So who's taking advantage of the rain and brewing this weekend?

If you can't ride the hog, might as well brew eh? Doing BM's Continental Blonde for an easy drinker this weekend. I will be trying out the new HERMS setup I finished last night for the first time. No PID controllers or anything fancy, just a way to circulate mash and maintain temps in the cooler better. Happy brewing!

We might be making a blackberry wheat this weekend. If it turns out to be clear, we will be cutting blackberry canes instead.

Do you use fresh ones? I have some bushes here that produce some great berries (July) and I plan to use them this year for a blackberry wheat. How do you prepare them? Crushed, par boiled? Secondary.... Never done a fresh berry brew so I haven't looked it up yet.

I freeze them to rupture the cell walls, then thaw and mash them up. I use a big mesh bag to hold them.

I've also got a 25 lb blackberry wine in the cabinet. Three years old and getting good.

david_42 said:

I freeze them to rupture the cell walls, then thaw and mash them up. I use a big mesh bag to hold them.

I've also got a 25 lb blackberry wine in the cabinet. Three years old and getting good.

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placing them in secondary?

Trying out the new grain mill, trying hop bursting for the first time on a sessionable IPA, and trying a 10g batch for the first time. Lots o' firsts.

What are ya brewing up Snafu?

I have my first decoction brew tonight, a SMaSH Munich and Spalt dunkel. Then tomorrow is a schwarzbier. Both are getting split to use different yeasts, Wyeast Kolsch and Wyeast Bohemian Lager. Also building a hop trellis and a bucket mount for my corona mill!

Doing BM's Centennial Blonde for a "easy drinker". Some days you just need fizzy/yellow. So you doing a low abv IPA? I like the sound of that.

urbanmyth said:

I have my first decoction brew tonight, a SMaSH Munich and Spalt dunkel. Then tomorrow is a schwarzbier. Both are getting split to use different yeasts, Wyeast Kolsch and Wyeast Bohemian Lager. Also building a hop trellis and a bucket mount for my corona mill!

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Good grief, thats a busy couple of days!

urbanmyth said:

I have my first decoction brew tonight, a SMaSH Munich and Spalt dunkel. Then tomorrow is a schwarzbier. Both are getting split to use different yeasts, Wyeast Kolsch and Wyeast Bohemian Lager. Also building a hop trellis and a bucket mount for my corona mill!

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There might not be enough weekend for that!

Snafu said:

Doing BM's Centennial Blonde for a "easy drinker". Some days you just need fizzy/yellow. So you doing a low abv IPA? I like the sound of that.

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Looking at 5.6% (that's if I hit the projected 72% efficiency mark). I want something that's not gonna skunk me after 1-2 beers, but with a punch you in the face and bring you back for another round of hop beating flavor. Going to try a Magnum for 60/30 min additions, and cascade/ahtanum for 20/15/10/5/0 additions and see what happens.

Snafu said:

Doing BM's Centennial Blonde for a "easy drinker". Some days you just need fizzy/yellow. So you doing a low abv IPA? I like the sound of that.

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How is BM's Blonde? It looks like it has nothing but rave reviews. I've got an ass tun of cascade in my freezer.

I'm not sure, its my first go at this one. SHMBO asked for a easy drinker, so everything else I've tried from BM has been great so this looked good, plus with the Centennial and Cascade, it should have good nose and flavor to make me happy as well. I might come in a little stronger than his 4% as my eff has risen quite abit with the fly sparge. We'll see.

D_Ranged_Eskimo said:

How is BM's Blonde? It looks like it has nothing but rave reviews. I've got an ass tun of cascade in my freezer.

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It is great, just enough flavor to keep you coming back for more. I really need to make it again.

D_Ranged_Eskimo said:

Trying out the new grain mill, trying hop bursting for the first time on a sessionable IPA, and trying a 10g batch for the first time. Lots o' firsts.

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Screw the scientific method, right?

brettwasbtd said:

Screw the scientific method, right?

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What's a hypothesis?

Baby steps are for people who want to actually learn something.

I'm here to stumble upon a nightmare or a miracle!

D_Ranged_Eskimo said:

There might not be enough weekend for that!

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I have had help

My brother and his girlfriend, along with my girlfriend are in town. The decoction went a little awry, but beer will be the outcome!

The schwarz went off without a hitch this evening. Ended up with a gallon extra in post boil wort, but 80% efficiency made up for it! Still hit within .002 of my intended gravity!

That was the smoothest brew day I've had, although I broke my hydrometer before the start so couldn't tell what my efficiency or OG were, but nailed my mash temps on the dot! Got my new mash tun squared away, no more getting a stuck sparge!

Damn does it feel good when everything goes the right way!

^ this! I had one of the smoothest/easiest brew days ever. The HERMS made mash a breeze and the mash out only took about 10 mins to raise and stabilize the temps, then the sparge went awesome. Computer went on the fritz so i'm not sure where my #'s came in until I get to the office this morning and run em. I did however, break a few o-rings on my quick disconnects, so i'll have to get those replaced. Must.....use........o-ring........lube.......lol.

What a brew day! Brewed up 10 g's of a sessionable IPA (guess it could be an overly hopped Pale Ale) and split the batches using a washed bit of 1056 and a 1L starter of 1318. Woke up this morning to find the 1318 chugging away, and the 1056 slowly starting to show signs of life. I'm curious to see the differences in yeast, espcially the London Ale III as malty pale ales are a favorite.

Does the London Ale III look like egg drop soup like the English ale's? First time I used English ale it kind of freaked me out the way it looked.

Here's where I ended up;

Estimated Pre-Boil gravity .033 I ended up at .031
Estimated OG was .047 I ended up at .043
I was shooting for 80% efficiency, ended up at 77%
ABV will still end up at 4% just like it called for.

Damn fine day

I can't see if it looks like egg drop yet, but the London Ale III is going off like crazy! Glad I put a blow off on there. It's got that frothy bubbling krausen right now. I can't even see the top of the wort due to all of the rising krausen, and from what has been described on here, it's a true top cropper and fermentation goes off the wall. So far, it's lving up to its specs.

The 1056 hasn't taken off yet. Guess I should have made a starter for that rewashed yeast (1st rewash). It's barely a month old and was used for a 6% IPA, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad to just pitch and go.

I've only washed a few yeasts and reused them, they all took a little longer to start ~20-30 hrs. I think I just didn't have enough cells in each vial after washing. BUT they all worked eventually.

EDIT: FWIW, I always make a starter, even when using a dry yeast. I think if I try washing any yeast this summer I may try to step it up at least once to boost cell counts and see if that makes any difference.

Good to hear! The 2L flask was being used to a make a starter for the 1318, and I was too lazy to grab a growler and make a starter for the 1056 rewashed yeast.

This should be interesting due to the hop schedule. This one was done with the hop bursting method and went as follows.

60 - 1 oz Magnum
30 - 1 oz Magnum
20 - 1/2 oz each of Cascade and Ahtanum
15 - 1/2 oz each of Cascade and Ahtanum
10 - 1/2 oz each of Cascade and Ahtanum
5 - 1/2 oz each of Cascade and Ahtanum
0 - 10 minute steep with 1 oz cascade