What I did for beer today

Blew yet another air pump spray bottle from a seam, and this one I've been de-pressurising when not in use... FFS they can take solvent based detergents strong enough to melt grease off vehicles but apparently a weak star-san solution is too much for them...

Pitched high pressure lager yeast into Schwarzbier. Cleaning, need to keg two beers, a graf and pale ale today, for serving on the weekend.

Called out sick from work because some GI issues that I didn't want to foist on my co-workers, and also because I could. Between checking emails I'm going to keg the IPA I brewed two weeks ago (meh but should improve in the keg) and replace some beer lines, stuff I can do sitting down.

^^^ feel better @seatazzz

brewbama said:

When down to the ferment fridge to ck the airlock. Never get tired of seeing the thing bubble.

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i'm about the opposite...i'm sitting here, drinking a beer, thinking if this damn fermenter of cider doesn't STOP bubbling soon, i'm going to run out of drink!

I did it yesterday, but good enough. I upped my membership next year for Pure Project to the "select exclusive" option. It makes me feel special to be apart of something both select and exclusive.

Went to the LHBS today and picked up some bottle caps, priming sugar, DME and a grain bag for tomorrow's brew. They also keep a stack of old magazines to give away for free so I ended up with the January 2017 Zymurgy because why not?

Brewed a small 2gal batch of bitters to try WLP038 Manchester ale. Starter had a pretty strong phenolic aroma, hopefully it is toned down some in a real beer.

Bought some oar locks to use as a bracket for my RIMS tube to make it easier to get the air out.

Opened up the gap on the grain mill, much less flour again.

Brewed my part of an experiment today.

A few weeks ago my friend brewed an Octoberfest and today I'm brewing the same recipe with one change. The original called for 1# of corn sugar and I am replacing that with 1# of Sparkling Amber DME. Once it's carbed we'll compare results.

Cleaning out old yeast slurry from the fridge, repacking the ones I’ll keep into smaller jars.

Put yeast starter on the stir plate, safale K97 Kolsch

Today I picked up a mini fridge to use as a fermentation chamber. Been using a Son Of Fermentation Chamber for years and I'm tired of changing out frozen milk jugs.

I’m doing my best drinking Homebrew today to free up some kegs / taps for future beers.

Drank a bunch of weizenbock and kicked it to make room for the porter next weekend. Tomorrow to clean the keg and tap line.

Kegged 5 gallons of Dead Ringer IPA. Aroma awesome and could have drank it as-is warm and uncarbonated. But decided to put in the kegerator to chill first then carbonate by "set-and-forget" for 2 weeks at 12 psi and 42F. Plenty of other beers to drink first. Ahhhh, pour myself another. Again.

Took a silver medal for my American Brown ale at the Commander Saaz competition in Cocoa Beach, FL. This was the Gordon Strong recipe from Modern Homebrew Recipes. I used Omega Hothead kveik yeast, and fermented in my garage at 95F. I had it kegged and drinking within a freaking week.

Brewed 25 gal of Kolsch today.

shetc said:

Took a silver medal for my American Brown ale at the Commander Saaz competition in Cocoa Beach, FL. This was the Gordon Strong recipe from Modern Homebrew Recipes. I used Omega Hothead kveik yeast, and fermented in my garage at 95F. I had it kegged and drinking within a freaking week.

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Congrats! How did you find out already? Reggie isn’t updated nor is their website. I’m actually in Cocoa for Saaz right now and judged a couple flights today as well as some pre-judging last weekend. The weather has been great!

Got up at 4am to brew up another batch of the House Lager, this time gonna do it cold. Plenty in the pipeline, with three kegged and one in the ferment fridge already, so can afford to let this one go for a few weeks. The other day bought a new garden hose and some connectors to replace the old out-hose for the chiller, no more bailing out the bucket it had to sit in. Later today might finally get to replacing the beer lines I was supposed to do earlier this week, dunno why I'm procrastinating. Oh look, football!

Thanks! I watched the awards ceremony on Facebook [emoji16]

Amadeo38 said:

Congrats! How did you find out already? Reggie isn’t updated nor is their website. I’m actually in Cocoa for Saaz right now and judged a couple flights today as well as some pre-judging last weekend. The weather has been great!

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shetc said:

Thanks! I watched the awards ceremony on Facebook [emoji16]

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Ah, didn’t realize they we’re doing that. I opted out of attending due to the steep price (comparatively, to our Hogtown awards dinner). Only took home a 3rd place for Stone Fruit (cherry) Mead, although there were 21 entries in that category so it feels slightly less shameful.

Transferred a juicy comet and centennial IPA to the keg and brewed a session IPA also today!

I originally planned to judge on Friday and Saturday as well as attend the dinner but no way could I justify the cost. I drove up from Pembroke Pines to Gainesville for the Hogtown event, which was a lot of fun. I had an IPA that received a 41 but no medal - tough competition [emoji4]

Amadeo38 said:

Ah, didn’t realize they we’re doing that. I opted out of attending due to the steep price (comparatively, to our Hogtown awards dinner). Only took home a 3rd place for Stone Fruit (cherry) Mead, although there were 21 entries in that category so it feels slightly less shameful.

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Amadeo38 said:

Ah, didn’t realize they we’re doing that. I opted out of attending due to the steep price (comparatively, to our Hogtown awards dinner). Only took home a 3rd place for Stone Fruit (cherry) Mead, although there were 21 entries in that category so it feels slightly less shameful.

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Third place is better than no place.

Cleaned a keg that kicked a cpl days ago, trimmed the gas in dip tube, filled it with sanitizer. Ready to purge it with CO2, and close transfer a Czech Pils to go into the lager fridge this evening.

Shipped out some side trades today with @LoneTreeFarms @TheEagleRising and @HopsNTails. Please be kind FedEx. Fingers crossed.

Cleaned and sanitized 6 kegs and some beer lines and cleaned a 5L flask. And I haven't had a beer all day. I gotta work on that...

Shipped entries to Best Florida Beer competition.

Had 5L of Saison left in a flask so I pitched a sour blend and let it finish. Just bottled a 12 pack to carbonate.

Bottled a lightly hopped wheat ale made with Sterling hops and Tormodgarden kveik. The sample I tasted was great! Harvested a lot of really clean yeast for drying!

Pitched 1/16th tsp of thick Voss kveik slurry into a 1L starter for pitching into another beer tomorrow + banking/drying the extra. I love smelling the orange and spice aroma from the starter every time I walk through the kitchen where it's spinning away.

It's early, sanitizing and setting up to bottle about 6 gallons of "way heavy" Scotch ale.

Cleaned up the garage workshop table which had about a foot thick layer of crap and miscellaneous tools accumulated over time, did a little bottle counting and cand up short so need to order more. Today gotta lift one fermentor on the table so it can settle til the weekend before racking into a bottling bucket and forth into bottles.

BikerMatt, what bike do you ride?

Hooked up my new Kegland 3-tap Kegerator with EVABarrier tubing.
As soon as my Flow Control Ball Dock QDs arrive today I'll be in business!

Brewbuzzard said:

BikerMatt, what bike do you ride?

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Well I'm actually at the very moment bikeLESS Matt Up until recently my latest bike was a 2004 Benelli Tornado 900 but due to RSI damage to my left wrist, a company to run and two little kids I swapped it to a more family friendly Alfa Romeo GT JTDM earlier this summer. Plans are to get a 690 KTM Duke 4 at some point but not in a hurry with that.

Just bottled 32 bombers of the infamous Black Cap Way Heavy Scotch Ale.
When I checked gravity this morning, it was at 13.65 %
Now I gotta go do cleanup!

Dave Sarber said:

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Just bottled 32 bombers of the infamous Black Cap Way Heavy Scotch Ale.
When I checked gravity this morning, it was at 13.65 %
Now I gotta go do cleanup!

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SWEET!

seanjwalker1 said:

SWEET!

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Well, I mopped off the counter, boxed the bombers, and rinsed the fermenter and bottling stuff. Got 3 quarts of WLP028 yeast slurry. Then it was time for a nap.
Now I'm drinking a bottle of experimental cranberry tripel, and I'm thinking I'm done with cleanup for the day!

Cavpilot2000 said:

Hooked up my new Kegland 3-tap Kegerator with EVABarrier tubing.
As soon as my Flow Control Ball Dock QDs arrive today I'll be in business!
View attachment 645623

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Last night hooked it up with the flow control ball locks and EVA Barrier tubing on the gas side too using stainless gas ball lock QDs too.
Man, the stainless QDs are SOOOOO much nicer than the classic plastic that so oftern sticks and fights you going on or off.
Stainless is definitely the way to go.

BikerMatt said:

Well I'm actually at the very moment bikeLESS Matt Up until recently my latest bike was a 2004 Benelli Tornado 900 but due to RSI damage to my left wrist, a company to run and two little kids I swapped it to a more family friendly Alfa Romeo GT JTDM earlier this summer. Plans are to get a 690 KTM Duke 4 at some point but not in a hurry with that.

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I rode a HD Super Glide until a GMC SUV pulled out in front of me. 40 MPH in to an immovable object will ruin an otherwise good ride. So I built a backyard brewery and hung up my leathers. I still miss it though.