What I did for beer today

Lessee, did a 6 gallon best bitter with floor malted Maris and a WLP085 starter in my Brewers Edge (pretty much maxed that out at 11+ pounds of grain) on Sunday. Then yesterday did a second runnings with 3+ gallons of an ordinary bitter, that I will pitch more WLP085 into a just delivered big mouth fermenter.

Chinese new year (CNY) is coming up, so the Chinese company I work for is shutting down for a week. Soooooo, gotta do a CNY brew on Saturday. Planning out something with 5 pounds of floor malted Czech barley as a base....

brewbama said:

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.

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Brewed a batch

LOL. Yep.

Cleaned the pump today.

brewbama said:

LOL. Yep.

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But I enjoyed your attention to detail. You saw how it instilled in me a zen like focus on the everyday acts we so often take for granted... [emoji6]

This morning, I harvested yeast, and cleaned the fermenter and a keg. Details left to your imagination.

kmarkstevens said:

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

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Oh, sorry I didn’t fully disclose this is a piwo Grodziskie so no lager yeast. If you are still interested in the recipe it is nearly 100% oak smoked wheat occasionally I’ve gotten feedback from judges that it is too smoky, but more often the beer has gotten awards. Judges are human, or perhaps I sent off a bottle that I could have cleaned better. (Who knows?) Most people I’ve shared it with find it enjoyable. Even natives of Poland.

brewbama said:

LOL. Yep.

Cleaned the pump today.

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Could you expand on that a bit. Lol just funning with you

Getting a couple entries ready to drop off for a competition, while listening to the sounds of a bubbling airlock.

Hoppy2bmerry said:

Getting a couple entries ready to drop off for a competition, while listening to the sounds of a bubbling airlock.

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Which competition? I have all of mine bottled for the Bluebonnet Brew Off this march except for 3.

Brewbuzzard said:

Which competition? I have all of mine bottled for the Bluebonnet Brew Off this march except for 3.

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Homebrew alley in Brooklyn.

So is the coronavirus coming out of China, a virus from a Mexican beer?

Mutant said:

So is the coronavirus coming out of China, a virus from a Mexican beer?

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It's the clear bottle flu, oh oh ooooo!

Mutant said:

So is the coronavirus coming out of China, a virus from a Mexican beer?

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Does a wedge of lime alleviate its worst symptoms?

Mutant said:

So is the coronavirus coming out of China, a virus from a Mexican beer?

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I'll have to find the article, but I believe if the Mexican beer is skunked that means the virus is dead.

Ordered a Chocolate Milk Stout and a La Petite Orange today. Both extract brew kits (5 gallon) from Northern Brewer. $60.47 for both delivered. Works out to about $0.76 per pint. Both will be first-time brews. Sure do love a good sale!

Hoppy2bmerry said:

Homebrew alley in Brooklyn.

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Dropping off tomorrow at Fifth Hammer

Transferred my parti-gyle to a keg for carbonation. It doesn’t taste very beer-like. It almost seems like the hops forgot to show as well. I mean 50 IBU’s tastes like an Arnold Palmer. But I have never done this before, so wth. I boosted the sugars with honey and molasses, that might explain why it tastes a little like lemony iced tea. Maybe I just used too much H2O for the amount of malt sugar left in the grain?

Made a batch of malt agar and prepped 24 slants.

Is this your first time doing slants, what do you plan to save/slant?

I followed the direction in the sticky here on HBT and people there suggest that the slant should start sloping from the bottom. Is suppose to keep gas build up from pushing the slants into the top. Sort of a pain to get the slope and volume right to do it that way.

I'm not sure what you mean by sloping from the bottom. You slant the tube to get the most surface area. The mouth of the tube must be clear and open to innoculate with the yeast.
I plan on having a small library of mostly Belgian strains.

I think you may be saying the slant surface should end at the bottom of the tube?
I used approx 7ml in a 20ml tube, about 1/3 full.

yes, they say the slant inclined portion should go all the way to the bottom of the vial so there is a little open space on the bottom of the vial still exposed(agar free)so gas cant build up under the slant.

I have a library of mostly seasonal british ale yeasts and few different seasonal lager yeasts.

Ok, I understand now. That pic was just coming out of the pressure cooker, and that chunk of oak just happened to be handy. I tilted them more before they started to set up. Believe it or not, I got the perfect angle by using a pencil tray out of my desk!

I just looked at the slanting sticky post here in the fermentation and yeast forum and see it is only the first part of much longer thread.

Found this in the thread from which the sticky was created. It shows a slant getting pushed up.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/slanting-yeast.133103/page-4#post-2286547

Good info, I hadn't seen that thread. Going mostly off the sticky and White & Zainasheffs Yeast book.

Imhoppy said:

Ordered a Chocolate Milk Stout and a La Petite Orange today. Both extract brew kits (5 gallon) from Northern Brewer. $60.47 for both delivered. Works out to about $0.76 per pint. Both will be first-time brews. Sure do love a good sale!

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Support your local home brew supply shop if there is one in your area.

Ordered ingredients for some future batches

Used my Ace Hardware birthday coupon on some more DampRid for the ferm and lagering chambers and keezer.

OK, so it wasn't today-it was a couple of days ago, but I tried out my new Oktober SL1 seamer. Used it for some beer, mead and starter wort.

Made a starter with London fog ale yeast cof my rye IPA

Getting a recipe worked up.

Hoppy2bmerry said:

Getting a recipe worked up.

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I found a gruit recipe for you, with juniper berries.

I have not made a gruit yet, and have only drank a few!

Hoppy2bmerry said:

I have not made a gruit yet, and have only drank a few!

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Tried sending PM, not sure if it worked.

Watching slants (blanks) to make sure nothing is growing. Agar looks softer than what I was expecting, but probably usable. Made 5 inoculating loops from .020 stainless steel wire. (thumbs twirling). Have a pretty good selection of Wyeast Belgian smack packs right now, but don't want to open them until I'm ready to pitch them.

grampamark said:

Kegged the Blonde Ale I brewed last month and made a new taplist. The tap handles I made a couple of weeks ago covered up the chalkboard paint above the faucets. Not very high tech, but appropriate for the overall ghetto ambiance of my brewing space.

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apparently behind the times....but seriously, your porter is 10 years old? lol

i just kegged two cornies with a black beer, they'll be gone in a week or so......(8%)

Ditto. I've got a killer batch of RIS right now, only about 3 weeks now, and I'm sure I'll finish it before it starts getting REALLY good!

Yesterday- Bottled a case (+ 1 gallon in ukeg) of cream of three crops ale. Crystal clear out of the fermenter. Sampled extremely well.

Today- Brewed up a gallon of mosaic pale ale. Was aiming for a smash beer with golden promise, but I had to use half pound of 2 row along with it to get the gravity where I wanted it.
Also mixed up a quart of a raspberry ginger ale. I’d been feeding my first ginger bug all week and decided I’d throw it together while mashing.

Christmas came early this year.

What’s you plan for the calista hops? A local beer that I absolutely love is brewed with them. I’d like to get my hands on some to experiment with.

Immocles said:

What’s you plan for the calista hops? A local beer that I absolutely love is brewed with them. I’d like to get my hands on some to experiment with.

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I have no plan at this time. I have never used most of these hops, so I am open to suggestions. I may use the Saaz for my first-ever lager. But I haven’t thought much beyond that.

JAReeves said:

I have no plan at this time. I have never used most of these hops, so I am open to suggestions. I may use the Saaz for my first-ever lager. But I haven’t thought much beyond that.

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Brewed my first lager about two weeks ago. Pretty excited about it still, and I’m hoping it turns out. I have plans for at least a couple more this winter.
I’ve never come across calista locally. Maybe my next bulk buy will have to be through YVH. I’d like to brew it in a pils, or a hoppier kolsch. But I’ve got to liquidate what I have first haha.