brew day rundown

Today I am going to live blog the brewing process, for all of you who have been curious about exactly how a brew day goes. I'm making a very light American wheat beer to use as a base for three flavored beers - cranberry, chamomile, and rhubarb. Here goes:

7:20am: Sam gets out of bed to turn the heat on seven gallons of water, comes back to bed.
8:35am: Get up and shower.
9:15am: Make omelets and toast for breakfast.
9:30am: Bring up mash tun (converted cooler) and grain from the basement.
9:40am: Rinse out mash tun.
9:45am: Sanitize mash tun.
9:55am: Mash in - add 5 gallons of 170degree water to 11 lbs of grain, hold at 152degrees for 45 min.
10:05am: Start doing some work in the downtime.
10:50am: Mash out - add 2 gallons of 180degree water to mash, hold at 157degrees for 10 min.
11:00am: Drain off the wort into the boil kettle.
11:05am: Start making pizza.
11:10am: Welcome friends and start serving beverages.
11:40am: Sparge - add 2 gallons of 168degree water to the grain, hold for 5 min.
11:45am: Drain off the sparge wort.
11:50am: Put pizza in the oven. Starting making tortilla chips.
12:00pm: Take a gravity reading (1.046), and start the wort boiling.
12:05pm: Eat pizza.
12:15pm: Empty spent grains, rinse out mash tun.
12:20pm: Wort boiling. Add 1oz Sorachi hops.
12:30pm: Welcome more friends. Eat tortilla chips and salsa. Listen to music.
1:00pm: Add 0.25oz Williamette hops.
1:05pm: Check out the Breeder's Cup status on TV.
1:10pm: Add 0.25oz Williamette hops, 0.5oz Irish moss, 0.5oz yeast nutrient.
1:11pm: Wash dishes.
1:15pm: Add 0.25oz Williamette hops.
1:20pm: Turn off boil, add 0.25oz Williamette hops.
1:25pm: Start setting up chill plate.
1:28pm: Answer door and assure solicitors I will indeed be voting, most likely for the Democrat, on Tuesday.
1:30pm: Sanitize primary fermenting vessel.
1:35pm: Beginning transferring wort to fermenting vessel through the chill plate.
1:40pm: Oxygenate wort.
1:47pm: Add yeast.
1:50pm: Finishing transferring wort, and seal up with bung and airlock.
1:52pm: Put fermenting vessel in study to ferment.
1:54pm: Measure starting gravity (1.047).
1: 55pm: Cleanup.
2:20pm: Grab a homebrew and watch the Breeders' Cup.

And that's a brewday. In two weeks, we'll transfer the beer to three or four secondaries so I can add the flavors I want. And then we'll do it all again for Sam's Belgian IPA!