What I did for beer today

Brewed 14 gallons of a NEIPA, that I wanted for when some friends and my bro comes in from out of town. Going tap a brut ipa when I feel like getting back up. Probably going to start planning the next brew session.

And of course work on emptying kegs so I can refill them.

Kegged my house Blonde Ale; harvested/washed yeast from my Blonde and Double Nut Brown

Grainfather has arrived! I haven’t brewed in 4 months with moving and renovations. Excited to brew with this guy this weekend!

Opened the fermentation fridge to gloat over the dank IPA brewed last Saturday. Going to give it a taste tomorrow (krausen is down) and after that, dry hop with at least 3oz of mixed whatever-is-in-the-hop freezer that I think will make it pop. Have also been overthinking the next brew, which will probably be a Milkshake Tangerine/Orange Wit. And late as it is after a long day and night at both jobs, sipping on some of my current House IPA and American Strong. Tired but good beer is GOOD after a long tiring day.

Bottled up a small batch of bourbon vanilla porter. The next time will be a bigger batch... This is good. Not to worry the half pint is being consumed as I post.

Kegged the Blonde Ale I brewed a week ago Saturday.

We've got Fantasy Football draft this Saturday. End of last season I promised a keg for draft for this season (yes stupid me). Now I'm torn. I've got 3/4 keg of Milk Chocolate stout that is good, 2/3 keg House IPA that is YUMMY and I don't want to share but should, and a WF lager that's getting kegged tonight that promises to be epic. Whatever I take is coming home as an empty keg, with only the newest Dank IPA to replace it (which won't get kegged until next Wednesday since it just got dry hopped today) and no time (or $$) to brew for 2 weeks. ARRRRRGH.

I am going to the HBS to pick up ingredients for my next 2 brews back in the saddle. A riff on NB's Kama Citra IPA with the hop schedule changed up a bit and a kettle sour lactose blackberry monster that hopefully doesn't suck.

Malt and other goodies. ( Oops wrong thread, this is what came in the mail.)

I siphoned my Block party Amber Ale into bottles today.
The Ale just needs to condition for two weeks... I can’t wait!
Will let you know how it turns out.
From a Newbie brewer.
The Crafty Ale Enthusiast

Made a reflectix wrap for my biab kettle, it goes on its inaugural run this afternoon.

I am bottling a Belgian Tripel tonight!

Ok so first BIAB session was probably the most troublesome since my first batch ever. I need a pulley to hang my bag so I can get better than 70% efficiency, my boil off rate was wrong so I'm 1/2 gallon shy on my final volume, I need a cfc so it doesn't take an hour to get my temp down to pitch range, but... hot damn I can see a lot better potential! Even my og sample is better than extract, I can't wait to see what the final product turns out to be.

Of course, now I'm going to need to start doing water adjustments, but I do miss chem lab so that's not necessarily a bad thing.

My weekend is wednesday and thursday, yesterday i kegged my brut ipa and brewed a batch of rye pale ale. Today i carbed the brut ipa and a doppelbock i brewed a month and a week ago. Then i bottled off some belgian blonde. Its been a good weekend.

Poured a taste sample of the WF lager I kegged yesterday. This one was all Crystal hops, and it's.....sweet. Not like under-attenuated sweet, but like the hops did it or someone put something else sweet in it, sweet. It's not a bad thing, but unexpected. Of course it's not all the way carbed yet but I'm a big fan of the school of taste-my-beer-at-every-stage. Gonna take this one to FF Draft on Saturday so I have an excuse to brew another one next weekend.

Purged a keg of sanitizer, bottled a wit, cleaned everything, prepped for tomorrow’s brew, prepped three one gallon hugs with fruit to rack beer onto tomorrow, and cleaned more.

Schlenkerla said:

Bought Pearled Barley to make my own unmalted roasted barley.

Gotta red ale and some stouts that need this in the future.

....and it's fvcking heart healthy. LOL

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This is my roasted barley that I roasted last night!

It tastes really good. It's gonna be awesome in a red ale!

I bottled and amused the cat at the same time. Got 36, 16oz bottles of Tripel.

Preped for a brew day tomorrow, weighed out grains washed, cleaned and organized somewhat

Hoppy2bmerry said:

Preped for a brew day tomorrow, weighed out grains washed, cleaned and organized somewhat

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I think this is one very important activity that's overlooked for a good brew day!

[emoji481] [emoji481]

buckinin said:

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Grainfather has arrived! I haven’t brewed in 4 months with moving and renovations. Excited to brew with this guy this weekend!

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Good Luck!
I got a Northern Brewer kit. I couldn’t wait to get started but had to wait 6 months . I’m in the first week of bottle conditioning only 9 days to go before the taste test

What I did for beer today (and the last few weeks) was video each step of my attempts to make Northern Brewer Block Party Ale.
Vid 1 is what in the Kit
Vid 2 is let’s Get Cleaning (see if you can spot the obvious newbie mistake)
Vid 3 is let’s get Brewing.
Other vids to follow
You can check them out on my YouTube channel The Crafty Ale Enthusiast https://bit.ly/2M4zzdy
It’s ok I’m not selling anything and I am not an affiliate.

I will be whipping up my first starter for the IPA I am brewing on Sunday with WLP095. Heard it does better after the first generation so I am putting it in a pretty straightforward beer before using the second generation for a NEIPA in about a month.

Lee Shephard said:

What I did for beer today (and the last few weeks) was video each step of my attempts to make Northern Brewer Block Party Ale.
Vid 1 is what in the Kit
Vid 2 is let’s Get Cleaning (see if you can spot the obvious newbie mistake)
Vid 3 is let’s get Brewing.
Other vids to follow
You can check them out on my YouTube channel The Crafty Ale Enthusiast https://bit.ly/2M4zzdy
It’s ok I’m not selling anything and I am not an affiliate.

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That is a fun thing to do! Edit: I took a quick peek. Good music intro and personable delivery.
It's possible I didn't catch where you used a sanitation solution (like Starsan) but that is pretty important. The oxygen wash, which I haven't used but read what it's for, seems like it's for power cleaning but is not a sanitizer. Of course, you may have this covered in your videos and I just haven't seen it yet. Anyway, well done. If I get a chance, I'll watch them through without skipping around and IF there are any useful suggestions I can provide, I shall.

Brewing an APA with horizon and calypso 10 minutes into the boil right now.

Racked my finished lemon peel Saison (dropped to either at or just below 1.000 with wyeast 3711 and a 149 mash, that yeast is a beast!) into a purged keg to let it get a little more age on it. I also have two ciders that should be through with primary (one Nottingham the other S-04) that I'm going to cold crash and try racking onto some tart Montmorency cherry juice concentrate.

WildernessBrewing said:

Racked my finished lemon peel Saison (dropped to either at or just below 1.000 with wyeast 3711 and a 149 mash, that yeast is a beast!) into a purged keg to let it get a little more age on it. I also have two ciders that should be through with primary (one Nottingham the other S-04) that I'm going to cold crash and try racking onto some tart Montmorency cherry juice concentrate.

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3711 is my go to saison yeast. Just kegged a batch that fermented at ambient during a heat wave, fermenter hot up around mid 80s... got it down to 1.002 and no off flavors!

jiMithing83 said:

3711 is my go to saison yeast. Just kegged a batch that fermented at ambient during a heat wave, fermenter hot up around mid 80s... got it down to 1.002 and no off flavors!

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Yeah I fermented most of it around mid to high 70s ambient. Some nice peppery and spicy notes that really compliments the lemon peel. This will definitely be my house saison yeast from now on. I really wanna do a golden strong with it soon and see how it turns out.

davidabcd said:

That is a fun thing to do! Edit: I took a quick peek. Good music intro and personable delivery.
It's possible I didn't catch where you used a sanitation solution (like Starsan) but that is pretty important. The oxygen wash, which I haven't used but read what it's for, seems like it's for power cleaning but is not a sanitizer. Of course, you may have this covered in your videos and I just haven't seen it yet. Anyway, well done. If I get a chance, I'll watch them through without skipping around and IF there are any useful suggestions I can provide, I shall.

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Cheers buddy. I appreciate the frank comments . Your right it does look as though I messed up using oxygen wash as a sanitiser.
But as another reddit forum member said “ Northern Brewer mislead the newbie Brewer by saying use your oxygen wash to sanitise your equipment”
It is a cost saving ploy by Northern Brewer by omitting some sort of sanitiser and replacing it with oxygen wash. I guess it’s because the equipment is brand new

Be assured that I will be sanitising my equipment with Starsan in the future.

Beer blew it's airlock-based top during fermentation of my hefeweizen while I was away for a week. Came back to an empty airlock. Cleaned the airlock, took a sample to try it out. Currently at 1.018 (FG 1.009) and tastes great! As long as I didn't add some infection during my sample taking, it's going to make for a great beer. Can't wait to chill/keg/carb in a week.

Started the cold crashing my Two Hearted Clone. Bottling in a couple of days and should be ready to drink by time my 2nd grandchild is born due the 3rd week of September. Calling it Marley Wray IPA in her honor.

WildernessBrewing said:

Racked my finished lemon peel Saison (dropped to either at or just below 1.000 with wyeast 3711 and a 149 mash, that yeast is a beast!) into a purged keg to let it get a little more age on it. I also have two ciders that should be through with primary (one Nottingham the other S-04) that I'm going to cold crash and try racking onto some tart Montmorency cherry juice concentrate.

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That sounds like some serious work ! You’ve got a proper microbrewery going on their. You’re obviously a seasoned professional Brewer that knows what they are doing. It’s very inspiring to us Newbie brewers. Keep up the good work. I can almost taste that lemon peel , Saison Ale. Yum yum

Andrew Hodgson said:

I will be whipping up my first starter for the IPA I am brewing on Sunday with WLP095. Heard it does better after the first generation so I am putting it in a pretty straightforward beer before using the second generation for a NEIPA in about a month.

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I am a newbie Brewer.and I have no idea what you’re talking about but it sounds great! Hopefully after a few months of chatting with you guys on this forum I’ll be as knowledgable as you guys

Came home from a long day & night at both jobs to pull the PRV on the WF Lager I've got carbing right now. Should be ready to take to FF draft tomorrow. Sunday will buy the tangerines & oranges I'll need for my Labor Day brew, a Dreamsicle Wit brewed with dried orange & tangerine peels, with lactose added at end of boil, and fermented on tangerines. Haven't made a fruit beer in 6 months and it's time.

Always nice to have some help when bottling

Brewed (couldnt yesterday, bottled 1/2 a batch and put the other half on fruit instead). Expect to keg my pilsner on gyle tonight to keg carb.

cleaned my taps and beer lines

Yesterday took my latest WF Lager to FF Draft, expecting to bring some home....NOPE. Those thirsty people killed the keg in about 4 hours, with about 8 people drinking including myself and the husband. Well gratified that it went over so well, but sad that there's none left for me! No grain on hand to brew today, so making a shopping list for a double-brew weekend next weekend. Also turned down the controller on the fridge to start crashing out the Double Damn Dank IPA I brewed last weekend that I hope to keg on Wednesday. There's a good 2 inches or more of hop goo on the bottom that are bound to clog the heck out of the autosiphon that I have apparently lost the red cap to, so will need to use a voile bag to keep it from getting in the keg. Yeast won't be saved this time, since the next brew is a Wit that I will want to use some fresh...kinda sad about that since this was the fourth generation of it, and it worked fantastically well on all four beers it was pitched into.

Built a bracket to raise the shelf in my new fermintation fridge. Now I have room on top and bottom.

2nd post here today...husband went and got himself a new phone this week, so I had no problem spending $70 at the LHBS for the next two brews, one of which will be a 10g batch of what is now the House Lager. Will still have to go get the tangerines & oranges for the Dreamsicle Wit I'm doing next Saturday before I apprehensively hie myself to the Washington State Fair to see how my entries did.