What I did for beer today

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Started my kegerator build!

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Just waiting for my faucets ;)
 
Read many threads today. Learning so much!
Brewed a nutmeg/vanilla stout. Made the house smell lovely!
 
What I did for brew today? Just broke my hydrometer! That's what I did today! Crap Balls!!! :(
 
Today I taught a class on decoction mashing for my homebrew club. I also read the newest byo magazine and plugged a member of the clubs pilsner into beersmith 2 so he could have a "printed" copy with brew steps.
 
I unpacked and cleaned my two new 10 gallon stainless steel brew pots, built a second 48 quart mashtun and tested my second Bayou SQ14 burner stand. In the winter I cannot run my wort chiller off of the garden hose so I will chill these two pots by placing each of them in tubs with ice, snow and water. With a 22 month old toddler and another one on the way I decided that the number of "free days to brew" are going to be very limited so I will be running two brews in tandem (at the same time) in order to keep the pipeline going.

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Brewed an ESB! Finally got to use my new chiller and temp controlled ferm chamber (fridge).
 
Ordered ingredients for an English brown ale and an oatmeal stout. Moved a carboy of Apfelwein to the kitchen for bottling tomorrow.
 
Purged excess pressure from keg still fermenting.
Checked gravity on barleywine and confirmed I need to add more yeast.
Added wort to starter for barleywine
Made starter for lager.
Planning on building another stirplate for second starter with homemade PWM controller (circuitboard and all...)
 
I just doughed in to a dubbel I designed by using my Belgian Red as a base and adding some malts characteristic to dubbels and some soft brown Belgian sugar.
 
I cleaned & rinsed the newly emptied bottles from the last 2 days. Strained the bucket of PBW from delabeling & cleaning bottles into brew kettle. Almost done with funnel & strainer with coffee filters to clean the PBW up more. I'm liking keeping a covered bucket of it around For delabeling & cleaning bottles after use. I've only rinsed & dried them for the last 8 or 9 brews. They do get santized before filling.
But rinse/clean/rinse & dry is going to be the new paradigm.
I also ordered ingredients for 2 more brews a couple days ago. Gotta clean the BK next. Then it's beer & video time!
 
checked the brews i did yesterday and came on this great web sight to see what the rest of the brew world was doing
 
Moved My Cherie valentine beer to secondary. Picked up two recipes (extract ) from HomeBrewParty to brew tomorrow night. Also signed up for All Grain class next Sunday.
 
Bottled an IPA.
Then went to check out a new home brew store a friend told me about. Was hoping they had a couple of 2 gallon pail fermentors.
Ask the guy behind the counter if he had any.
He asks me, with a confused expression on his face, "What do you want those for?"
Really? Guess I could have been a smart ass, instead I replied sweetly, "I want to brew more batches of beer."
"You brew beer?!" he says.

sigh.
 
Brewed a Patersbier from extract. My last extract now that I have gone BIAB. The end of an era. :p

Actually I shouldn't say that I'm sure I will go back in forth as weather, time and recipe dictates, lol.
 
Busy beer day here! For starters I found some Lost Abbey and Port stuff at the store, they just starting selling in NJ, sweet! I bottled the batch of Summer Shandy the wife requested and since I split it between 3 yeasts I had to rack off and then wash 3 different carboys. I also sprinkled a bit of US 05 in some bottles of barley wine I had brewed back in August for my upcoming birthday. I popped a bottle yesterday and its totally flat so I am assuming that the 1056 quit on me, which it earned it did get it to 12%. I also washed yeast today for the first time. I want to develop a house recipe pale ale and make it as cheaply as possible so I am learning to wash yeast. Along the same lines I ordered a pound of citra leaf hops and 6 oz of pellets (dry hop) for the pale ale. I also laid out everything for tomorrow since I am going to brew Denny's Rye IPA. Now I am just relaxing with some Lost Abbey Devotion.
 
attempted to harvest some dregs from a jolly pumpkin weizenbam! my first time harvesting dregs, hope it works.
 
Yo, dry hopped a Orval clone that I brewed in March!

Brewed Orfy's Boddington's clone.

Rehydrated dry yeast properly for the first time per instructions in Yeast... I'll agree with the guy above me, great book.
 
Yo, dry hopped a Orval clone that I brewed in March!

Brewed Orfy's Boddington's clone.

Rehydrated dry yeast properly for the first time per instructions in Yeast... I'll agree with the guy above me, great book.

ha, i don't know if you actually meant me but i do love that book :fro:
 
Bought "Designing Great Beers" and a 2000 mL flask so I can finally begin making starters and harvesting yeast. I know homebrewing saves you money on beer but when you are buying 2 packs of yeast to ensure you pitch the correct amount for a batch, it really starts getting expensive! Now I should be able to wash the yeast, make a starter, and even hopefully start harvesting yeast from some commercial brews to clone them as best as possible.
 
Blended a bitter with a pale ale because I needed the space\kegs and gave a good clean to the inside of my kegerator, oh and while I was at it I defrosted the feezer bit that holds frozen worts for starters etc.
I had to transfer my washed yeast collection to my other 'food fridge' whilst I was cleaning so as not to awaken them too much. I dont think the food minded being out on the side all afternoon:)
 
Checked the gravity of an IPA I brewed last week....got freaked out when I saw some green/white mold floating in my testing beaker!! Turns out the beer is fine...Im about 99% sure it came from my bucket nozzle when I tested the OG and forgot to wash it out. Talk about almost a diaster!! Good news is it tasted great, and checked in just under 6.5%. :ban:
 
Turned down the temp on my fridge to lager my Vienna Lager. Went in search of New Glarus Barleywine. Stopped at the LHBS to pick up some Centennial hops for my next brew.
 
Decided to start a new homebrew club. Right now, we're at a whopping 2 members. At our second meeting (February sometime), we plan to invite a couple self proclaimed beer lovers from in the neighborhood that have only had BMC. I'm extremely un-judgmental, so if they walk away loving BMC more, so be it. At least they'll sample other things.

We're debating whether to hit them hard (IPAs, Belgian, sours) or just ease them in. :D

There is a larger local club that seems pretty cool, but it's a little far.
 
Cleaned and de-labeled bottles in my 100 qt cooler for bottling day tomorrow: we're putting up 5 gallons of ginger beer and 5 gallons of BlackHook Clone.

Figured I'd drop a thermometer in there to test its heat retention to make sure it will make a good mash tun. Hopefully it'll hold the 140° for an hour or so.
 
Carried my new kettle inside after it was delivered. The delivery guy left it in front of my garage instead of brining it to the door. He must have gotten tired of my dogs going nuts every time he comes. I wouldn't have known it was here if not for the shipment tracking notification. I also checked the weather to see if I can brew on Friday or Saturday. It's not looking promising. I'll likely take that time to thoroughly clean all of my gear and maybe see if I can squeeze in some time outside to check the boil-off rate of the new kettle.
 
Transferred my IIPA to secondary... Also have been reading up on making a BMBG, so I can bottle a six'r or two from my kegs! :mug:
 
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