What I did for beer today

Kegging today using the norcal keg fermenter t set up. Closed transfers are so easy this way. Dont lift a 10 gallon batch by your self, its heavy.

^Here is the pic

I made 6 beers for my wedding:
An 11.8% imperial pumpkin ale
A 10.58% toasted coconut s’mores stout
A ginger rye Irish red
A traditional Scottish 80
A grapefruit IPA
and A pear Irish blonde

Kegged the "Hop Candy Jr." New England Pale Ale today. Smells absolutely fantastic!

John

Staticsouls said:

^Here is the picView attachment 587108

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What is the ball valve on the cross for?

ajbosley2015 said:

I made 6 beers for my wedding:
An 11.8% imperial pumpkin ale
A 10.58% toasted coconut s’mores stout
A ginger rye Irish red
A traditional Scottish 80
A grapefruit IPA
and A pear Irish blonde

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You don’t have to do it man. I’ll take the pumpkin ale though

Setup my new RO system, made some custom tap handles

Yesterday kegged what I'm calling my India Pale Lager (basic lager recipe, fermented on 2nd gen 34/70, and flavored/aroma'd with a ton of Mosaic hops) and today sipping on a sample of it. Deliciousness. Also tasted the Peach Milkshake IPA done last Sunday, that got the peaches dumped in it on Thursday. Shaping up well, going to need another week on the fruit but I'm happy with the way it's turning out. Nice mouthfeel from the lactose, and the peaches are starting to come out.

Making a cream ale

I`ve not brewed anything for nearly a year and so all my brewing equipment has sat idle for months on end. Some time ago I figured to get back on the wagon and put all my bottles, about 200 of them, to soak... and forgot about them for a few more months. I promised a brew batch to my neighbor for the kid`s ATV he gave me so I went to the wash room and opened the lid of a few brew buckets where the bottles have been soaking and the smell that greeted me... It can only be described as rotting onions soaking in raw sewage! Literally made my eyes water! Valiantly I still tried washing them as I need the buckets they`ve been soaking in, I got the big boiling kettle scrubbed squeaky clean but even after two rounds with a bottle brush and a rinse with a bottle washer I`m still finding black spots inside the bottles so I`m not gonna risk a batch to go bad in the bottles cause it`s a funkload of work and worst case scenario I could end up with a battery of glass grenades in the shelf... Thing is it`s gonna set me back over a hundred to replace em all, luckily I don`t have to do it all at once but still... Lesson learnt, always always rinse immediately after pouring...

Also received a shipment the other day, munich, floor malted bohemian dark, tettnanger and hallertau mittelfruch, add few kilos of viking pale ale from the sack in the garage and I should be getting two batches of dunkel-ish ale.

I dry hopped my latest version of Da Yooper's pale ale on Wednesday so I have my bottles soaking to sanitize them. Tomorrow the batch will get bottled and stored for 10-14 days for priming. Should be pretty awesome!

Kegged my APA, cleaned the fermenter it was in. Gearing up for a housewarming party on Friday, gotta keg the cider on Thursday and figure out food then we're mostly set, other than putting out the picnic table/chairs.

Bottling the Summer Slugger IPA tonight (IPA w/ Galaxy, Cascade and Citra).

Made a starter for a Scottish Ale, and kegged a Lemon-Wheat beer from almost a month ago.
Hopefully can get the Scottish Ale made and kegged quick, and have a completely full keezer

helterscelter said:

What is the ball valve on the cross for?

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I think it can be used for blow off tub during fermentation. I didn't use it for that as this does not fit into my ferm chamber. I have a separate triclamp cap with a 90 elbow and a thermowell.

If this set up were to fit in my ferm fridge I could use it for both fermentation and transfer.

I took some of my lunch break to go to plumbing supply store to get 50’ of 3/8” OD copper tubing, and tonight I’m going to wrap it around a 5 gal. bucket - and viola! I’ll have an immersion chiller.

Got my equipment ready to brew Three Floyds Dreadnaught IPA clone tomorrow.

After finally getting rid of all the copper in my brewhouse, and a reconfiguration from 3 tier to 2 tier.

Brewed a smash of pale malt and centennial

6 oz. Of centennial mostly whirlpool additions.

BikerMatt said:

I`ve not brewed anything for nearly a year and so all my brewing equipment has sat idle for months on end. Some time ago I figured to get back on the wagon and put all my bottles, about 200 of them, to soak... and forgot about them for a few more months. I promised a brew batch to my neighbor for the kid`s ATV he gave me so I went to the wash room and opened the lid of a few brew buckets where the bottles have been soaking and the smell that greeted me... It can only be described as rotting onions soaking in raw sewage! Literally made my eyes water! Valiantly I still tried washing them as I need the buckets they`ve been soaking in, I got the big boiling kettle scrubbed squeaky clean but even after two rounds with a bottle brush and a rinse with a bottle washer I`m still finding black spots inside the bottles so I`m not gonna risk a batch to go bad in the bottles cause it`s a funkload of work and worst case scenario I could end up with a battery of glass grenades in the shelf... Thing is it`s gonna set me back over a hundred to replace em all, luckily I don`t have to do it all at once but still... Lesson learnt, always always rinse immediately after pouring...

Also received a shipment the other day, munich, floor malted bohemian dark, tettnanger and hallertau mittelfruch, add few kilos of viking pale ale from the sack in the garage and I should be getting two batches of dunkel-ish ale.

Click to expand...

I've been in the habit of rinse after empty for many years. Even store bought bottles and cans that go to the recycle. Even since I hardly bottle anymore. I use the bottom rack of the dish washer to clean, before sanitize and they come out great. Pots and pans, air dry for the washer setting I use. I've had a few bottles get spots in them from not rinsing very well.

Zoomzu said:

I've been in the habit of rinse after empty for many years. Even store bought bottles and cans that go to the recycle. Even since I hardly bottle anymore. I use the bottom rack of the dish washer to clean, before sanitize and they come out great. Pots and pans, air dry for the washer setting I use. I've had a few bottles get spots in them from not rinsing very well.

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Stupid part is I HAVE a faucet mounted bottle washer and a drying tree right next to it in the utility room but I guess I'm just too damn lazy to use them. That will have to change now. I looked around the local homebrew shops and everyone's out of the bottles I want and the rest cost too much so currently looking into soaking them in bleach for a while. Anyone done that? I have a 45Liter stainless steel sink in the garage I'm not afraid to get markings on but still wondering if it can take a bleach solution and what kind of strength should I be using? From what I've read the water should be cold to avoid gasses emitting from the sink. There also seems to be fruit flies inside several bottles, those darned little flying f***s glue themselves into the inside wall and will not budge, I've chucked dozens of bottles because of them. Hoping the clorine would get tuose out too.

Any tips greatly appreciated! I got sth like 200 stinky bottles to get sparkly clean.

Today I ordered ingredients for my next 2 batches.

Winter Stout
Christmas Ale

BikerMatt said:

Stupid part is I HAVE a faucet mounted bottle washer and a drying tree right next to it in the utility room but I guess I'm just too damn lazy to use them. That will have to change now. I looked around the local homebrew shops and everyone's out of the bottles I want and the rest cost too much so currently looking into soaking them in bleach for a while. Anyone done that? I have a 45Liter stainless steel sink in the garage I'm not afraid to get markings on but still wondering if it can take a bleach solution and what kind of strength should I be using? From what I've read the water should be cold to avoid gasses emitting from the sink. There also seems to be fruit flies inside several bottles, those darned little flying f***s glue themselves into the inside wall and will not budge, I've chucked dozens of bottles because of them. Hoping the clorine would get tuose out too.

Any tips greatly appreciated! I got sth like 200 stinky bottles to get sparkly clean.

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A hot water soak for 15 minutes will loosen up those flies. Then clean as normal.
I've never soaked in bleach so I can't help there .

Made Three Floyds Dreadnaught American IPA clone.


Missed my O.G. though First big grain bill, worst efficiency ever.

dry hopped a two hearted clone

Finally assembled my keg line recirculating cleaning pump. Connected an old picnic tap to it and tested it out in the sink. It will be nice to save on co2 when cleaning my keg lines.

This reminds me that I have two kegs and lines to clean this weekend.

Zoomzu said:

Made Three Floyds Dreadnaught American IPA clone.
Missed my O.G. though First big grain bill, worst efficiency ever.

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You’re still going to make beer, so I’ll chalk that up as a win any day. Cheers!

pshankstar said:

View attachment 588003

Finally assembled my keg line recirculating cleaning pump. Connected an old picnic tap to it and tested it out in the sink. It will be nice to save on co2 when cleaning my keg lines.

This reminds me that I have two kegs and lines to clean this weekend.

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I recently got a submersible pump for my wort chiller and am thinking about dual using it for cleaning: are you worried about the pH of your sanitizer affecting the pump? I use starsan, fyi.

jiMithing83 said:

I recently got a submersible pump for my wort chiller and am thinking about dual using it for cleaning: are you worried about the pH of your sanitizer affecting the pump? I use starsan, fyi.

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I bought this pump a while ago thinking I could use it to recirculate cold water for my wort chiller. This little pump didn't have enough power to push water through 50ft of 1/2inch copper tubing plus the extra connection lines (in and out). So I bought a submersible pump like you could use for a flooded basement. That one I use to recirculate cold water for my wort chiller and made a setup to clean my kegs with too since it has a lot more force. Normally I do not use sanitizer with the mentioned pump, for I will fill a keg with some sanitizer and shake it really good, connect the CO2 and push some out through a picnic tap or my cleaned faucets. Then I will let the sanitizer sit in the lines and dump out the keg.

This little pond pump will only run cleaner through the tap lines and faucets, then hot water to flush them out. Sanitizer will probably not be used much with it given how I do it now (mentioned above). Even if I have to replace this pump down the road, it's only $10 (+/-), if I get a few years out of it then it only cost me a few dollars a year. From what I have read the cleaner for the tap lines and faucets needs to be recirculating for X number of minutes, whereas the sanitizer can sit and make contact for X number of minutes. This will help me save CO2 since I won't have to fill a keg with cleaner and push it through, then do it again with hot water to flush them out. Just a little CO2 will be used to push some sanitizer into the lines and faucets.

I hope this makes sense. Cheers!

I was on task last night:
2.5 gallons of Scottish Ale is now bubbling away in my fermenter!
Wrested with a keg to get my lemon-wheat serving. Had a hell of a time getting out serving line to get on.... proud of myself for working through the problem rather than just waiting for my husband to solve it!

Yesterday I kegged the last 5 gallon batch for tomorrow's party (10.2% modified EdWort's Apfelwein), and checked the carbonation on the APA I kegged on Sunday.

Today I will resist drinking from the keezer, and stick to commercial beers.

Yesterday attended my first meeting for a local homebrew club. Should have done this sooner, lots of fun.

BrewMan13 said:

Yesterday attended my first meeting for a local homebrew club. Should have done this sooner, lots of fun.

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I joined my first in January, 6 years into the hobby. Really should have done it sooner too.

jiMithing83 said:

I joined my first in January, 6 years into the hobby. Really should have done it sooner too.

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I actually was in an unofficial one years ago, but stopped going once I started bowling, since they were on the same night. This one is official and AFAIK the biggest one in my area.

Drove to my LHBS, 40 minute drive one way. Maris Otter in tow, lots of hops, other grain, WPL007 and a bunch of SingleCut brews. All in, good day!!

pshankstar said:

You’re still going to make beer, so I’ll chalk that up as a win any day. Cheers!

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Yes I did.
Hoping to get a couple bottles of the "real" stuff to compare.

I just added the following to my first kettle sour:
4oz dried hibiscus
4oz dried lemon peel
1tsp coarse salt
The zest of 1 lime
6oz table sugar and
A whole bunch of wild blackberries, frozen, thawed then puréed.

And now I'm pondering if this could be my first competition entry and what category would a hibiscus blackberry sour with lactose fall under? Probably just submit it as a fruit beer and call it a day.

I also registered to staff/steward a competition. Only home brewing (drinking) can turn me into a social being.

Sipping on what should be the last sample of my Peach Milkshake IPA before it gets kegged on Saturday. Tastes great, could be peachier, but it's time for it to be on tap. Was super bitter the other day, it's settled down now and tastes terrific. Crashing it now, sample is pretty clear but I don't care about clarity, just want the yeast down and out. Dunno if I'll save it, was BRY-97 that started super slow, but I've read that further generations of this yeast will do better. Going to squeeze the heck out of the peach bag when I keg it to get as much peachiness as I can. Can't wait to see the husband's reaction to it on first taste since this one was his idea. He can't stand what he calls 'unfinished' (read: not carbonated) beer, so he has no idea what he's in for.

cleaned three kegs

cleaned up a mess. The hose wasn't plugged. Lid was on tight.

Cleaned, sanitized, and put on co2 the keg I will fill with my Peach Milkshake IPA tomorrow. And, since I don't feel like jarring up the yeast from it, tomorrow will brew up an experimental IPA using the Legacy hops I just got the other day, and ferment on that. I don't NEED to brew, but I WANT to, so I'm gonna.