What I did for beer today

Staring at my first brew (Grand Cru) bubbling away in the garage! Man the garage smells great now!

Made three loaves of spent grain bread (regular, cranberry, and cheddar cheese).

Made dinner rolls by infusing caramelized onions and cheddar cheese into the dough and slicing them in cinnamon roll-like shapes before baking. They went amazingly with my wife's chili.

Brewed my one year / 20th batch for my Caribrewsary (all grain Caribou Slobber kit in honor of my first brew which was an extract version).

Invited a couple of friends over to partake in the food and brewing, one of which has sampled a variety of my brews, but it was his first time to experience the brewing process. The best part was that he even stuck around for cleanup!

And of course sampled completed product throughout the course of the day. Phew, I'm exhausted just typing that all out!

Edit : and performed the inaugural brew with my Blichmann floor burner. It preformed phenomenally!

Brewed an all-grain golden ale that somehow ended up 6 points lower than expected... Bottled 2 batches that badly needed bottling.

Didn't feel well towards the end of the brewday, so postponed cleanup for a few hours... Came back and saw a krausen in the hydrometer sample tube I had left out with wort in it. Realized I had pitched before aerating and taking a gravity reading, so I have the world's smallest open fermentation. If it's done tomorrow, I'll try it... Why not?

EDIT: Hey, that was pretty good. Hope the actual beer turns out like the mini-ferment.

I just started soaking 1.5 kg of wheat, and 1.5 kilos of barley to make some malt. The grain will eventually be turned into a two gallons of weizen, and the leftovers paired with some corn and rice to make some Co3C.

kscarrington said:

Made three loaves of spent grain bread (regular, cranberry, and cheddar cheese).

Made dinner rolls by infusing caramelized onions and cheddar cheese into the dough and slicing them in cinnamon roll-like shapes before baking. They went amazingly with my wife's chili.

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Are these recipes available? Willing to share?

Absolutely. To help keep this thread on track, I've posted my response under this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f56/kscarrington-spent-grain-recipes-379180/

davekippen said:

Are these recipes available? Willing to share?

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Bottling my Islay Scotch Ale momentarily.

Wow I haven't posted on this thread in a while... Today I put almost all the finishing touches on my DIY roller mill. Hand crank (for now) made, mounts trimmed, drilled, and mounted, and planning for a stand... Might go to HD and roam the aisles to see what I come up with. I have power for the mill already in the garage, just need to get a lovejoy coupler at northern tool.

Oh yea and I moved my starter of WLP 099 to the fridge to cold crash.

I bottled my dunkelweizen! So excited to try it!!

Stepped up my WY 1968 mother starter to brew caribou slobber again tomorrow.

Just bottled up my stout. This is gonna be good, the sample was damn tasty!

Moved my 2.5L WLP833 second-stage starter to the fridge to crash for a couple days before decanting and stepping up again. It looks like the yeast is still really happy, even a couple months after rinsing it.

Started more malt, found a hot air popper (flaked maize! Bah! I will make my own adjuncts for this batch!), and started drying some mandarin orange peel for a future witbier-type project.

I like this thread! It helps me celebrate the little things, and reminds me that brew-day is not a 6-hour event that happens occasionally, but the culmination of many little steps that all go in to crafting one's own beer.

Cleaned and organized the kitchen at the cabin swmbo was getting upset with it being in this state

I might brew again this weekend. A rye-based ale, with black pepper spicing, and I will do it in the garage, with a burner that should be freed from two feet of snow.

andvari7 said:

I might brew again this weekend. A rye-based ale, with black pepper spicing, and I will do it in the garage, with a burner that should be freed from two feet of snow.

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So your decision to brew this weekend is what you did for beer Today? Haha just as good a thing as any other I guess. I like it.

Placed an order for 60 lbs of base malt and 21 lbs of specialty malt.

I tested my DIY roller mill and it works!!! So stoked I can't wait to mash tomorrow... And *all* of the grain is gonna be crushed properly! Even the wheat!! Hello 80+ % efficiency...

Mash hopped a Berliner Wiesse with 2% Black Patent, and Magnum

Cleaned my mash tun and keggle from yesterday's batch. Doing one or two more this week so lots of cleaning to look forward to.

Talked to my wife on the phone about how my red ale is coming along...I'm out of town for work for the next ??? Months, looks like her and my other brewing buddy will bottle this one.

She also informed me that all my gear for my RIS showed up in the mail, and like a good wife she wanted me to know that she opened it and immediately put my yeast in the fridge. No idea when I'll be brewing it, but let's hope it's sooner than later.

Dave37 said:

So your decision to brew this weekend is what you did for beer Today? Haha just as good a thing as any other I guess. I like it.

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Well, had I responded yesterday, I would have added that I racked to secondary last night. Lost 1/3 to trub, but otherwise salvageable. Conditioning is in two weeks. Tasting is in March.

However, I did not respond last night, so my previous statement stands.

At lunch I ran out to HD and got most of the parts needed to do my cooler mash tun. Also found some Sweet Baby Jesus! which made it a great lunch. :rockin:

Mashing on a sour cranberry ale... Triple decoction... Sour wort... Lots of fermentables...

Stirred my vanilla beans soaking in bourbon for my RIS. Not much, but it's something, lol.

10 minutes into the boil of my latest batch of caribou slobber. With proper temp control, this time.

Racked my Primary into a secondary with 3 lbs of frozen pineapple.

Assembled my new monster mill.

I bought some more airlocks and drilled stoppers, as well as some small plastic bins to store specialty grains.

That was yesterday. Instead of a new entry, today I weighed and milled grains and weighed out hops for an IPA I am brewing tomorrow, plus ordered the last grain, hops and some Denny's Favorite 50 I need for two more batches I am planning to brew soon. I was planning to drive to that particular LHBS (about 40 minutes or so each way) until I found out that for $5 they deliver once a week to somewhere much closer to home.

I took a second sample of my lager, now in a D-rest. The beer is cleaning up nicely and the gravity is at 1.010, starting at 1.054.

Boiled and pitched yeast on sour cranberry ale. I think this one might be good! Hydro sample tasted like a pop tart!

Made a starter for my zombie dust clone

Took more labels off bottles up to 180 now (my goal is 240).

Took gravity reading on my Pineapple Pale. It's been in Secondary for 3 days and there is just a hint of Pineapple but it compliments the beer quite well. 10 more days and I will bottle.

As I do every day, I checked on the temp of my fermenting ESB. Then I purchased a digital thermometer with timer and probe to be used during mashing, and picked up a scale to help get my hop quantities correct.

Worked on making some new beer drinking glasses.

Got my first ever batch bottled (48) 12oz

Finished wrapping fittings with Teflon tape and installing them on my new keggle and Chugger.