What I did for beer today

Brewed an imperial stout, used second runnings with another 10lbs of pale malt for a dark doppelbock, and second second runnings for 7 qts of starter wort.

Modified my old Fisher and Paykel activesmart Fridge/freezer for use as a temperature chamber.

No switching off the power for me. I just hacked into it and controlled just the fridge part. It looks like its going to manage to keep the freezer still working which is very handy.
I'm using an STC1000 like most people but turning off the main power on active smart would generate annoying beeps and would effect the freezer so I modded it properly.

I have a few more tests to do but its looking good.

I will write up the modifications later in case anyone is interested but finally I have a fermentation chamber ... Beer Time.

BigMack said:

Organized all of my brewing equipment/ingredients. They've been getting a bit disorganized so my next brew day should be a breeze now.

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No you won't...lol..Like me, I am sure you got used to the dis-organized array of your tools. So, now that you have it organized it will make you hunt for it, when it is in its proper storage area! Happens to me ALL the time when I "organize" my work areas..LOL

Got my Raspberry Pints going w/o the Raspberry Pi. In lieu of Flowmeters, I have buttons associated with my normal serving sizes to track my pours and adjust my batch volumes accordingly.

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Rough draft of a brewing schedule for the year.

Soaked some bottles to remove the labels and clean them out, haven't had to do that in years but I want to give some beer away and I'll need some bottles to do it.

Kegged my Blue Moon. Washed some stuff. Fed some US05 and put it on the stir plate. Mashing a Pale right now.

Saved my Oktoberfest lager from a near disaster - or at least a near mild inconvenience. I had root beer hooked up to a gas line at about 25-30 psi. I hooked the Oktoberfest up to the same line without noticing that the reg was still set at soda pressure. It sat like that for a day or so before I realized the mistake and purged the keg and turned the reg down. At least it'll get carbed faster than usual.

I finally tried to use a jet bottle washer I brought from an online homebrew shop here in nz a few months back. A US made one but annoyingly it turned out to be the US version too, ie only a couple of turns would thread onto our 3/4" BSP outside taps. Leaked like a sive as nothing was tight so I added a 18mm 3.5mm o-ring ontop of the exsisting seal got it to hold preassure without leaking.
Needed that as I have 3 batches needing bottling in next 2 weeks.

After sorting that I rinsed enough bottles with it for a batch. They had been cleaned a while ago so possibly didn't need the rinse but better safe than sorry.

They do get starsan as part of my bottling process.

Then bottled my first all grain batch. A pale ale malt / Motueka SMaSH.

Just mashed in on a Maris Otter/Cascade SMaSH. I have never had a mash gum up and clump like this one did. Had to stir like crazy so I slightly undershot the mash temp. Oh well, a couple degrees never killed anyone

I had a Maris Otter SMASH get all gummy on me once too. Weird.

Made a yeast starter for my Munich Dunkel I'm brewing tomorrow.

Whaddya know, the store brand preservative free apple juice is on sale for $3/gallon. Guess I am making m honey hard cider this year.

Made some... Drank some.

Bottled 3gallons coffee porter... Sample was tasty.t

Came dangerously close to kegging then figured one more week won't hert any. So instead I'm just drinking beer now

Washed about 6 dozen 750ml bottles and a couple of dozen 330ml bottles as well as well.

Unfortunately getting kegs has to wait until my house renovations are done.

catdaddy66 said:

Made some... Drank some.

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Pitched a big starter of wlp530 (abbey ale) yeast into my Belgian quad (Westvleteren 12) clone. OG was two pts high from estimated.

Figured out my yeast starter (over build to harvest clean yeast), mineral additions for upcoming brew, tweaked my recipe and some Beersmith settings for my indoor small batch brewing setup.

I hope to get my starter going later today after dinner. Brew the small batch later tonight (after kids are in bed). Pitch the yeast in the morning. If life gets in the way, at least I'll have the starter made tonight and I'll mill my grains, then brew tomorrow night.

Picked up 60 lbs of 2-row, 10 lbs Munich II, 5 pkg of 1/72 plus other specialty grains for brewing this weekend.

Pretty slack today, 32C ambiant so didn't feel like botteling my 2nd AG batch.

Bumped my fermentation chamber up a few degC to finish off my third AG batch.

Empted a few bottles and disposed of their contents in the correct mannor to make them available for bottling the 3rd batch. Cold beer and hot day, great match

Sparkncode said:

Pretty slack today, 32C ambiant so didn't feel like botteling my 2nd AG batch.

Bumped my fermentation chamber up a few degC to finish off my third AG batch.

Empted a few bottles and disposed of their contents in the correct mannor to make them available for bottling the 3rd batch. Cold beer and hot day, great match

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jeez man where so do you live that its 32c.

Set up my stand for my new Blichmann 15g MLT. Added a burner for heat if need, wrapped the tun w/ insulation.
Also, went to the growler store & filled my new (BD present) uKeg.

Redeemed a killer deal Groupon voucher at the LHBS in Savannah..Brew kit, case of 12oz bottles and $10 towards ingredients..Approx $130 value for $65. Can never have too many brew buckets, auto siphons or bottling wands..Came with a capper and bottle caps too..Got ingredients to try a clone of New Holland Brewing Co's Dragon's Milk Stout..Stood around chewing the fat with the store keep for a bit longer than I really wanted and had to deal with 'crush hour' traffic leaving town..lol..

eSePeludo said:

jeez man where so do you live that its 32c.

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Napier, New Zealand.
Im glad its not this hot all the time.
At least it hasn't been too humid.
I don't know how people can stand living in hotter places.

Just moved my pilsner fermenter into the ferm chamber at my lhbs to finish after 6 days in the low 60's. It now will remain at 48° for the next 4 or 5 weeks.

Cleaned my 15g BK w/ B-Brite after installing (w/ much help from Brew buddies) my new Spin Cycle w/ SS ball valve. Also soaked original Blichmann burner legs which were replaced by shortened Blichmann legs to accommodate gravity feed from my new 15g Blichmann MLT. Set up hose connections w/ cam locks for whirlpool/chilling from CFC to Spin Cycle

I poured a Stout, gelatin fined a Citra Gold, and watched football

Kegged my CDA, cleaned the fermentor, brewed a session IPA, and checked the FG of my apple cider. Will keg the cider tomorrow.

Punching holes in my hlt for a herms setup

Kegged my attempt at a 2 hearted clone. Now just have two wait tell there is room in the kegarator to give it a try

Purchased the ingredients for my brew day next weekend (Brown Ale).

I think I can find something to do (or tinker) just about every day, it seems. Today though I just lowered the psi on my house ale from 30 to serving pressure. Can't wait to give it a try tomorrow.

Brewed an RIS - first one ever. It'll get a Knob Creek-soaked oak Spiral and a vanilla bean or two in a few weeks, then into bottles to be first enjoyed during the 2017 Holidays.

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Put the Irish Stout that I brewed yesterday into a carboy and added yeast. Then I cleaned up my mess from yesterday.

Brewed up a batch of a recipe I'm going to classify as an ESB. The wort smelled amazing, my LHBS recommended I use the Fawcett Crystal 85 they've started getting and the malt smells and tastes absolutely incredible.

While the wort was chilling on that batch I kegged a Saison to make room in the fermenter for the new brew.

BigMack said:

Brewed up a batch of a recipe I'm going to classify as an ESB. The wort smelled amazing, my LHBS recommended I use the Fawcett Crystal 85 they've started getting and the malt smells and tastes absolutely incredible.

While the wort was chilling on that batch I kegged a Saison to make room in the fermenter for the new brew.

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Would you mind sharing the recipe? Always looking to better my ESB recipe!

Tweaked my House Pils recipe a bit. Measured and sealed up some hops for next week's brew sesh.

Measured all the ingredients(water, grains and hops) for my brew day later today..Hopefully a little after noon Zombie Dust time will kick in!

Filled up two growlers off the kegerator of my DIPA and Bourbon stout to take in to work for my coworkers to sample. Nervous as **** about it but gotta let non family sample my beer and give me feedback at some point.

The DIPA kicked when the growler was 95% full. I cleaned the beer line and then hooked up my Cascadian dark ale that needed a spot on the kegerator anyway. I added gelatin to it and have that puppy carbing now.

Cleaned the now empty DIPA keg and checked on my session ale which is 3 days into fermentation.