What I did for beer today

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Yesterday I kegged the Amber Ale I brewed about a month ago. I brew 4 gallon batches at the city house: that’s the max for the kettle I have here. By weight I got exactly 4 gallons in the keg.

Today I worked my way around the St. Paddy’s parade downtown and made it to the LHBS to get the ingredients for a Fizzy Yellow Lager that I’ll brew tomorrow. 2-row, Pilsner, flaked wheat, and I’ll add some table sugar to dry it out a bit. Perle and Liberty to about 15 IBU and 34/70. Going for something of a Pre-Prohibition vibe.
 
Today was Deep Clean day. I disassembled all my weldless bulkhead fittings, diptubes, 2- and 3-piece ball valves and gave all the pieces a nice hot PBW bath. There were a couple of grungy spots hidden away behind some of the interior connectors, but it wasn't as bad as I thought they might be. Now I'm ready for outdoor brewing season.
 
I worked on scrubbing out the last remaining burnt sugar from my 5 gallon kettle. Baking soda paste was very helpful, followed by a hot PBW soak, then light abrasive still left a thin layer of carbon. Starsan soak took care of that, and perhaps if I had thrown that in after the PBW the light abrasive could have been skipped. Anyway, it’s now sparkling clean and ready for a brew day!
 
Flushing lines, pump and plate chiller with hot water/PBW. Afterwards a couple rinses and sanitizer. And a beer, I'm parched!
 

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It is time to run some hardware tests before my brew day tomorrow. The tests include the function of the hop dispenser, grain hopper dispensing valve, some fault diagnostic messages with correct parts identification, silos, and more.
Tomorrow I will brew a Heller Maibock or golden bock.
 

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Final transfer of my Red Ale today. Came out of my conical fermenter too cloudy. Put it in a sixtel to clear and carbonate but after 3 days it has not settled and cleared satisfactorily so today a transferred it to a fresh Corny leaving a bunch of trub behind. Now it is carbonating.

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I`ve been wanting to try to brew beer from sahti malts for as long as I`ve done this but never gotten round to it. My neighbor occasionally does brew sahti (the process is quite different from brewing beer) so I knew he has some knowledge about it. Went to visit him today bringing a couple samples of my latest brew asking if he by any chance would be planning a brewday anytime soon (they only sell the malts in 25kg bags). Long story short walked back home toting a bag about 1/3 full so a good 7-8kg there, immediately took to the internet and ordered a couple differeny german style hops and a couple different yeasts so once I either drain or buy enough bottles to brew more I`m all set!
 
Decided to finally kick out the old pale ale out of the kegerator which was so close to kicking, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten a full pour out of it...

Which led to cleaning those lines...priming another line for what I had transferring from fermenter to keg, which was effectively a new batch..of the same damn beer...well. Kinda. Slightly more 2-row, because I didn't have enough Maris Otter..and less carapils..cuzz...I didn't have enough...and dry hopped with Mosaic & NZH-14 instead of Mosaic & Citra...

oh..and I used Lallemand New England instead of Verdant because....the New England expired in January so I figured I should try and see what would happen...

It is totally NOT the same beer...who the hell am I kidding?

Oh..and I started cold crashing the Mango cider..but that isn't a beer thing...so??
 
Just put to bed a Citra/Mosaic IPA that is my very first overnight mash. I ferment this one on Imperial Mangosteeni kveik yeast (because I got it free from my fabulous LHBS, expired but worked great the first time) so it has to be in the house, wrapped up. The fleece blanket I usually use to wrap it is dirty so needed something else. Husband left his puffy columbia jacket with the reflective lining in the room I ferment in, so I thought why the heck not? Zipped it up, and it fits perfectly over the fermonster I have it in. And has the added bonus of being absolutely adorable.
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Yeah does anyone know why so many LHBS's are biting the dust ?... 10 years ago there were at least 5 or 6 in my general area, my fave closed after the owner passed away now there is 1 lhbs standing, at least in my area...crying shame.
I don't have an answer, just similar circumstances. My favorite (20 minutes away) closed years ago. There are two left, 10 and 30 minutes away, but homebrew is just an aside to their main businesses. One sells wine storage equipment, the other is a hardware store.
 
Homebrewing is quite a niche hobby, unlike yarn crafts, model trains, RC cars, what have you. In my mind it still has a bit of a stigma to it, as we are producing alcohol; which may scare some people off thinking it's 'wrong', even in this day and age (at least in WA) where you can grow your own w**d and not get in trouble for it. Yes I like run-on sentences. We've seen three major LHBS close around here in the last 7 years due to various circumstances. The one I liked best was up in Snoquamie; her prices were great, she always had a great selection, and was connected to a brewpub that had great beers (I think she was part owner). My current local used to work at the biggest store we had until they closed, and took a big chance in opening his own. But he's in a great location (8 minutes from my office, nice), is well known around here, and keeps his prices decent. I still buy my hops from YVH or Hops Direct because the locals just can't compete with the prices; buying 2oz packets is silly expensive.
 
Yesterday I brewed 20 litres of a Modelo clone
3800g Pilsner malt
800g Flaked Maize
200g Carapils
100g Acid Malt
Diluted the tap water with 10 litres of Tesco Ashbeck.
18g Cascade at 45 minutes
20g Willamette at 15 minutes
M54 yeast at 16C
Low efficiency at 68% due in probability to the Maize.
I'm drinking a Modelo right now that the husband foolishly left in the fridge. I might have to try this recipe, fortunately my scale speaks metric. However I must ask, what is Ashbeck? I know Tesco from youtube.
 
Today I brewed 15 litres of my Arctic Ale, a Kolsch like brew.
2500g Pilsner malt
250g Flaked Maize
200g Honey Malt
100g Rye Malt
50g Acid Malt
60m mash, 45m boil
15g Magnum @ 45m
35g Saaz @ 10m
Norsk yeast from Crossmyloof in Glasgow, it’s a Northern European yeast by all accounts. Got it fermenting at 22C
OG 1048.
 
An interesting tid bit I learned on my cruise. It was on Carnival Cruise lines and they had interesting beers on tap. They offered Wit beer, pale ale, red ale and IPA. All were tasty drinkable beers. I inquired who brewed them for them as each had names relating to Red Frog. I was informed that Carnival has their own micro brewery that brews all the beers for their cruise ships. One ship that sails out of Port Charlotte has an actual brew pub on board. I found that very interesting as I did their IPA. Quite a nice example of the style.
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My first pour of my latest brew, a doppelbock that needs more age time and carbonation. Also my first pour from the new beer cooler I posted earlier. Good things are happening now. Working on the brewery tap sign next. Need to get rolling before the grass greens up more.
 

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An interesting tid bit I learned on my cruise. It was on Carnival Cruise lines and they had interesting beers on tap. They offered Wit beer, pale ale, red ale and IPA. All were tasty drinkable beers. I inquired who brewed them for them as each had names relating to Red Frog. I was informed that Carnival has their own micro brewery that brews all the beers for their cruise ships. One ship that sails out of Port Charlotte has an actual brew pub on board. I found that very interesting as I did their IPA. Quite a nice example of the style.
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Old Pics from my kids. They read an article in the German newspaper that a German brewer was brewing beer on a ship and decided to check it out.
 

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