What I did for beer today

Dave Sarber said:

OG was 1.085. I can't work with the info provided. How much beer are we talking about? What is the FG now, and what is the target FG? What style of beer? How long has it been fermenting and at what temp? What yeast are you using?

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Originally 5 gallons, but I bottled 2.25 gallons. Probably about 2.5 gallons left minus sediment.

FG 1.020, OG was 1.055. first Brew, so I didn't have a target FG. I'm just happy I made alcohol.
I used 7 year old wheat LME and UK gold hop pellets that came in the same kit.
It's been fermenting for 2 weeks at ~68°. I bottled the first half, then added a fruit slurry to the second half for secondary, but haven't seen any activity in about 5 days.
I had the ale yeast from the kit which was also 7 years old. And because of this pandemic, all Homebrew shops are closed. I improvised and grabbed Fleischmann's Instant Yeast. I read up on it before pitching to make sure it would work.
Knowing it would be my first time, it was an old kit and I like to test before I go hard...I just experimented.
I've got a maple strawberry wine/mead going right now with this yeast to test its limits and happiness factor.

Ok, you're ABV right now is 4.59, a refreshing light beer if it tastes good. Use a priming calculator for added sugar, and bottle away.


BTW: Before a mod jumps in, this is not the proper thread for this discussion. Check out the kegging and bottling forum, and the yeast and fermentation forum.

Yesterday: brewed a PA with Dr. Rudy and Taiheke from New Zealand. Moved the imperial stout to a keg to carb up, and bottled the last of the DIPA to make room in the keezer.

Put together an Ardennes starter for a Belgian Blonde.

Besides brewing a Czech lager this morning, dropped 1oz Citra in the IPA I brewed yesterday; recipe calls for that to be dropped at high krausen, and the damn thing is going crazy this morning. Gonna be a good one.

Just took a sample of my Monk’s Beer. WLP-530 took it all the way down to 1.006 from 1.045. I pitched at 70f and have been raising it a degree every 12ish hours. It’s at 78 right now and I’ll probably let it ride there for a couple days before cold crashing.

The sample was green of course, but the Belgian character was certainly there. Should be a nice dry Belgian at around 5% abv. Can’t wait to get it bottled and conditioned.

Assembled my LiquaGen 5 stage RO system, back flushed and tested the output. I'm happy.

I’m brewing some. A Bullwinkle Brown Ale.

Since we have an abundance of rice, I'm running low on base grain and the wife said beer is more important than eating (I love her priorities) I brewed a sort of ultra-light kolsch/pilsner hybrid with the rice and a mix of pilsner and 2-row. Pitched some slurry from the kolsch I bottled last week. I hope it turns out well.

Dry hopped my APA, did half with 3oz of hops and the other with 5oz.

Started a starter from a slant of wlp845 fast lager yeast.

I got you all beat, i did a two day brew! started at 8pm 4-5-20, finish at 4-6-20 at 5:30am a minute ago....(got 90% efficiency on it too, yea!)

Did my latest IPA yesterday. Only mosaic in the kettle, will dryhop with Idaho Gem. Glad I double crushed, as I was only .001 point off target gravity.

Fabricating a hopper extension for my mill. Didn't get enough screws, another Home Depot run in a few.
Yesterday I built a rolling cabinet for the mill, @mongoose33 's suggestion, I used a Harbor Freight furniture dolly for the base. Since I was planning the hopper extension, I wanted to use something other than a 5 gallon bucket....

so, I found this 105 qt storage bin at wallyworld for 8 bucks. So far, I'm into it for 8 bucks, plus about 30 bucks for the sheet metal and hardware. Next project is cutting the hole in the top, and I'm planning on hinging the mill so it can be swung open from the base for inspection or maintenance.

Dave Sarber said:

View attachment 674506

Fabricating a hopper extension for my mill. Didn't get enough screws, another Home Depot run in a few.
Yesterday I built a rolling cabinet for the mill, @mongoose33 's suggestion, I used a Harbor Freight furniture dolly for the base. Since I was planning the hopper extension, I wanted to use something other than a 5 gallon bucket....
View attachment 674508
so, I found this 105 qt storage bin at wallyworld for 8 bucks. So far, I'm into it for 8 bucks, plus about 30 bucks for the sheet metal and hardware. Next project is cutting the hole in the top, and I'm planning on hinging the mill so it can be swung open from the base for inspection or maintenance.

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Mine is set up that way as well. One word of warning: be careful as to how much you open that lid without being able to secure it. On mine, with the heavy All American Aleworks motor plus the mill, if I open it too far, the cart will go all squiggly on me. I have a wooden stick I use to prop it open at a height where things don't go wonky.

bracconiere said:

I got you all beat, i did a two day brew! started at 8pm 4-5-20, finish at 4-6-20 at 5:30am a minute ago....(got 90% efficiency on it too, yea!)

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What the hell did you brew

Pitched 2 pks Saf 34/70 into the Helles after cold crashing 2 days to 40°. 6 weeks till my first kegging ever!

seanjwalker1 said:

View attachment 674532Pitched 2 pks Saf 34/70 into the Helles after cold crashing 2 days to 40°. 6 weeks till my first kegging ever!

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I think 40° might be a bit low. Try 48° F.

Already did. Just pitched at 40, let it rise over several hours to 45, will raise by 2-3° every day till I hit 49/50°

mongoose33 said:

Mine is set up that way as well. One word of warning: be careful as to how much you open that lid without being able to secure it. On mine, with the heavy All American Aleworks motor plus the mill, if I open it too far, the cart will go all squiggly on me. I have a wooden stick I use to prop it open at a height where things don't go wonky.

View attachment 674521

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I did mine a little different, and I'm using a drill instead of a motor.


This is closed, attached the "bucket adapter" upside down on the mill, then drilled holes in flange, and screwed it to a hinged block of wood.

And this is open, with weatherstripping to fight dust. The whole base "floats" on the foam.

Brewed a batch of porter and bottled a batch of Sour NEIPA

Brewbuzzard said:

What the hell did you brew

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a dark light rye beer, high altitude it takes for ever to boil down here, why it takes so long.....i posted the recipe in the "how many gallons in 2020" thread, don't know if it's 'good', had to sub special b for normal crystal malt....but it should be good enough to keep me entertained for a week!

Just say "super-size it". Time for a beer.

Bottled the last of my hot mash and cold steep mash experiment using Windsor yeast.
1. mashed at 185F, OG1025, FG (forgot to write down)
2. Mashed at 154F, OG 1028, FG 1014
3. cold steeped overnight and then mashed. OG 1012, FG 1004
4. used left over cold steeped grains + 1/2# 6 row for a OG 1025 and FG 1012

Will report back if any of these come back a "superior" ultra-session beer.

bracconiere said:

a dark light rye beer, high altitude it takes for ever to boil down here, why it takes so long.....i posted the recipe in the "how many gallons in 2020" thread, don't know if it's 'good', had to sub special b for normal crystal malt....but it should be good enough to keep me entertained for a week!

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My guess is that you are practicing "Social Distancing" and finding stuff to do while having all this spare time on your hands and "Working from Home" like the rest of us !

I cleaned up about half an inch of beer from the bottom of my ferm fridge. Nottingham. Ask for it by name.

Yorkshire lad said:

My guess is that you are practicing "Social Distancing" and finding stuff to do while having all this spare time on your hands and "Working from Home" like the rest of us !

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i'll let you believe what you want to.....(but if you want to know, i haven't necessarily been a proud boy for 6 years....)

Pruned my two hops plants a comet and triple perle in early February for the 3rd time. Comet is going nuts, and the triple Perle is moving slowly but steadily like not always does.

Dave Sarber said:

View attachment 674506

Fabricating a hopper extension for my mill. Didn't get enough screws, another Home Depot run in a few.
Yesterday I built a rolling cabinet for the mill, @mongoose33 's suggestion, I used a Harbor Freight furniture dolly for the base. Since I was planning the hopper extension, I wanted to use something other than a 5 gallon bucket....
View attachment 674508
so, I found this 105 qt storage bin at wallyworld for 8 bucks. So far, I'm into it for 8 bucks, plus about 30 bucks for the sheet metal and hardware. Next project is cutting the hole in the top, and I'm planning on hinging the mill so it can be swung open from the base for inspection or maintenance.

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Wow.

Just wow.

Yeah, I added some steel angles (from an old bed frame) to the long edges of the top to prevent sagging. Then did some paint and tape detailing. The tape covers all sharp edges and corners to prevent damage to innocent bystanders, but mostly for me! If you're careful with your dimensions you can re-use your original cap strip.

Dry hopped my Saison this morning with just a little Nelson Sauvin.

Tonight I started to cold crash it, then thought better of it. Then thought worse of it. Be nice to get the fermenter empty by Monday. Hmmmm...

Yesterday remembered to drop the 2nd dry hop in the IPA I brewed last weekend. Been working on the "project" car all week and almost forgot about the beer...horrors! Should be done with the darn thing this weekend (replacing valve cover gaskets and some other random stuff) so can go back to concentrating on brewing.

Muahaha! 36 pounds of grist in 4 1/2 minutes, no refills, no emptying.

Had to road trip 30 miles to the LHBS to pick up some grain for a "big" barleywine. Made a side trip to Total Wine for a bottle of port for soaking oak chips. Might have got a little sidetracked while I was there....

Dave Sarber said:

View attachment 674924

Muahaha! 36 pounds of grist in 4 1/2 minutes, no refills, no emptying.

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damn, how big of batches do you brew? (and 4 minutes seems too fast? i run my drill slow and usually take 10-15 minutes for ~20lb's))

grampamark said:

Nottingham. Ask for it by name.

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like Robin Hood, it robs from the fermenter and gives to the floor! lol

bracconiere said:

damn, how big of batches do you brew? (and 4 minutes seems too fast? i run my drill slow and usually take 10-15 minutes for ~20lb's))

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This is for a 16% barleywine, 5 gallon batch.
I use a 750 rpm drill motor at about 1/3 speed. I could break out my optical tachometer, if I knew where it was, and assuming I have batteries for it.
The mill is rated for 8 lbs/minute, so that's right on the money.

Dave Sarber said:

I could break out my optical tachometer,

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could go viral on youtube! (at my usual 8x%, i get a OG of 1.217 for that much grain in a 5 gallon batch? are you making it sweet?)

OG will be 1.150, FG 1.030. Don't like sweet beer, so I'll try to take it lower.

bracconiere said:

could go viral on youtube! (at my usual 8x%, i get a OG of 1.217 for that much grain in a 5 gallon batch? are you making it sweet?)

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The MonsterMash. 38 pounds of grain and 15 gallons strike water.

Dave Sarber said:

View attachment 674943
The MonsterMash. 38 pounds of grain and 15 gallons strike water.

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I was just getting ready to type up a post asking if you were going to do a reiterated mash. Guess that answers my question lol