The recipe itself consisted of 5lbs of Great Western 2-row malt and 1lb. of Briess Crystal 20L. Two ounces of Cascade hops at 5.4% AA were used for the first wort hopping. 1 tsp. of Gypsum was added to the mash water and 1 tsp. of Irish Moss was added during the boil.

On Sunday September 20th the group convened upon the Whitney Portal base camp, which rests at 8,500', to meet for the very first time. Scott had informed us that he had to back out at the last minute due to a repetitive injury aggravated by training but came to see us off anyway. After we mourned his loss over a beer, equipment was distributed four ways instead of five and the pot was strapped to the back of Mike Rose's pack after he lost a game of Row Sham Bow (Just kidding, he volunteered.) We actually drank beer from one of the earlier test batches as we were all getting to know one another. After a couple beers we had your standard Clinitest debate and then we went to bed. (An inside joke for readers who belong to the HBD.)

Monday morning we ascended the mountain. This means up. I mean straight up. After a five hour hike with heavy packs we reached High Camp which rests at 12,000 feet. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting acclimated to the altitude and setting up camp.

Tuesday morning we woke up before sunrise and it was freezing ass cold. It was in the low twenties. This is cold for Californians. We needed to pump some water for the brewing session after we had a debate over the temperatures and time exposure at which giardi would die in a high altitude boil. After no conclusion, (you don't think well at 12,500' at 5:30 in the morning) we decided to pump the water. The problem was Olin had left the water filter in his pack overnight where it had frozen solid. Cripes. Luckily Regan came to the rescue and tucked the water filter into his pants where the temperatures are said to reach near boiling. For a very funny photo of that click here

After filling up close to 8 gallons, or 64 pounds, of water for brewing and drinking, we hit the trail hard with full enthusiasm at about 8:30 in the morning. That enthusiasm waned in about, oh, 30 minutes. Very few people hike to the peak of Mt. Whitney with full blown packs, let alone packs with water, grain and brewing systems. We received some funny stares from other hikers who were checking out our packs, especially the 3.5-gallon shiny, stainless steel kettle that was strapped to the top of Mike Rose's back.

The hike was pretty grueling and it took us longer than expected with all the extra weight. We reached the top at 12:00 noon and began brewing immediately. Some of us were winded click here to see how oxygen is not used merely for oxygenating your wort. The view and experience from atop the highest peak in the continental United States is pretty awesome. When you are on land and looking over clouds you know you are high. Especially when they come up and over the peak and go back down on the other side. You never know what type of weather to expect on top. We had been expecting the worst, windy and cold. We got blue skies and 50-degree weather. We felt quite fortunate to enjoy such great weather, especially considering that the next weekend the peak of Mt. Whitney got 3' of snow.

We mashed in at 175 degrees and it dropped 20 degrees to 155 Fahrenheit. We were aiming for a high mash in temperature to aid in heat retention and quick starch conversion. Our concerns over heat loss during the mash were unfounded, as we had a zero degree drop in temperature over a 30-minute period. We forgot a cup with which to sparge so we had to make one from one of Olin's water bottles. We re-circulated until the runoff was pretty clear which really did not take long. The boil was pretty vigorous given that we were at 14,500 feet and using one whisperlite under a 3.5-gallon kettle.