Fermentation is slowing rapidly on this brew and we’re barely done at 60%. I don’t think we can blame Tilt calibration or errant yeast stuck to the hydrometer, but to be fair I’m not opening the vessel just to check. Not much we can do about it anyway. Bit disappointing though, will likely extend the last stage by a few days before cold-crashing.

My first go at making a starter with the newly arrived 5 litre Erlenmeyer flask, and wow – it’s much easier when you’ve got some room to manoeuvre! I still used a small nub of Lipohop but felt that I could have gotten away with less. Might try that next time.

Also new was the Camping Gaz portable stove, which I was able to run from the kitchen sink just in case. The four vessel supports are quite narrow and screechy on the glass, so I didn’t want to take any chances with my new flask or the potential clean-up operation.

I pitched the sachet of Saflager S-189 at 21:00 and set the monster flask on the stir plate shortly afterwards at 13℃. By 07:00 next day there were some slight traces of foam around the edges and I plan to keep it stirring until 21:00 tonight, pitching tomorrow morning – so around 24 hours stirring and 12 hours rest. We’ll see how that goes.