What I did for beer today

Washed some empties my dad gave me, and emptied some bottles. Gonna bottle a bitter tonight or tomorrow night. Checked my Cooper's Pilsner kit, rocketing away at about 58*.

Emptied a few bottles of homebrew with some help from my wife and added sparkalloid to the batch of 18%abv mango wine I have going in hopes to bottle it before Christmas (not for beer, but fermented beverage related at least).

Pitched a 1056 starter to grow one smack pack into enough yeast for 11 gallons of 1.039 beer and 11 gallons of 1.078 beer.

I have a Cream Ale (all grain, single infusion) brew in progress.

Made a LHBS run. Grabbed ingredients for three batches to brew over the next week and a half while I'm on vacation.

Bought more bottles
Ordered grains and hops to be collected tomorrow
Collected some DME
Ordered a beersmith activation code

Bought a flask and stir bar and built a stir plate, only to discover that the used fan i was using from a toasted power supply was the most likely reason for the power supply breaking down in the first place

Probably not going to be able to get a fan until next year.

Cleaned and sanitized a carboy and keg... Upped the pressure on a pale ale in my kegerator to try and carb it for Christmas

Just ordered another pound of hops to add to my 5 lb collection. I don't have a problem, I can stop whenever I want...

Bought parts for an immersion chiller.

designed a label for my mint chocolate stout

I've been on a spent-grain kick lately, having made 2 pizzas and 5 loaves of bread. I started making cinnamon rolls for my 9-year old's birthday, and my wife said, "you're not making spent grain cinnamon rolls are you?" I guess it was a reasonable question....

Brewing a galaxy SMaSH ale as I type. Using some 1272 and 4 Oz of galaxy including the dry hop. Going to be a mostly late addition batch with only .5 oz used for bittering. Finished delAbeling and cleaning a bunch of bottles and organized my brew cave also.

I'm really digging the Galaxy hops in a couple of different batches. With the SMaSH you'll definitely get a feel for what the hops have to offer. The first batch I did was a 2.5 gallon batch - I couldn't stop drinking it! I've got another variation of a pale ale where I mixed in the Galaxy amongst some Cascade and Centennial. So far it seems like the flavors and are going to mix together quite nicely. Best of luck - hope yours turns out!

Dave37 said:

Brewing a galaxy SMaSH ale as I type. Using some 1272 and 4 Oz of galaxy including the dry hop. Going to be a mostly late addition batch with only .5 oz used for bittering. Finished delAbeling and cleaning a bunch of bottles and organized my brew cave also.

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kscarrington said:

I'm really digging the Galaxy hops in a couple of different batches. With the SMaSH you'll definitely get a feel for what the hops have to offer. The first batch I did was a 2.5 gallon batch - I couldn't stop drinking it! I've got another variation of a pale ale where I mixed in the Galaxy amongst some Cascade and Centennial. So far it seems like the flavors and are going to mix together quite nicely. Best of luck - hope yours turns out!

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Thanks man I hope so too. That's the exact reason I wanted to start doing smash recipes. To see what different hops and malts taste like. I've only started brewing and am looking to educate my tasting skills.

Dave37 said:

Thanks man I hope so too. That's the exact reason I wanted to start doing smash recipes. To see what different hops and malts taste like. I've only started brewing and am looking to educate my tasting skills.

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Smart way to go about it.

Making SMaSH and Kolsch starters right now. Checked my beer sitting on oak-needs more time.

Picked up ingredients for another moose drool clone, and a autosiphon.

Kegged up 3bbls of Hefe
Cleaning fermenting vessel
Cleaning more kegs
Gathering grain together for brewing on the 26th

Kegged a batch of Helles lager..See you in 6-8 weeks....

Whipped up 5 gallons of basic brew and am in the process of canning the lot right now. In a few hours, should have 21 quarts of wort ready to build starters with.

Oh yeah - also a batch of spent-grain dog cookies in the oven. The "kids" are droolin'...

Brewed my iipa, ipa and pale ale brew day. Something I have done for awhile now. 3 boils can get hectic but swmbo and my BIL helped out today so we got things done way faster.

Two starters started, 1 on the stirplate, 1 Bond-style.

jsv1204 said:

Oh yeah - also a batch of spent-grain dog cookies in the oven. The "kids" are droolin'...

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I made my first dog cookies the other day. They are great cause they break down so easily Jack doesn't choke on them haha

Channel66 said:

Smart way to go about it.

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Thanks guys I hope to become a competent brewer someday. Right now I'd consider myself "consistently lucky" as so far my beers have come out pretty decent. And to stay on topic today all I did was drink a lot of good beers. A yuenling on tap A vanilla porter which was great from top to bottom a Sierra Nevada celebration IPA which was extremely fresh and off the charts IMHO and one of my own IPAs, my first sampling of the batch. Must say my pallette was pretty muddled from all of the other beer so I can't give an accurate appraisal of it. Initial reaction is positive though I will make sure to start my next night of drinking (tomorrow) with one of my own.

Merry Christmas to all of you guys and gals! Very happy to be part of this great community.

Cheers

Dave

Toadsticker said:

Two starters started, 1 on the stirplate, 1 Bond-style.

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What exactly is "bond style" sorry if I am taking a joke literally some how but I am curious as to how I could have two starters going at the same time. That would be amazing.

Brewed 11 gallons of Centennial Blonde with MO base, split my starter three ways - one third into each of the two fermenters and the other third into fresh wort and onto the stir plate for the Bourbon Vanilla Porter.

Kegged another IPA, cleaned a few more cornies, and cleaned my kegerator.

Bottled my Christmas ale. It's late haha

Dave37 said:

What exactly is "bond style" sorry if I am taking a joke literally some how but I am curious as to how I could have two starters going at the same time. That would be amazing.

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I'd venture a guess that it's "shaken, not stirred"

Added graduation marks to two CurTec 13 gallon fermenters and one 30L Speidel, a gallon at a time.

Repeated shaking of yeast starters.

Cleaned all 4 of my beer lines, kegged my Founder's Porter clone, and cleaned my mash tun and manifold (somehow the cooler lid closed while there was still some rinse water in there last weekend... luckily I noticed before it got TOO moldy).

Built an stc 1000 temp controller for my fermentation fridge, stepped up my starters.

JohanMk1 said:

I'd venture a guess that it's "shaken, not stirred"

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Ahh that makes a hell of a lot of sense to me! Not sure why I didn't catch that myself but thanks for the assist.

Merry Christmas!! Thanks again.

I got a shipment from Fresh hops. I am soo pumped.

Just finished crushing my grain for a brew tomorrow.



Brewing on Christmas Day!

brewed a belgian wit, kegged an american premium lager and an extra-stout, and farmed and washed 2 yeasts