What I did for beer today

Hoppy2bmerry said:

That’s what is was last year, fellow brewers, felt it was justified because it covered both rounds, of course only a small number of entries from each location go to the final round. I guess we all have the choice of not competing if we feel the fees are too darn high. (I pay lower fees for professional educational conferences but they are not nearly as fun)

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Oh. I am paying it. I just feel I would want to go 7 entries if it was cheaper. The price makes me cautious, which then makes me sadish.

I just kegged 10 gals of hefe weizen
Primed one with DME and force carbonating the second. I'll see if there is a difference.

Checked gravity on my westvelteren clone. 1.107 to 1.019. After almost 2 weeks! Smells great

Cleaned fermenters and kegs.

Cleaned fermenters and a keg

Putting stickers to magnet sheets

Yesterday kegged and spunded a batch, today draught line cleaning. Planning water tweaks for next brew.

Cleaning, and preparing for a brew day this weekend.

Bottled a tripel this morning, primed with a healthy tablespoon of the primary yeast slurry and corn sugar to 3.5 volumes. Must be working, corks are trying to back out!

Got tap installed, still need to add drip tray, lines, etc...

Dreaming up recipes with juniper berries.

I spent the day running water lines in my basement for my brewery sink. Now I just need to get my cabinets,sink, and countertop.

Jayjay1976 said:

Care to share your recipe?

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I have a culture of yeast from a 6er of Bells amber that is over 5 years old. I just keep propping and splitting, this went on washed yeast from an oatmeal stout. Water is my tap water I had tested with ward and used Brun water for calcs

Cleaning the grainfather that I just ran hot water through after the brewnight 4 week ago. Ugh.

Pkrd said:

Cleaning the grainfather that I just ran hot water through after the brewnight 4 week ago. Ugh.

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That will teach ya.

Used my Xmas grain mill for the first time and worked out all of the bugs (4 passes and 3 hours later). Thankfully I BIAB, so stuck sparge is a non-issue, it has a whole lotta flour at this point, and some stainless steel bits for good measure.

Brewing another Imperial Stout. 3 gallon batch. When it hits high krausen, I will dump in 1 3/4 gallons of last year’s batch which never finished fermenting. I tried 4 different yeasts last year, but no dice. I am hoping this year’s batch will eat itself stoopid and finish them both off. Otherwise, I may Brett the imperial stout and see what happens.

This is one of the reasons why I love being a home brewer-we get to play with our beer in ways that the #barrel brewer cannot.

Edit: I had to leave the parti-gyle soaking overnight, so tomorrow I will brew the 2nd runnings into something.

Transfered my Milk Stout, Irish Red and Nut Brown to secondary to clear.

Prepped for brewing tomorrow, since it's supposed to get up to 37F. Much better prepared than the last (first) try at my new house. Also cutting the water with distilled to reduce the Na.
Also went to my LHBS and got ingredients for the next 3 brews + stocking up on essentials since I had $100 worth of gift certificates (thanks mom!)

Dry hopped the Georgetown Bodhizafa clone I brewed last weekend. Upped the ante by .5oz each of Citra and Mosaic, and the Chinook to 1oz. Gonna be a good one in a week or so. Tapped the lager I brewed a few weeks ago, good so far but has a strange bitter aftertaste (not hops) that's a bit quinine-ish. I've had it once before in a lager last year, it did eventually fade but I'd like to figure out what caused it.

I missed one of my grads catching a pass in the Chiefs-Titans game, but I had to brew the parti-gyle from yesterday's imperial stout before the wort caught a cold. It tastes like a nice British Amber, so I have 0 complaints.

The neighbors are starting to ask me for beer. I am giving most of them a session-weight West Coast IPA, as it is the closest thing to BMC that I make. I have one neighbor that wanted the full Brett year-on-oak sours I make (Red and Gold), so I guess there is joy all the way around.

Brewing up some piwo.

For beer, I brewed 5 gallons of an AG brown ale yesterday. And, I did a quick 5 gallon batch of cider the day before.

Now we just sit back and wait...

Brewed up a schwarzbier. Ended up being a bit colder then forecast, along with some unexpected snow flurries, but after fighting with the frozen hose a bit, the brewday proceeded more or less normally.
Broke the refractometer though - guess I'm going back to the hydrometer.

Cleaned an empty keg that held Dead Ringer IPA. Started carbonating (set and forget mode) a keg of Caribou Slobber. Placed a keg of Dry Irish Stout in the kegerator to chill (where it will wait to carbonate until a tap is available). Baked a loaf of cinnamon raisin spent-grain bread and washed it down with some Brickwarmer Holiday Red while watching Vanna turn letters on Wheel of Fortune.

Worked on the kegerator. Framed the chalkboard paint above the tap, sanded, stained, and sealed the wood I mounted tap to. Final step is to remount tap, run and mount liquid and gas lines. Then of course clean and sanitize everything and brew and keg my 1st [emoji481]

Brewed a California Common. Waiting for the wort to chill now.

grampamark said:

Brewed a California Common. Waiting for the wort to chill now.

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I like that your thermometer says "thermometer" right on it. So you don't mistake it for a speedo. That would be some fast wort.

Just blew a Helles and tapped a Dunkel. Big enough b-day excitement for me anymore.

Robert65 said:

Just blew a Helles and tapped a Dunkel. Big enough b-day excitement for me anymore.

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HBTY. After a certain age, just having another birthday is exciting enough.

So the Imperial Stout I brewed Saturday was foaming and bubbling, so I figured I could add some of last year’s batch to it to meld flavors. Apparently that got it really going so when I came back a few hours later to sniff the airlock it had erupted all over the brew table.

Awe-inspiring.

I should have done this yesterday.

Sanitized fermenter and pitched yeast into the piwo, more cleaning to do

Finished up my kegerator, minus getting my first brew for a keg. Soon though, I'll be doing a single hop NEIPA with Ella, or as I'll call it; WUNNSPEED

Heated strike water, dosed with minerals, weighed and milled grain, underlet mash, recirculated, transferred to brew kettle, sparged, transferred to brew kettle, heated to boiling, added hops, added whirlflock, chilled, transferred to fermenter, pitched yeast, cleaned RIMS tube, fed deer, cleaned mash tun, and cleaned brew kettle.

Cleaned a beer line, tap, and ball lock fitting with BLC recirculating using a Beckett fountain pump. Rinsed, reassembled, and made ready for the next keg of delicious and satisfying home brew!

I always clean these after every keg has kicked no matter what. Would not even think of skipping this important step.

Turned key in faucet lock counter clockwise, lowered faucet lock and set aside, placed mug under spout at 45° angle, pulled tap handle towards me, brought mug to upright position, pushed handle away from me, set mug on drip tray, returned faucet lock to original orientation, and turned key clockwise.

Robert65 said:

Turned key in faucet lock counter clockwise, lowered faucet lock and set aside, placed mug under spout at 45° angle, pulled tap handle towards me, brought mug to upright position, pushed handle away from me, set mug on drip tray, returned faucet lock to original orientation, and turned key clockwise.

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You have a lock on it? You must have kids at home!

Dave Sarber said:

You have a lock on it? You must have kids at home!

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Nope. A cat who jumps up and down on the keezer (and everything else.) Had visions of one day finding that chasing a fly had led to an empty keg and CO2 bottle. Better paranoid than beerless. [emoji16]

Hoppy2bmerry said:

Sanitized fermenter and pitched yeast into the piwo, more cleaning to do

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can you share your piwo recipe please? What's your preferred lager yeast?

11.25% HB RIS