So who's brewing this weekend?

Yakima 728
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Brewed an oatmeal breakfast stout with dark chocolate and coffee (Founders-ish clone) on Fri. The yeasties are happily doing their part right now!

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Hooray, got to brew today! American Strong ale style 5gal. Then going to rerun through the mash for 2.5 session ale
 
mattmmille said:
I haven't brewed since last late Oct./early November. I have a recipe ready for a Fluffernutter Sammie Stout, but I haven't a way to control fermentation accurately and I think I have my stout fails down to S-04 yeast and temps in the mid 70's as the culprits in the tangy, metallic flavors and eventual overcarbing issues. I keep putting it off, because I have access to an old, small chest freezer that I could convert...but SWMBO isn't happy with any possible spot to locate it. Ugh.
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Does your fermenter fit in anything you can add water then a couple trays of ice every 12hrs or so? My metal trough spring a leak Wednesday, ended up using a mop bucket, the 7.9gal bucket barely fit in. Better then nothing..
 
Brewed up 10 gallons of my house pale ale tonight. My favorite brew and it has been missing from the kegerator for a couple months. A two year old and house renos leave me strapped for free time these days. I never dry hop this one since I use a 3oz 170 degree steep that adds a ton of flavor and aroma but going to dry hop one batch with centennial and the other with Mosaic, the two hops that make up the base brew.
 
PianoMan said:
Does your fermenter fit in anything you can add water then a couple trays of ice every 12hrs or so? My metal trough spring a leak Wednesday, ended up using a mop bucket, the 7.9gal bucket barely fit in. Better then nothing..
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Yeah, I could rig up something...I just want something consistent, where I can set a thermostat and it stay there. The house is usually 70-72F, so fermentation could be upper 70's or more at times. I really want to make a nice, smooth, sweet stout that never overcarbscand doesn't taste sour, astringent, or metallic. I've tried to lower my primer more and more, left the fermentation longer to ensure complete attenuation, and cleaned, sanitized the crap out of everything from start to finish. So, now I'm down to yeast selection and fermentation temps. Sometimes I have trouble with mash temp and consistently maintaining it, but I've gotten better at it.
 
Getting recipes together for this weekend. It's a long weekend for me, but the wife is working on Monday, so I might get a few sessions in. Probably a double IPA, and either an APA or an ESB.
 
mattmmille said:
Yeah, I could rig up something...I just want something consistent, where I can set a thermostat and it stay there. The house is usually 70-72F, so fermentation could be upper 70's or more at times. I really want to make a nice, smooth, sweet stout that never overcarbscand doesn't taste sour, astringent, or metallic. I've tried to lower my primer more and more, left the fermentation longer to ensure complete attenuation, and cleaned, sanitized the crap out of everything from start to finish. So, now I'm down to yeast selection and fermentation temps. Sometimes I have trouble with mash temp and consistently maintaining it, but I've gotten better at it.
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My easy relatively cheep setup. Boil kettle, copper tubing in ice bath, SCT1000 temp controller turns on/off Home Depot aquarium pump to recirculate chilled water around the bucket. Definitely a change in flavor after doing this. Usually control water temp around 60-62f.

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PianoMan said:
My easy relatively cheep setup. Boil kettle, copper tubing in ice bath, SCT1000 temp controller turns on/off Home Depot aquarium pump to recirculate chilled water around the bucket. Definitely a change in flavor after doing this. Usually control water temp around 60-62f.
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That's an interesting set-up...hmmm. I've been doing 5 gal batches, but SWMBO wouldn't complain about smaller batches. I have the pot, I have a stainless wort chiller coil, I could use just about anything for the chiller ice-water bath. So,I would need a pump, some tubing, and I think Hello has a controller I can buy very reasonably. Not sure about a housing for the controller, but that wouldn't be a big deal either way. I really want to get a good batch of this stout recipe. But if it turns out really well, I'll wish I had done a full batch! Decisions. We have a bathroom nobody uses and I could use the tub, ice bottles, t-shirt & fan, .... There are times that I miss my 2500 sq. ft. house with the garage and big deck. *sigh*
 
Ended up brewing a Munich Helles on Saturday because the brewstore had the Imperial 200B pitches, so I didnt have to make a starter. Now this coming weekend I really want to start a Flanders Red, but no place local carries Roesalare. Don't feel like spending $8 shipping on a $7 pack of yeast either. Decisions.
 
Pantherjon said:
How did it go? I brewed my shot in the dark kit last weekend..I am calling mine Magical Mystery Brew, and I have a thread documenting it here..I think I am going to brew up the other 'mystery' kit I got Wild Card Ale...
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Hey! Glad to see I am not the only one who brewed it up!

I liked it, and I think it is going to be a Blonde, it's pretty light in color and has just a bit of a bite, but I will know more in 4-6 weeks when it's done though.

I'm sticking with the Shot In The Dark name just because I find it amusing.

label%202_zps2wstfuna.jpg
 
CJ-3 said:
Hey! Glad to see I am not the only one who brewed it up!

I liked it, and I think it is going to be a Blonde, it's pretty light in color and has just a bit of a bite, but I will know more in 4-6 weeks when it's done though.

I'm sticking with the Shot In The Dark name just because I find it amusing.

label%202_zps2wstfuna.jpg
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Very cool! Nice logo! Mine turned out pretty dark, even with the light DME..It was the grain bill on mine that did it...Going to rack it to secondary not this coming weekend but next weekend(20th-21st)...Going to go through the ingredients on the Wild Card Ale to see if I can discern beforehand what it will shape up to be..
 
Pantherjon said:
Very cool! Nice logo! Mine turned out pretty dark, even with the light DME..It was the grain bill on mine that did it...Going to rack it to secondary not this coming weekend but next weekend(20th-21st)...Going to go through the ingredients on the Wild Card Ale to see if I can discern beforehand what it will shape up to be..
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Good ck with the Wild Card, it's one I want to try but right now it's too cold to me to brew outside. I may have to get that one for the spring or summer.

I have to admit I am really liking their kits, they are less expensive than anything I can get locally, and no one in my area sells all grain kits, or even grains in less than one pound packages. I think they may have made me a customer for life.

If you get a chance to, let me know how the Wild Card works out for you, I am going to follow your previous thread on the Shot In The Dark as well.
 
Yesterday I started and completed brewing for a Belle Saison rye. I used ~9 lbs 6-row malt, ~2.5 lbs honey malt, 2 lbs rye 2.5 gal strike and ~2 gal sparge water. Midboil was 1 oz Australian galaxy for 50 min and end was 1 oz of Moteuka and 1 oz of styrian goldings for 35 min. I upped the OG by adding 1 lb briess DME, 3/4 c. of sucranat, and 1 c. white sugar which gave me a ~1.077 and I added 1/2 gal water to bring to 5 gal volume to finish my wort OG @ 1.071. Maybe this should give me something like 7-9.3% ABV at time of bottling, I dunno. Lallemand Belle Saison yeast was used and rehydrated prior to pitching. Irish moss used 15 min before end of boil.

I have no idea if this recipe will be good or not; I just made it up since it is very hard to get any good saison recipes using rye.
 
Well, I was planning on brewing a Munich Helles this weekend, but when I received the ingredients in the mail from my preferred supplier, I noticed that the yeast (Wyeast Munich Lager 2308) was packaged on August 27, 2015. According to a couple of different calculators, it has a viability of somewhere between 10 - 25%. Nevertheless, I made a 5L starter last night and put it on the stir plate. This morning, not many signs of life. If it's showing activity (in the form of CO2 bubbles) by the time I get home today, I'll let it finish out, then crash it and feed it another 5L. Otherwise, I'll have to come up with another plan.

Also, the high here forecast for Saturday is -6° F, so postponing the brew day isn't necessarily a bad thing.
 
kombat said:
Well, I was planning on brewing a Munich Helles this weekend...

Also, the high here forecast for Saturday is -6° F, so postponing the brew day isn't necessarily a bad thing.
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We were also planning a Munich Helles on Saturday but our high is supposed to be in the single digits. We've postponed. It's difficult and painful to brew when it's that cold. Just rinsing out the mash tun is a challenge.
 
Think I'm going to do an IPA this weekend. I have some Chico slurry still. Might try it with ESB strain instead though. Probably go Columbus/Centennial. Maybe zest some greatfruit or something too.
 
Got my plans straight. Doing another batch of my double IPA, same grain bill but different yeast, on Sat morning, then doing something new, a sweet stout, on Monday. I may have a few friends over who are just getting into brewing to help them through the first batch as well. Group brew day!
 
I have the makings for a Mosaic IPA. It is going to be too cold here in NYC to go out, so a brew day it's going to be.
 
It's been over a month since I've brewed. I just bottled my last non-sour beer that was in a fermenter so I have nothing in the short-term pipeline at this point. I feel so empty inside.

I should FINALLY be able to brew on Monday though. Planning on a Red Rye IPA w/ Nelson and Columbus.
 
Just chilling a Black IPA. Its half of a clone kit of a local pale I wasn't that happy with the first time so I've added a big flameout cascade addition and some carafa III. Wrangling the kids into bed during the mash so I completely forgot the carafa until I was draining the bag (I put the carafa in for only the last 15 minutes). Back in the pot it all went.
 
kombat said:
Well, I was planning on brewing a Munich Helles this weekend, but when I received the ingredients in the mail from my preferred supplier, I noticed that the yeast (Wyeast Munich Lager 2308) was packaged on August 27, 2015. According to a couple of different calculators, it has a viability of somewhere between 10 - 25%. Nevertheless, I made a 5L starter last night and put it on the stir plate. This morning, not many signs of life. If it's showing activity (in the form of CO2 bubbles) by the time I get home today, I'll let it finish out, then crash it and feed it another 5L. Otherwise, I'll have to come up with another plan.
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Well, crap.

I came home last night, and after 2 days on the stir plate, there was no significant activity in the starter. To be sure, I took a gravity sample: 1.041. So the yeast is dead. I turned off the stir plate and left the flask to be dumped and cleaned when I had a little more time.

I checked it this morning and it's fizzing like it's carbonated. This is *without* the stir plate being on. So it's definitely fermenting. My question is, is this going to be healthy yeast, or will they have been stressed from pitching so few viable cells into such a big (5L) starter? I'll leave them alone to finish, then taste a sample of the starter wort, I guess.

Still not sure if I should use this yeast or not.
 
kombat said:
Well, crap.

I came home last night, and after 2 days on the stir plate, there was no significant activity in the starter. To be sure, I took a gravity sample: 1.041. So the yeast is dead. I turned off the stir plate and left the flask to be dumped and cleaned when I had a little more time.

I checked it this morning and it's fizzing like it's carbonated. This is *without* the stir plate being on. So it's definitely fermenting. My question is, is this going to be healthy yeast, or will they have been stressed from pitching so few viable cells into such a big (5L) starter? I'll leave them alone to finish, then taste a sample of the starter wort, I guess.

Still not sure if I should use this yeast or not.
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I'd smell it and taste it, if nothing really sticks out it might be fine, but I might cold crash it and step it again prior to pitching.

What size batches are you brewing that you're doing 5L starters?
 
Recently sampled a porter that was brewed with a hefty amount of brown malt, and it was lovely. Toast for days. Then a nice blend of coffee/nutty/toffee flavors once the toast wore off. Now I want to brew something tomorrow with it. I have some ESB yeast on hand, thinking I can make a nut brown or brown porter with it. Any recipe suggesstions? Otherwise I'll probably just wing something, 1.050 range, 10-20% brown malt, 2row (should use MO, but I have 2row on hand...), 5%ish pale chocolate, maybe a little mild crystal, haven't decided. Fuggles or EKG or what not to the low 20s.
 
This weekend, my first big beer. And they say these big girls go crazy when you pitch a little yeast in them, hence the name.

Recipe: Woman Goin' Crazy on Caroline Street

Style: Imperial Stout

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.47 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.75 gal
Estimated OG: 1.112 SG
Estimated Color: 63.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 83.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 79.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
15 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
2 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1 lbs 8.0 oz Roasted Barley (500.0 SRM)
1 lbs Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
1 lbs Molasses (80.0 SRM)
4.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
1.0 pkg Belgian Abbey II (Wyeast Labs #1762)
 

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