with a one-minute shot of oxygen) and pitched the yeast (an XL smack pack of Wyeast 1056).

I plan to brew on either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how the starter does and will post a blog entry when I do. I also have a few other brewing projects to start (or finish) in the next few weeks, so I should have updates to this blog every few days for next week or so.