What I did for beer today

Bottled my "basic and awesome schwarzbier". Hmm, kinda more brown than black. Tasting pretty good though.

Building a cabinet for my Monster Mill & motorizing w/ a Power Grinder.


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Yesterday I did a 2 gallon batch of Amarillo/Pearl SMaSH, this morning I started decanted some WLP001 slurry into a flask and started it spinning for a big stout I'm planning to make this weekend.

Racked my sour saison (fermented with BugCounty) to a Carboy to make it easier to transport next weekend when we fill the barrel.

I've been looking to go all electric so I picked up a 20 & 25 gallon pot a couple weeks ago. Last week I picked up a couple 4500w elements. Today I ordered a PID controller, SSR relay, thermocouple, heat sink, SCR regulator and electrical box today. Should have it all in 2 weeks. I think I'm going to use junction boxes to cover the electrical connections on the elements. Seems to be the cheapest route.


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Ordered ingredients for my lawnmower beer: a Kolsch.

Picked up two new 5 & 6 gal BB's @ my LHBS plus handles.
Just Brew It on the Southside of Atlanta just re-opened under new ownership. Same great selection of supplies, too!


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I picked up a couple cases of bottles from a Craig's list purchase and made a new homebrew friend. He is going to help me go over to all grain.

Today, I brewed an All-Grain IPA. 5 gal. Grains: 2-row(82%), Munich malt(6%), Cane Sugar(6%), Crystal 60L(3%). Hops: Apollo, Bravo, Columbus. Yeast: WLP007. Mashed at 148°F.

I bottled 51 bottles of a Doppelweizen/weizenbock type beer. My first attempt at a decoction mash which finished at 7.8% abv and 73% apparent attenuation with Wyeast 3056

Also (almost) kicked my keg of strong scotch ale

Found 2nd box from more beer on the porch @ 9:15 this morning. My Irish red E/SG kit. Now I gotta get spring water to brew that & the ESB. My 6 gallon BB comes in handy for getting the Spring Water from White House Artisian Springs. Busy weekend though,have to try & make time for a brew day.

had my HLT and MT delivered from spike brewing, spent most of the evening getting them plumbed. Water test coming this weekend.

unionrdr said:

Found 2nd box from more beer on the porch @ 9:15 this morning. My Irish red E/SG kit. Now I gotta get spring water to brew that & the ESB. My 6 gallon BB comes in handy for getting the Spring Water from White House Artisian Springs. Busy weekend though,have to try & make time for a brew day.

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Sorry ... couldn't resist! Good luck getting the brewing done!

Gotta run around today for spring water & some stuff to pit BBQ a ham for Sunday. Exhaust on car tomorrow morning. Maybe Sunday morning. Irish red's up first. First time trying more beer stuff as well.

My Parents arrived yesterday, showed my pops my improvements from a year ago, shoulda seen his eyes pop when I showed him my beer fridge. Poured a pint for my dad and myself of my O'Connor Red, pops goes" Now that's the kinda beer I love!"
Yes it was an awesome moment!

Watched the airlock bubble on the simcoe ipa I brewed yesterday. Shook the starter of saison yeast for tomorrow's brew.


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Had to go to the lhbs to get a new floating thermometer. Boy,was there a crap ton of traffic. And least we forget it's officially orange barrel season here in NE Ohio. Good thing I remembered the airlock stopper for the 6G BB. Gonna do a third batch in that one soon. Gotta make a new batch of Starsan & sanitize the BB & jugs to get the spring water.

Major nerd move for me at lunch. I haven't brewed a lager in ages and am thinking of brewing a German/Bavarian for spring-summer.

I'm having trouble settling between German Pils, Bohemian Pils or a Helles. So I reviewed the BJCP examples list and went to the package store at lunch. I got the freshest they had of Bitburger, Pilsner Urquell and Weheistephan original.

Going to have a tasting this weekend with SWMBO and some of my neighbors to narrow down which style I want to go with.


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Holy crap. Thermometer stopped working for the batch I was making, bottle filler broke while I was attempting to bottle another batch. Beer sprayed everywhere. At least I got to enjoy half a bottle of it uncarbed while I cleaned up.


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Ordered a refractometer from Amazon.


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Just picked up a keg for converting into a mash tun

Step 1 of a 10 gallon HERMS completed.

Brewed a brown ale (a rebrew of a coffee brown that I severely overcarbed) and bottled a batch of IPA.

Took a look at my gose and thought about bottling it, but ran out if steam tonight.

BGBC said:

Brewed a brown ale (a rebrew of a coffee brown that I severely overcarbed) and bottled a batch of IPA.

Took a look at my gose and thought about bottling it, but ran out if steam tonight.

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I brewed and bottled in the same day last weekend and I don't think I'll be doing it again lol

Bottled my Citra Zythos IPA. Bought some honey for a batch of mead.

Kegged 3 gallons of dry cider and carbed it, which is really easy when it's 3 gallons in a 5 gallon keg - just pressurize to 15 psi, shake, reconect to gas to repressurize, and repeat until it stops taking gas. Now I just have to figure out whether to backsweeten it with AJ concentrate or with the honey and cherry juice that was such a hit last time.

And I have to drink up the stout in the keg fridge to make room. I think I'm up to the task.

Cleaned up my back patio and organized two garages so brewing next weekend can go off without a hitch.

Basically I want to have things set up so that I'm brewing on the patio when the weather is good and brewing in the garage when weather is bad.

Also bought a third propane tank because I have a tank that expires next month.

And rehung the gate on the dog run and swept it up so it's not full of aspen leaves from last fall.

Cleaned some nasty bottles with PBW, and am baking some Maris Otter spent grain pretzel rolls right now. They smell AMAZING.

Hopinista said:

I brewed and bottled in the same day last weekend and I don't think I'll be doing it again lol

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When I first started, I brewed with a friend and we split all the batches. The 3rd brew, we brewed and bottled at the same time and it was so easy that we did that every time. Until he stopped brewing. I've tried it once on my own and it sucked.

Cleaned out keggle to test out new fittings. Cleaned carboy and made 5 gallons of cider.

Finished the main frame of my fermentation chamber, yesterday. My dad is in town and is giving me some guidance on the rest of the build ( My Dad has mad carpentry skills). He's helping with the stand and the door hinge portion this week. I should have my STC-1000 by mid week, hoping to do a test run on the chamber before the 5th when my new 7gal SS Brew technologies Conical ships.

I actually made my first immersion chiller. . Not that exciting but I hope to someday turn it into a counter flow chiller

Kegged my beersmith Belgian wit today!

Cleaned a recently emptied keg, rinsed kegerator line that had been used, replaced w/ a full keg


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Took a couple gravity readings and happy with the numbers added gelatin. Missed the FG on one batch by 0.002, but I guess that's what I get for changing the yeast. Fortunately it's non-disastrous.

Made my first stir plate starter last night.

This morning:

I went and checked out White Labs, for the first time. Had an IPA flight brewed with 4 different strains, and grabbed a couple vials of yeast. Pretty cool place to hang, for a beer enthusiast.

Transfered my RIS to secondary and then checked the carb on the second runnings black/ brown ipa and it's pretty killer

I picked up a new 1/2 inch Auto-Syphon and a couple of Ball jars to harvest some yeast in.

My pops bought me a circular saw and helped me design a table to elevate my fermentation chamber so the top will be same height as beer fridge. Just wished I had it when I was framing the chamber, cuts are so much cleaner and precise now.

Took some gravities last night. Might be racking in the next day or two, hopefully