What I did for beer today

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I hooked up all of my components necessary for adding a second keg to my fridge. I started soaking the new keg in Oxiclean so I can sanitize it tonight or tomorrow and have it ready to go for a quick kegging of my IPA on Wednesday.
 
picked up a fridge a buddy of mine wanted to get rid of
about to go scrape it down and put on the first coat of paint
will be using the fridge part for fermentation and the freezer part for a kegerator (eventually)
 
Set up my second keg yesterday. Washed about 3 cases of bottles and picked up 4 of these glasses at the good will also.

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Bottled some of my recent IPA for friends to try and moved 5 gallons of Sweet Stout from the Whiskey barrel to keg to force carb. Barrel empty :eek: Oh, No! So I transfered 5 gallons of my IPA from cold conditioning in the keg to the barrel for a few days.
 
Dropped some samples off at the brew store sharing the goodness with those who enable my addiction. Picked up the grainbill for swmbo's cream ale. Was going to make a starter of wy1056 tonight and brew tomorrow but I've already got a starter of wy2565 left over from a kolsch that I never got around to making last week. Might just use that and brew the cream ale tonight and something else with the 1056. I also have a black ipa that I should probably bottle today because my kegs are all full (good problem to have, though I've got my 30 gallon brew day coming of age in another week or so, gotta drink faster! :drunk: ) also entered my whiskey stout my tripel and my absinthe barrel IPA in a local competition while I was at the lhbs. Working on my basement bar build today as well.
 
Bottled a brewing classic styles american pale ale this morning. Substituted bittering hops for magnum nit sure if that was the best choice.

Pre-fermentation

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Post-fermentation

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Just washed 110 bottles for tomorrow...

This is precisely why I brew in small batches. LOL.


Bottled two gallons of wine. One of my 750ml's bombed (clean split along bottom rim) shortly after corking. Really didn't think this batch needed a decant with all the racking I did. These were recycling center bottles, so their strength is probably a tad diminished anyway. No biggie - puts me out less than a dollar.

Were you able to save the wine!?


Today so far I've just washed half a dozen bottles so we can bottle our small batch brown ale later. Since the baby just went down for a nap, it's probably high time to get off my ass and start, actually...
 
Made a 10 gallon batch of edWort pale. Split between English ale 2 and American ale 2. Transferred my aprahop clone to secondary with fruit. Blew the airlock in 2 hours. Tomorrow for beer I clean a closet.
 
Pickup up a 106lbs of grain, a couple vials of yeast, and some Laughing Dog huckleberry cream ale!
 
Took 3 cases of empty bottles off the hands of my local bottle shop (they do a lot of tastings, and end up with a lot of empties around they'd otherwise have to take for recycling, win for me and win for them), and picked up a few bottles of deliciousness while there.
 
Preparing to bottle 5 gallons of Hefeweizen (I was going to keg, but my Keezer isn't ready yet). Also getting things ready to brew a pale ale after I bottle. I'm going to bitter with 1oz of Summit, flavor with Cascade and Citra (1oz each), and dry hop with 1oz each Cascade and Citra. I'm looking forward to tasting this one.
 
Nope - they were sitting on the kitchen floor, and I turned around to do something in the sink - heard the pop, and it was over - wine all over the floor.

Ugh, that is devastating.


Yesterday we did manage to get our small batch of brown ale bottled up - we got 8 bottles out of it, so I was pretty happy.

Today, I browsed around for auto-siphons - doing a gravity siphon sucks!
 
Hmmm...

Friday went to New Holland Brewery. Saturday went to Founders Brewing. Sunday trimmed my hops back a bit to clean up the undergrowth and spent some time organizing my brewery. Today I watered the hops, spent so time planning out this weekend's brew session (Ramble On Red ale), and spent a bunch of time researching Love controllers and DIY temp controls on the message boards.
 
Let my American Amber sit for another day. I'll probably let it settle and keg it this weekend. I brought it up from the basement to transfer to a keg but in the process stirred up the sediment. It'll be 3 weeks in the primary, and I figure a week or 2 in the keg and it should be ready. My taste this past weekend was mostly pretty mellow, and the reading was 1.008, down from 1.055. That fg reading sounds really low come to think of it and I'll have to check it again, getting another taste in the process. ;)
 
Cleaned and de-labeled 2 cases of 12 oz bottles. I really didn't need them right now, but I will in about 2 weeks. Also did some design work for my all electric brew rig that I'm gonna start gathering parts for soon.
 
mjmac85 said:
I really am starting to hate bottles.

When I returned to brewing I considered bottling...for about 28 seconds. Kegging is a great investment. You are buying time and sanity that pays you back in beer.

Back on point...setting up my keg fridge for a sankey tap. Also returning a loaner co2 bottle to a generous neighbor.
 
Sniffed an air lock, then went to the dentist. Thought about beer the whole time they were grinding down my tooth for a new crown. Thank god for beer.
 
Bought a few fittings for my kettle and mash tun. Only a few more little things till my all grain setup is complete!
 
Dry hopped my Loose Cannon clone,cleaned a kicked keg and am soaking a carboy in oxy clean..always something to do around the Brewhaus.
 
ArtimusBeerimus said:
Right?? And from where I'm standing, it looks like he even said that with a straight face!!

After every brew I make lists of lessons learned, necessary process improvements, and equipment needs. I can't imagine a brew day that would leave me without entries in any of those lists.
 
Racked off my newest home recipe Hosenhausen American Pale Ale into secondary, and cleaned bottles prior to bottling tomorrow. This my third beer in 5 weeks, so easily my most productive time so far. I have a Better Brew Kolsch and home Recipe Citrus Wheat Ale already bottled.
 
Just finished watering the hops. Surveying the Japanese beetle damage, which isn't so bad... Yet. Didn't actually see any beetles, and couldn't shake any out, either, but I know they're there.

Trying to finalize the details on a double brew day this weekend. Logistics...
 
Brewed 6 gallons of milk stout in 105F heat whilst smoking a Rocky Patel. I tried cold sparging for the first time and I still managed to get 74% effeciency. I usually get 79% with a hot sparge, so I'm happy with that. Another thing I tried for the first time is adding my roasted grains at the last 10 minutes of the mash to cut down on harsh flavors associated with dark grains. The wort had a perfect "stout color" and tasted wonderful! Cheers!
 
Picked up another 55 lb. sack of 2 row, this time Briess from a store (36 bucks) my last one was Canadian Malting Group from a group buy. I can't believe I already finished half of the first bag and I still have like 6 batches to go before summer is over. I also got a few packs of s04 and about 10 pounds of specialty grains. I also picked up a quart growler of Port Hop 15 and a quart carton of Yards Porter. The carton of Yards unsealed due to humidity and tipped over spilling beer all over my driveway. Love the carton idea though as they are complimentary when buying beer to go but next time I will have to sit it up front on the passenger seat so I can keep it upright. If you haven't seen it yet its called "2 Pints to Take Home" and is a cheap cardboard container to that seals via adhesive, should be consumer immediately.
 
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