I had another hobgoblin ale the other day. Palate effects are weird. There is a distinct taste of black patent malt in that beer, which gives it a much more brown ale like flavor than I had originally recognized.

Today, I'm SIMRing for the first time. So far, so good. There are kinks in the system that need to be worked out. For one, there's an issue of burner space for water (brewing liquor and sparge water) and the SIMR too. I think next time I will heat the water for the dough-in in a pot and then heat the SIMR for the next step. Alternatively, I could nearly heat for the dough-in, heat the simr and then get the water to strike temperature using the SIMR. The advantage of that comes largely in temperature control, the disadvantage is in time.

SIMRing is a little more intense than regular-old brewing, as the SIMR demands attention, as does step mashing.

Today's brew is all goldings hops with a grist of nine pound maris otter and a half pound each of victory, 30L Cargill crystal and melanoidin. Hops: 2oz at 60, 1oz at 30, 1 oz at one. Fermented with dry english ale yeast from white labs at a cool 67 degrees.