What I did for beer today

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Bottled my 3rd and 4th batches. Batch 3 was weak and watery and could use some definite aging time (hey look, I made Budweiser!), but batch 4 rocked!
 
Made a starter for my upcoming blood orange coriander brew. Dumped some skunky yeast. Fridge is clean again.
 
Today I used my $100 Northern Brewer Christmas gift card. Bought some high-temp tubing, a strainer, a vinator bottle rinser, some more star-san, and another batch of all grain Caribou Slobber as I'm having trouble keeping this stuff in stock. Looks like I'm brewing next weekend!
 
Scored myself a new to me 5 tier storage rack from a neighbor cleaning out the house down the street. Re organized all supplies, empties, and full ones not ready to drink.
 
Drove 650 miles round trip to safely transport 81 lbs. of grain home. Well, that wasn't my only reason for the drive, but the drive through about 7 different ecosystems took at least a week or two off my life. After checking my watch, I do believe it's about time to find a homebrew.
 
Kegged half a 10 gallon batch, bottled the other (Sterling Cream Ale). Cleaned two fermentors. Sampled/tested SG of five other brews/wines/hooches I have going! Straightened up the garage (that's my brewery).

Not to bad of a day. I haven't wanted to brew because my wife is 39+ weeks preggo. We are mostly just waiting around for our little bundle to make his entrance!!!
 
Made a blue moon clone

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Made a low gravity 250 ml starter of Conan dregs from a Heady Topper, and finished cleaning up a few things from yesterdays brew.
 
Made a single hop (Liberty) batch with Briess Pale and Munich 20L. Pitched Wyeast 1056 in one carboy for an American Amber and 2206 in the other for something Munich Dunkel-like.
 
I was on vacation in Key West last Thursday - Sunday and went out to see what was going on down town. While I was at Irish Kevin's on Duval street I was called upon to take the stage and down a glass of guinness. Well just so everyone knows it was a trap lol! One guy had gone before me and managed a time of 5.6 seconds and then my "Friends" (actually my 1/2 drunk already self ;) ) decided it was my turn. Well when I got on stage there were 2 glasses of guinness to choose from one was slightly down from the top and the other was all the way full to the rim! Well I picked up the wrong one cause they topped off the empty space with about 2 or 3 shots of Whiskey.

My time 4.92 seconds and I was still the champion of the guinness contest that night. :mug: :drunk:

I was not the champion of anything the next morning though :D

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At home sick today, so I'm medicating myself with a glass of Galaxy Pale Ale. Decided to inaugurate my 5-gallon Rubbermaid mash tun with a homemade random ass brown ale.
 
Measured some PBW into my fermenter & topping it off with water. Too bad I gotta do it a gallon at a time...

Why do you need to do it a gallon at a time?

Today I made labels to go on the caps of my last two batches. I've noticed now that I have an infant, it is easy to get lazy with the simple parts of brewing.
 
Picked up five 6 gallon food grade buckets with gasketed lids - used but very clean, as well as a 6 gallon closed head jug to use as fermentors. $3 each for the buckets and $2 form the jug.
 
Put my lagerater back together (2 garbage cans with fiberglass between them, duct taped for a seal) with the styrofoam lids that fit around the airlock and into one of the can lids.

I put in my 5 gallon carboy filled with my American Lager, filled the can with cold water up almost level with the beer, and closed it up to bring it down to about 45. I'll add ice bottles tomorrow to get it down to 34, unless the weather does it for me. It is supposed to be colder this week, and colder still next week. I just need to watch that it doesn't freeze, but no real harm if it does as long as it doesn't freeze solid and break the carboy.
 
Well today for beer I took one for the team folks...

It all started when I realized that I had left some hop material and wort in the brew kettle from my last brew session. Well in the Montana December "heat" wave of 10-30 degrees it was frozen junk that i needed to get out. So I warmed up the kettle on the burner to thaw it and went to dump it behind the house where I always do. I slipped and started to fall it happened so fast I wasn't thinking of anything other than pushing the kettle away from me so it didn't land on top of me. Well instinct was to grab the bottom and that was HOT. I got 2nd degree burns on the inside of my fingers on my left hand and had to visit the walk-in Clinic. And worst of all my Mash temp dropped from 148 to 142 over the course of the 3 HOUR MASH while i was at the clinic! All and all though it wasn't that bad and could have been worse. I learned that gloves should be used when moving HOT items! My good buddy Jeff came over and helped me finish the brew day. I hit the Pre and Post boil SG numbers and i think the brew will turn out fine..

Jeff chose the name for this brew

2nd Degree Saison

Ove Gloves, cabrón. Or another brand of Nomex/Kevlar gloves. No problem picking up something hot, without feeling like you're about to drop it as with typical oven mitts - which is pretty important when you're dealing with 5-10 gallons of boiling hot sugar-liquid. More heat-resistant than typical oven mitts too.
 
Checked out my beer that is fermenting while drinking a beer. I really love the smell that comes from WLP023 Burton Ale Yeast when its fermenting.
 
Ove Gloves, cabrón. Or another brand of Nomex/Kevlar gloves. No problem picking up something hot, without feeling like you're about to drop it as with typical oven mitts - which is pretty important when you're dealing with 5-10 gallons of boiling hot sugar-liquid. More heat-resistant than typical oven mitts too.

Thanks for the memo your 9 days too late telling me though ;)

My hand has actually healed up super fast 9 days and I'm about 90% back to normal already ! :ban:
 
Just finished step one of my two step starter. A few firsts for me with this batch. First time doing a multi step starter and first attempt at a lager. Jamils traditional bock. Looking forward to the challenge.

^ glad the hands better that cream works wonders.

Cheers

Dave
 
Getting ready to go to my homebrew club meeting and drink a bunch of homebrew and talk about brewing! Guest speaker is one of the head brewers at Four Peaks which is a pretty awesome local brewery.
 
Getting my yeast starter going for a Black Butte Porter AG tomorrow. I am excited about this one...my first porter.

Ordered two more kegs from Keg Connection.

AND confirmed that my new freezer/keezer is coming tomorrow:ban:. Much work ahead...but it's all good.
 
I racked my Vanilla Chocolate Porter over to the secondary on top
of 2 rum soaked vanilla beans.Need the carboy for this saturday`s
Blue Moon clone.

Cheers
 
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