What I did for beer today

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Drinking some (and probably plenty more) because I had a tooth pulled today and the anaesthetic is about to wear off. Yeah I know it's not a good idea. Don't care. Oh look, beer....and aren't hops supposed to be good for pain anyway?
 
Looked at my keg longingly. I've got an Irish red in it sitting at room temperature for a bit to try and clean up some acetaldehyde. I just started up brewing again after taking about a year and a half off, so there's nothing in my pipeline yet to hold me over. Drinking a Founders Solid Gold in the meantime.
 
Looked at my keg longingly. I've got an Irish red in it sitting at room temperature for a bit to try and clean up some acetaldehyde. I just started up brewing again after taking about a year and a half off, so there's nothing in my pipeline yet to hold me over. Drinking a Founders Solid Gold in the meantime.

Glad to have you back! I just finished brewing 5 beers in consecutive weekends after a 6 month hiatus. I will take next weekend off to see a baseball game before restarting another slate of golden goodness.

Plan them out and the pipeline fills faster it seems.
 
I inventoried my brewing supplies for Saturday. I've taken 3 years off of brewing, and this will be my first batch (pale ale) since I decided to brew again. My youngest son wants to help, so maybe we have a home brewer in the making....
 
Pitched my 05 yeast on top of my White IPA that already had safale58 rocking away for 3 days!
 
Sitting here trying to justify brewing again this weekend after doing three batches last weekend, and there's an overabundance in the pipeline....and not enough 22oz bottles to bottle off a keg to free one up. Yeah I know first world brewer problems.
 
Washed 3 kegs and then sanitised and filled one with my motueka toffee pale ale test beer.
A flat sample tastes ok and had toffee aroma, didn't seam to be as bitter as I expected so I will see when its carbed, its in the kegerator carbing up now.
It didn't ferment as low as I initially thought but figured out it was that I used S-04 and when I brewed my motueka smash this was based on I used US-05. I brought 20 packs of S-04 expired by a few months really cheap and its fine but it means I'm using it now for test batches due to the cheapness of it and using it before it uses too much viability. The increasing of the late hops seams to have had the desired effect. For test batches cheap packs of dry yeast are very conveniant. At least the numbers in beersmith for my 19L batch were close enough as I got one keg full with nothing left over and about as full as I want to go with a keg.
 
Just took a hydrometer sample of the Racer 5 clone I brewed last Friday. Hit my numbers exactly, and it's delicious. Had originally planned to dry hop it this past Thursday but life got in the way. Going to do that as soon as I'm coffeed up and will keg sometime next week. Also turning around every so often to peek at what I'm calling Test My Patience Blonde lager brewed last Saturday...still has a pretty krausen and the airlock is bubbling away. Temperature got a bit warm the last few days so I'm doing an unintentional early d-rest, fermometer says 58-60. Later today have plans to go out to breakfast and play cribbage with the husband and friends, after that get to do a bit of shopping at the fabric store for material to make new mash bags, and the LHBS for whatever tickles my fancy up to $100. Going to be a great day.
 
Picked up some cheap (ie, older) packs of wlp800 and wlp001 last week so I will step them up today for use on my next couple of brews. I want to try a steam beer with 800 and an apricot wheat with 001.

And I will try to find enough bottles to package my honey pale ale.
 
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Primed and bottled my cherry quad. It's a mystery ABV over 9.7 because I'm too lazy to do the math for cherry concentrate and honey additions.
 
Got all my shopping done, and since I had the grain....mashing in on something that will be dark, roasty, peaty, and probably pretty damn good (at least to me). Bought a new 6 gallon plastic carboy because, hey, where's the fun in making beer if you can't watch the yeast do their mad happy dance? Also a wine thief so I don't have to break out the autosiphon every time I need to test something in the carboys. Bout damn time for that one.
 
Big spender! My thief is a dollar store turkey baster, lol. Also pipettes like a mini baster. :)

Just used it for the first time to taste the blonde lager I brewed last weekend...the airlock is still going and it has a very pretty krausen on top. It's got some banana-ish belgian-y flavor going on, but it's very subtle and quite pleasant. Very first true lager I've tried to brew, should be ready just about memorial day.

Most of my equipment is cheap stuff I've picked up here and there, and a lot of hand-me-downs from my brewpub boss. Turkey baster ain't long enough for the 7.5g carboy!
 
This what I did for beer Friday afternoon.

Pulled these from the shipping boxes. Attached the valve and the pickup tube. Then dropped on the lid, snapped the clamps, and fitted the air lock.

Then stood in awe of my great decision to go stainless.

Cost me $129 each 7.5 gallons. + $7.50 for FedEx shipping.

These will be in repose for all visitors to see...

Located only 4' and 6' from the keezer.

Have two residences, it's a good thing my wife is not usually at this residence. She's not as easily impressed by shiny things filled with beer.
:D



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I tasted my AG motueka toffee pale ale test brew half carbonated after a day spent building/wireing the control box for my CNC Mill. The beer is not too bad so far, I''m looking forward to having one when its fully carbonated and I raise the kegerator back up a few degrees. Its down low to aid carbonation at the moment.

I delayed the beer till after the wiring and first power up of the 230VAC side when I was done for the day. Had a couple of this beer off the tap and I am pleased although its a bit cold and no head yet although you can detect some carbonation.
 
So yesterday my friend's daughter got married and the Irish Red I made was a huge hit! They had a full complete open bar and you could get whatever you wanted to drink. Word got out that myself and the bride's father had made the beer that was on tap. Many people got curious to see what the fuss was about, as everyone was complimenting how good and drinkable the beer was. It was a great feeling to see all the people holding beer glasses with my beer being enjoyed by all!

John
 
So yesterday my friend's daughter got married and the Irish Red I made was a huge hit! They had a full complete open bar and you could get whatever you wanted to drink. Word got out that myself and the bride's father had made the beer that was on tap. Many people got curious to see what the fuss was about, as everyone was complimenting how good and drinkable the beer was. It was a great feeling to see all the people holding beer glasses with my beer being enjoyed by all!

John

Had the same thing happen to me last year when my daughter got married. Had never met most of the people there before, and everyone who had some of my beer loved it. Killed that keg in less than 3 hours! Definitely one of the high points in my brewing career. Congratulations!
 
I just finished cleaning up after brewing what will become a sour beer. I'm about to go add the dry hops to a ipa. opened the springdale ghost species to start getting some bottle dregs in it.
 
Had the same thing happen to me last year when my daughter got married. Had never met most of the people there before, and everyone who had some of my beer loved it. Killed that keg in less than 3 hours! Definitely one of the high points in my brewing career. Congratulations!

Thanks! That's awesome, you too!

John
 
Filled 2 kegs with my first attempt of Mandrin Blonde Ale this morning. Local farm sold me some Mandrin juice with ground up rines so I froze it
and used it in this beer. Not much of a fruit beer drinker but wanted to give
It a try.
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Tried my first attempt at an NEIPA. Turned out well. Still a bit green so I will wait another week before chilling all of them. Only had one week in the bottle.

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Kegged my Citra SMaSH. It's also the first time I fined with gelatin, so we'll see how it comes out. Sitting on the couch drinking my hydrometer tube at the moment.
Gelatin works pretty good for clearing haze. Seems like haze is not an issue with NEIPAs and some of the newer beer styles.
 
Dropped 4 ounces of Columbus dry hop in the IPA I brewed last Sunday. Hop inventory is getting low, so did some research and found that Columbus will probably produce the dankness I've been trying for, and I've still got plenty of it. Also, drinking some. Gonna kill this keg tonight if I can help it...ain't it great to tell your SO, "but honey, we've GOT to drink this tonight to have room to keg (insert upcoming beer name here)???" We've got an Ommegang Three Philosphers, a Silver City Magnificent Bastard, and a Leavenworth Black Lager in the fridge but no, homebrew!!!
 
Brewed a batch of pale ale last night and pitched the yeast early this morning. I'm excited to see how this batch turns out. I used 1 oz goldings at 60 minutes, 1 oz cascade at 15 minutes, and 1 oz cascade at falmeout. It's my first batch in 3 years, so I'm curious to see if I can still make good beer.
 
I also ordered supplies for a dry stout and a brown ale, plus 250 crown caps that I really didn't need.
 

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