What I did for beer today

Made some room in the keg fridge (heh heh) and, once there was room, I backsweetened 3 gals of a dry cider and popped the keg in the fridge.

I brewed today, while showing a couple friends, how awesome homebrewing is.

Also, received my amazon order for the Spiegelau IPA glassware, the Dogfishhead/Sierra Nevada collaboration. Testing the glass, with my Imperial IPA. I like so far...

Threw together my first "wing it" brew. I had an unlabeled LME can that was part of a Mr. Beer kit, about a pound and a half of different DME, some specialty grains, some German Magnum, and half a pack of US-05 that I tossed into a 3 gallon batch.

I almost hope it's terrible, since there's no chance of ever reproducing it.

Bottled a batch, then started a new one. Left the trub in the old carboy since I had a fresh shiny one ready then could soak it for a while later on. Then promptly over-sparged and ended up with what looks like will be 3.5 gallons extra wort. Having not finished cleaning the carboy from the bottled batch, I look around to see that I have no space for the overflow. Damn it!

So now I've got that (previously) clean carboy full of stout to be, and the other one inverted in a bucket oxycleaning the krausen. The lesson: Turns out I can do more than a full boil with my current BK + kitchen pot selection. OG came out as 1.042 instead of 1.053. No doubt that volume being around 8 gals instead of 5 had something to do with it. Oh well, life does have bigger problems every now and then.

Just ordered up 2 of the new Left Hand Brewing stout glasses (verrry similar to the SN/Dogfish IPA glass) because one cupboard full of beer glasses couldn't possibly be enough.

After dropping my son off at work,& he wanting to help me by a new Fusion,I went over to Mike Bass Ford to look at'em. Good prices on Ecoboosted ones. Now having my last few IPA's. Probably have to sell my lil Probe tuner though. But beer for now. Gotta replace at least one jug of spring water that leaked out onto carpet. Good thing SWMBO didn't notice!...

Threw together a one gallon batch of cider with some Nottingham yeast... Impressed with this yeast so far, ring started forming in half hour now I have a solid inch and a half layer of krausen 3 hours later!

Tested out an idea I had to use a household heating blanket to get fermentation temps up a bit. Within 2 hours a cider I have going went from 59 to 70 where I wanted it.

Cleaned up my first plugged airlock, had a bit of a WLP001 blow-off.

troubleshot my DIY stirplate... for whatever reason it wants to throw the bar after using it for almost a year and no problems... Whatever... Got a starter going for some 3787 that was produced on 7 November 2013 so my viability numbers are probably horrible... I calculated for 10% viability, that is probably pushing it...

checked out a new LBHS that just opened up right around the corner from my house... Decent selection, the prices are kinda high but I got the mil discount so it aint all that bad... I get it that the smaller brick and mortar joints dont move the volume to keep the prices at rock bottom, no problem. Walked out with supplies for a batch of pumpkin and Westy clone. The guy at the counter was really cool, even with my hellion trying to get into everything, he still took the time to talk and offer help. I look forward to giving this guy more of my money.

http://www.diybrewhouse.com/

Picked up some pegboard to hang my homebrew equipment. Tiny apartment closet seems a lot bigger now.


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OnDaReglah said:

Picked up some pegboard to hang my homebrew equipment. Tiny apartment closet seems a lot bigger now. View attachment 195716


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That's genius! I may have to try that in my tiny apartment closet!

bulldogwinters said:

That's genius! I may have to try that in my tiny apartment closet!

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Same here!

I'm going to measure out some ingredients for a couple batches to make them quicker to brew this next week since our weekends are filling up.


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Bring an orange bitter right now.

Kegged my first all grain. Brewing my second.


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Bottled my NB White House Honey Ale

OnDaReglah said:

Picked up some pegboard to hang my homebrew equipment. Tiny apartment closet seems a lot bigger now. View attachment 195716


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bulldogwinters said:

That's genius! I may have to try that in my tiny apartment closet!

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Hopinista said:

Same here!

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Like my sig says,everything works if ya let it. That's a good quote for this place. A little imagination goes a long way! I had two gallon jugs of spring water leak out on me. So I had to go to Giant Eagle after taking my son to job #2 to replace them. Brewing an E/SG Irish red ale in the morning.

Bought a new hydrometer to replace my broken hydrometer. Broke it yesterday while consolidating my brew gear into a new toolbox. At least I broke straight into the trash can.


"I will make it felony to drink small beer. "

OnDaReglah said:

Picked up some pegboard to hang my homebrew equipment. Tiny apartment closet seems a lot bigger now. View attachment 195716


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Nice work! That is such a satisfying project, isn't it?

Oh, and if you cut out a little square of MDF or plywood or something, you can drill two holes on one edge, insert a pair of those little hangers that go into the pegboard and, voila, a mini shelf.

Put my ropes up so my hop vines can climb!

Set up, poured, and then cleaned up at the 3rd Annual Visalia Craft Beer Fest.

Built and installed a collar on my kegerator so it would hold 4 ball-lock kegs + the co2 tank. Brewed a batch of Irish Red this afternoon and emptied a keg of cream ale in the process. Pulled a keg of Common Bitters into the kegerator to replace the cream ale as the "light beer" on tap.

Finally got things set up so I can have 4 kegs in the kegerator at the same time. Serving 3 with one one carbing up and getting ready.

Took the ingredients out of the freezer & Fridge to get an Irish red going this morning.

Cleaned my garage to get it in order for brew day (next Saturday)......cleaned all of my gear. Tested burner to make sure ok. Heated up water and put in mash tun to check my equalization temperature (to make sure my equipment profile in BeerSmith is correct in order to er temp for mash in to reach desired step temp)

Made a new wort chiller from 50' of copper tubing.

Brewed 10 gallons of barleywine, 10 gallons of a rye amber, cleaned and filled 4 kegs to make room, cleaned and refilled two carboys, and wish for a nap.

I knew brewing on a gas flame was going to be a lot faster than on the kitchen stove. Still just a bit amazed at how much faster. Shaved a full hour off the normal brew day. Didn't hurt that it was a NB Irish Stout and that thing is so simple and easy it would be hard to stretch the time out any longer.

Got my Irish red in the new fermenter. Out of the kit's OG range of 1.049-.053,I got a 1.061! 2.4lbs of grains steeped in 2G of spring water @158F then dunk sparged in 1.5G of 170F water worked real well apparently. And I stirred it again for another minute or so,got the same reading. Not too wild about 7lbs of LME in those more beer pouches.

unionrdr said:

Got my Irish red in the new fermenter. Out of the kit's OG range of 1.049-.053,I got a 1.061! 2.4lbs of grains steeped in 2G of spring water @158F then dunk sparged in 1.5G of 170F water worked real well apparently. And I stirred it again for another minute or so,got the same reading. Not too wild about 7lbs of LME in those more beer pouches.

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I rarely brew kits anymore (sometimes they're fun though!) But I refuse to buy morebeer kits. I don't understand why they don't include yeast. With the yeast added they end up being a full 4-8 dollars more expensive than Northern Brewer kits. I don't get it.

Yeah,that part's a little odd. The Irish Red E/SG kit was $21.72 plus the S-04 yeast. That's par for the course with NB or Midwest ime. I just wanted to take a break from pb/pm biab & fire a couple quicker beers. The kits come with a whirlflock tablet. Strange to get that & not the yeast. But that tablet gave a crap ton more trub than the Super Moss does. I'll have to compare final quality between super moss & whirlflock when it's done.

unionrdr said:

Yeah,that part's a little odd. The Irish Red E/SG kit was $21.72 plus the S-04 yeast. That's par for the course with NB or Midwest ime. I just wanted to take a break from pb/pm biab & fire a couple quicker beers. The kits come with a whirlflock tablet. Strange to get that & not the yeast. But that tablet gave a crap ton more trub than the Super Moss does. I'll have to compare final quality between super moss & whirlflock when it's done.

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I've been doing all grain for three years now but I still brew an occasionak extract kit, usually for my wife who isn't big into beer but likes Irish Reds, Nut Browns, basically nothing hoppy or Belgian (I'm Belgian ) and I like NB kits the best. They also have amazing customer service when there's a mistake (not sure about more beer, only did 2 orders and no issues)

But last time I put together a recipe I ordered from NB and I ordered 1 oz of US saaz, usually a low AA hop(and listed on their site as 4-6% AA. When it came they were 8.6% AA. Way more than I wanted. I told them about it and they sent me 3 oz of us hallertau that were in my aa range

For a bit over a year now I've been doing pb/pm biab. These steeping grain kits are nice once in a while. I figured from reading the reviews between Midwest & more beer,the more beer would taste better. We'll see if such is the case. More beer's ESB E/SG is up next.

Super irish moss does not work. You should just use regular irish moss.

What I think it could be is how Fivestar instructs you to mix it with some chilled wort first. I'm thinking of trying it just sprinkled directly into the boil. See if that works any better. These more beer kits come with the whirlflock tablet & I tossed a whole one into about 3.5 gallons of wort. It gave 3-4 times as much trub.

Checked clarity on my melomel (I can almost read a newspaper through it) an decided it should be ready to package I another 4-6 weeks. Fermented in Sept. And it has been bulk aging since November.

Kegged a 5 gallon extract Irish stout and decided that once again, Jamil is right. I did a 5 gallon extract kit. The only thing I did differently is to use a proper sized starter, temp control and adequate oxygenation.

I'm calling it a "win". I had about 3/4 of a pint that would not fit into the keg. I drank it room temp and flat. Just like it was meant to be.

My job and family schedule usually make it tough to brew regularly. It's nice to know that I can occasionally work in an extract batch and cut my brew day in half ... All in the name of keeping the taps full of course.


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Bought Beersmith.


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Cleaned the new brewery space top to bottom. Brought all my brewing equipment out of storage. Organized for an outdoor propane brew day next weekend.

On deck: an imperial star anise stout. Yup, a winter beer. Thinking ahead for a full six months of conditioning Immediately after that I'm putting a centennial blonde into the (completely empty) pipeline for late May/early June drinking.

Oh, and I drank a Lawson's Maple Tripple 750 this evening! About two years old. Had it in the cellar for a year. Truly wonderful. Lovely clarity. Sweet in the way a Tripple should be. Medium body. Very smooth. Maple flavor prominent. I have two more of these. Planning on having the next one a year from now. Tried to share it with swmbo, but she's not a fan of the style.

Kegged Yooper's Cream Ale and a Mojave Red from here. That reminds me, better check the CO2 tonight . . .