Anybody else have a busy brew day?

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God Emporer BillyBrew

God Emporer BillyBrew

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I know I did, I took yesterday off work and my buddy and I spent about 6 solid hours beering. Brewed an Irish Stout, delabeled bottles and bottled our punkin ale, kegged my cider, and moved 10 gallons of Know Ale to the secondary.

Since my equipment was maxxed out, it took some planning to make everything come out at the right time.

I'll say this though, bottling goes a heck of a lot faster with two or three people. My wife was setting bottles up, my buddy filling and me capping. We cranked through 47 bottles in about 10 minutes or less. Yeah, the punkin only gave us 47 bottles. Even though I used a secondary, there was still about three or four inches of trub on the bottom.

So did/are any of you all having a busy brew day this weekend?
 
Not *this* weekend, but a few weeks ago I brewed an old ale and a weizen. 8 hour brew day. That was too much like work and I don't suppose I'll do it again.
 
I brewed Thursday, and it seems every brew day is busy for me, especially when I'm going solo. Seems there is always something to do.

I sure do love it though.
 
I'm thinking about doing one tomorrow. I ran across (yet another) recipe for pumpkin ale. The big difference is this one uses fresh pumpkin in the mash. You cut it up and roast it in the oven, then pulp it for the mash. Just about every other recipe I've seen puts the pumpkin in the primary.

Then again, I really need to get the Whole Harvest ale done.
 
im brewing my third batch this week today. I kind of spread out everything I needed to do throughout the week which made it kind of nice. Kegging, brewing, racking, starters, etc etc
 
I'm having a busy gadget day. I have high hopes of brewing tomorrow, but I still have a bit to get done. I'll post pics when I get a chance. So far here's what I've done today:
  • Big trip to the hardware store(s)
  • Finished my DIY Grain Mill (except for some paint...but it works!)
  • Finished my 60 qt Igloo Ice Cube mash tun conversion
  • Made an immersion heater from copper tube/fittings (RIMS-type system)
  • Welded a 1/2" NPT fitting on my brew kettle
  • Taking a quick break from finishing my first DIY Conical Fermenter - might get it done tonight
To do (tomorrow I guess...):
  • Brew stand for two kettles and a burner
  • Temperature controlled brew closet
  • BREW!!!

Guess I'm having a busy brew weekend!
 
I brewed the 1982 SNPA this afternoon and tried a few different things. I made my starter this morning around 9 and didn't pitch until about 9:30pm so we'll see how quickly it starts, I've never given a starter more than 4 hours before. I used a whisk to aerate the wort, this was suggested in another thread earlier this week. I am trying out a 6.5 gal carboy as the primary for the 1st time which made for a fun time getting the wort into the primary, a lot more difficult than just pouring it into a plastic bucket.
I really need to invest in a chiller.....
 
Just finished a 10 hour brew saturday with the bro. 9:00am opening at Beer & Wine for some last-minute supplies and a 10:00 start on a Oktoberfest (late, but what the hell!) and 3:00 start on a Spiced Celebration Ale. The Oktoberfest couldn't be done sooner - going for rack/keg/force kind of fast-track - too many empty cornies! The Celebration Ale (cinnamon, cloves, orange, ginger) is going to hot the bottles and wait for the 'Season.

2 worts in one day used to be a challenge w/o the wort chiller and confidence with some mashing but nowadays I think 3 might be a more proper all-day'r. hmmm next saturday?? :tank:
 
homebrewer_99 said:
March '07 is almost here...then it'll be time to brew a new batch...;)
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, I'm on track for a long "business trip" during that time frame. I plan on filling every corny I can with lager (a first for me, I'm an ale brewer thus far), and I want make sure my soon-to-be conical is full of a lager of some sort before I leave. I might be brewing an Oktoberfest in December at that rate...
 
My brew day will be Monday. I'm brewing a Fat Tire kinda beer that I'm going to serve up at the shop Christmas (holiday for you PC types) party this December.
I'm sure it will take me all of 5 or 6 hours to brew it up.
First brewing session in a long time so I am looking forward to it.
 
Mine was yesterday or last night. Yesterday afternoon I pulled all of my ingredients & equipment together. Found out I had to make a trip to LHBS to pick up priming sugar.

This was a first for me in two ways;
  1. My first lager or steam beer. - A Cream Ale.
  2. My first batch with home-grown cascade hops

I know its kind of nerdy , but I created a hop addition schedule in an excel spreadsheet. I did this so I could hit my IBU target of 15. I know I wanted to use 1 oz cascade pellets for bittering, then use my homegrown strictly for flavor & aroma.

I used Charlie P's IBU formula and his hop utilization/density chart. I think it worked out pretty good. I could easily play with times & quantities to zero in on the target.

Woke up this morning to find it slowly bubbling away!!! :ban:
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Unfortunately, I'm on track for a long "business trip" during that time frame. I plan on filling every corny I can with lager (a first for me, I'm an ale brewer thus far), and I want make sure my soon-to-be conical is full of a lager of some sort before I leave. I might be brewing an Oktoberfest in December at that rate...
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good plan for your schedule.;)
 
I brewed a Weizenbeir on Saturday. I most be getting more efficient as I have noticed my brew times are coming down significantly. Only problem this time, had a boil over. What a mess. It happened right after bittering hops addition and I lost a lot.
So: American ale bottled and now drinking.
Continental Pilsner bottled and ready this weekend
Primary has the Weizenbier and will be kegging for the first time in two weeks.
 
So my Saturday beers had very good 48 hour starts - the Celebration Ale had some blow-off (left carboy below) and though the Oktoberfest didn't do much blowing it looks vibrant and active - some nice Krausen action on both.

It is interesting though - after the final hops boil on the Celebration (i don't have the notes in front of me but i believe it was a 15 minute with an ounce of whole Hallertau) the wort seemed significantly darkened. This observation was specificaly noted after the final hop addition, not after any malts went in. This was a previously unnoticed event - I never noticed hops contributing much color to the wort, especially as a darkening agent. Regardless, it has returned to it's less dark amber color as you can see in the photo. At pitch, it was more the color of the Oktober.
dsc0003us3.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

We are in the process of planning next weekend . Right now it looks like this:

1 - clean, sanitize bottles for Papazian Prickly Pear Cactus Mead
2 - bottle mead
3 - rack Celebration to secondary
5 - rack Oktoberfest secondary
6 - Boil up a Nut Brown
7 - Boil up Cheesefood's Carmel Cream - hear good things, never gone for this type of batch before!

I'm almost tempted to add a third - but that might just get to be way to crazy for a one-day project.....:D
 
After my last two brewing disasters,

1. Dropping and breaking my glass carboy, amoung other things that went wrong with that batch.

2. Counter Flow Chiller plugging up with the other batch.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. I went back to my immersion cooler and everything went smoothly with my Honey Amber. Total batch time was 3 1/2 hours and included 20 minutes phone conversation with my mother inlaw. To top it all off my fermentor was bubbling within 6 hours.

I know I am doomed and the sky is about to fall.

TD
 
Finally did the Whole Harvest Mild. 6 lbs of light LME + 4 oz of CL40, put the 1.25 oz. of mixed Willemette/N.B. /Cascade in at 30, 1 oz. Fuggle at 5. Safale S-04. Real simple, OG 1.038. Didn't bother with the air stone, just whipped it with a spoon. Nice krausen on it this morning.

It was warm enough to brew with the door open, so I spent part of the time smacking yellow jackets.
 
I ordered a 32oz jug of Star San, which should cut down on my bottling time considerably. That's the worst---having to bleach and rinse out two cases of bottles every time. And now that I know that Star san can be reused...hell yes.

Also, I installed a new utility sink last week...it's been a freakin' godsend when it comes to washing stuff. Just hook up the bottle washer directly to the faucet head, and put the carboy on top of it, upside down. So nice!
 
Fiery Sword said:
We are in the process of planning next weekend . Right now it looks like this:

1 - clean, sanitize bottles for Papazian Prickly Pear Cactus Mead
2 - bottle mead
3 - rack Celebration to secondary
5 - rack Oktoberfest secondary
6 - Boil up a Nut Brown
7 - Boil up Cheesefood's Carmel Cream - hear good things, never gone for this type of batch before!

I'm almost tempted to add a third - but that might just get to be way to crazy for a one-day project.....:D
Click to expand...

It'll be a busy day, but you'll feel so good when your through.
 
Fiery Sword said:
So my Saturday beers had very good 48 hour starts - the Celebration Ale had some blow-off (left carboy below) and though the Oktoberfest didn't do much blowing it looks vibrant and active - some nice Krausen action on both.

It is interesting though - after the final hops boil on the Celebration (i don't have the notes in front of me but i believe it was a 15 minute with an ounce of whole Hallertau) the wort seemed significantly darkened. This observation was specificaly noted after the final hop addition, not after any malts went in. This was a previously unnoticed event - I never noticed hops contributing much color to the wort, especially as a darkening agent. Regardless, it has returned to it's less dark amber color as you can see in the photo. At pitch, it was more the color of the Oktober.
dsc0003us3.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

We are in the process of planning next weekend . Right now it looks like this:

1 - clean, sanitize bottles for Papazian Prickly Pear Cactus Mead
2 - bottle mead
3 - rack Celebration to secondary
5 - rack Oktoberfest secondary
6 - Boil up a Nut Brown
7 - Boil up Cheesefood's Carmel Cream - hear good things, never gone for this type of batch before!

I'm almost tempted to add a third - but that might just get to be way to crazy for a one-day project.....:D
Click to expand...

There's something about that picture that looks very romantic... how do you think SWMBO would feel if I made it into a Valentine's card?

I'd get those carboys covered up with an old T-shirt or something to keep the light out of them.
 
Regarding the sunlight - I've got the original cardboard boxes the carboys came in all sliced up so that i can fold them around the brew. They always seem to age quickly though so I either end up with a shirt on them.......or I use it as an excuse to go buy another carboy!!

Now that you mention it, there is something romantic about it......I'm sure the beer feels the love'...........
 

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