And I'm back! Sort of...

Well, it's certainlly been a rollercoaster type of winter so far. If you watch any news at all, you've noticed DC has received record breaking snow fall despite winter only being about 2/3 done! I've been just so uninterested in brewing lately as a part result. The other has been my battle with my keg regulator with Midwest Brewing Supplies. They had sent me a new gauge, which didn't solve anything. However, they sent me a brand new regulator soon after (about a $100 value), and everything seems to be up and running with my IPA and Cal Common on tap. I have to say, Midwest has fantastic prices AND amazing customer service to boot (something I really appreciate being in the service industry).
Back to the blog. After taking a couple months off of brewing and blogging, I'm more or less back. Just finishing up brewing my Schwartzbier, and no problems whatsoever. I just bottled my Funky Belgian Stout which I brewed back in late November 2008. It got plenty of age (despite a FG of 1.026) and turned out really tasty. I'm also just pointing out that at this point I think I'm merely going to use the blog as a place for me to post recipes and production tracking. I am still very upset that I lost all of the data of nearly 3 years of brewing to my old computer and figure using a blog (on the "cloud") to backup this data is the best use. I'll try to make some other updates in addition (tastings, beer happenings, etc), but can't promise anything.
From that, here is my recipe for the Schwartz, basically an adaptation of Jamils':

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.30 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 28.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 66.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 51.37 %
4.50 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 38.53 %
0.37 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.17 %
0.37 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.17 %
0.22 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 1.88 %
0.22 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 1.88 %
1.75 oz Crystal [4.30 %] (75 min) Hops 26.1 IBU
0.50 oz Crystal [4.30 %] (20 min) Hops 4.3 IBU
0.50 oz Crystal [4.30 %] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs Bavarian Lager (Wyeast Labs #2206) Yeast-Lager

2/17/10: Brewed today. Awful efficiency, not sure if it had to do with crush or what. Also lost a ton of volume from either a vicious boil, or weather. Either way, a 1.050 OG is fine for this style. Mash ran a bit higher than expected (156-157), hopefully the yeast is able to manage at least 70%AA. Pulled a 2 cup runnings to get the yeast going since the starter was made a couple weeks ago.
3/27/10: Kegged her up today. Gravity managed to get down to 1.010, so I'm pretty happy. However, there's a strange note in the aroma, most likely yeast derived. I can't say that it's diacetyl, but I'm really not sure what it is. Hopefully a couple weeks in the fridge to lager will help it out.