What I did for beer today

BrewMan13 said:

Drank copious amounts of my gruit-inspired herbal stout...normally wouldn't post something like that, but was valiantly trying to kick this keg before tomorrow when we have family over and wanted to get something a bit more palatable on tap other than a dark, thick, high abv stout brewed with a multitude of herbs. So, finally - mission accomplished! I also want to properly dig into my bock tomorrow...

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What herbs did you use, if I may ask?

Raised the temperature on my fermenter by 1 degree

I've had pours that were more poops than beer...only three dumpers this year out of 15+ batches though!

You know it's true
Everything I do
I do it for brew
Ooohh
I do it for brew.

shetc said:

Raised the temperature on my fermenter by 1 degree

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I did it again today!

Chilled a 6 pack of HB Belgian Tripel, for drinking with Xmas dinner. Patiently left at 65F for the last 6 months.

JAReeves said:

What herbs did you use, if I may ask?

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No problem: mugwort, chicory, licorice root, lemon grass, orange peel, chamomile, sarsparilla root, vanilla and molasses. Evolved for a recipe I found online many years ago when I was fixated on gruits.

Christmas eve I cleaned the keg and tap line that just kicked, put the cream ale on, and then racked my altbier to a keg to finish lagering. Gravity sample ok but not great IMO, hopefully lagering helps round it out.

Running a step starter of fruit puree and primary beer with champagne yeast for my saison secondary.

Schlenkerla said:

Made a starter from bottle dregs of a Schneider & Sohn Original Hefe Weizen - Tap7.View attachment 603357

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I love tap6 Aventinus. It was the first "real" beer I ever had when I went to Germany as a 18 year old soldier 1983. Up till then, I thought Moose Head was big time classy lol

catdaddy66 said:

Made a tincture of vodka (actually, 2) with additives for my smoked porter. About 10 peppers (cayenne and habanero) of about 4 Oz's, then another with French oak chips (2ozs). This will be added in 7 days and sit in the primary another 7 days.

Smoked, oaked and peppered... Busy!

Also made a starter of wlp001 for my Christmas beer, an American Barleywine. It will be brewed tomorrow afternoon.

Happy holidays!

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Sweet Jesus..sounds like you could use that as emergency thaw out juice in the Arctic!!

Jonakr said:

Did an inaugural run of my Beer gun. Got the last 11 bottles of Cucumber Mint Lime cider bottled for gifts.

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Cucumber mint lime...ok..if you're into that☺...

I opened presents[emoji16] got a 3 gallon ball lock, another intertap faucet with flow control, and a tilt hydrometer. Cant wait to try out the tilt. Going to break it in with a brut IPA next week. Brewing 8 gallons and putting 3 of it in my new keg with peaches.

shetc said:

Chilled a 6 pack of HB Belgian Tripel, for drinking with Xmas dinner. Patiently left at 65F for the last 6 months.View attachment 604031

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Well, that didn't last long

Got eight homebrew books for Christmas.

Shared three of my home brews (porter, chili ale, and wild apple-passion fruit cider) with family.

It’s a Merry Christmas.

seatazzz said:

I've had pours that were more poops than beer...only three dumpers this year out of 15+ batches though!

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The couple of almost-dumpers I had, I added a slice of lemon to to kill some of the off flavors.

As my sister said when I brewed the Centennial Blonde (oxidized), “Congratulations! You made Corona!”

I'm trapped in a house full of teatotalers.
Not a beer or a drop of booze in sight.
If I can find the vanilla extract, I swear I'm going to down it.

Jayjay1976 said:

I'm trapped in a house full of teatotalers.
Not a beer or a drop of booze in sight.
If I can find the vanilla extract, I swear I'm going to down it.

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WTF?!

shetc said:

WTF?!

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It's like a funeral parlor, but with Christmas lights and N/A eggnog...

Edit: FML

i remember as a kid, my dad making his special egg nog of bourbon and ice cubes

Jayjay1976 said:

It's like a funeral parlor, but with Christmas lights and N/A eggnog...

Edit: FML

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Dang, every funeral I go to is like Finnegan’s Wake.

Minus the resurrection...

Battled the flu and dug up the corona mill from the corner of the garage, filled the hopper and milled about 4-4.2kg of Viking pale ale (sry neebr...) for a brew brew session the coming weekend. Now I gotta gather up the strength to do the dishes, some been sitting for longer than I care to admit...

Doing my first AG batch on the patio with my new-to-me equipment.

Ok, is it normal to get bees flying into your wort when brewing outdoors?

Actually, yesterday I got a Keg King Mark II high temp magnetic drive brew pump for Xmas, and a Stella Artois 750ml gift bottle with glasses (thanks babe!) and today used part of my Amazon gift card to order a new 304 SS brew kettle Hop Spider, and (2) 1/2x1/2 npt hose Barb's for pump connectors, got a 36 oz stainless Michigan Wolverines beer mug. Checked temp on my Orange spice Amber ale in Cool Brewing bag. A good 2 days! Thanks babe!!!

Forgot to add Merry Christmas to all my fellow home Brewers! CHEERS!!

Dry hopped my rye apa with 4 oz of cascade. Swapped in my new intertap faucet, so now they match. Cleaned a couple kegs. And of course, drank beer.

I liberated 5 gallons of Cream Ale from their fermenter and into their own cozy little bottles.

seanjwalker1 said:

Actually, yesterday I got a Keg King Mark II high temp magnetic drive brew pump for Xmas, and a Stella Artois 750ml gift bottle with glasses (thanks babe!) and today used part of my Amazon gift card to order a new 304 SS brew kettle Hop Spider, and (2) 1/2x1/2 npt hose Barb's for pump connectors, got a 36 oz stainless Michigan Wolverines beer mug. Checked temp on my Orange spice Amber ale in Cool Brewing bag. A good 2 days! Thanks babe!!!

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Go Blue

JAReeves said:

View attachment 604242 View attachment 604243 Doing my first AG batch on the patio with my new-to-me equipment.

Ok, is it normal to get bees flying into your wort when brewing outdoors?

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Yes.

Not today but last night I dry hopped my Voss Kveik test batch. From 1.054 to 1.009 in just about 3 days. May have been sooner based on when the temperature started falling off but I didn't check until last night.

Checked gravity on my barley wine, from 1.116 to 1.060, 11/3-12/27.

Added a green package of red star champagne yeast.

Here’s to a finished fermentation by new year’s.

I installed the SteamSlayer and tested it. Worked great!

Made a starter for my brew day this weekend. At the last minute I realized that my light DME had hardened into a brick, so I used the only other bag I had on hand - Sparkling Amber. We'll see how that turns out.

Yesterday moved the lager that's been d-resting (and removing acetaldehyde) from the warm house to the cold fridge to start crashing; dry hopped it with Mosaic & Amarillo on Monday so should be ready to keg later today. Good thing too because all I've got right now on tap is my Holiday ale, and truth be told I'm getting a wee bit tired of it. Also have been playing around with my new Bayite temperature controller, getting ready to set it up.

Novacor said:

Made a starter for my brew day this weekend. At the last minute I realized that my light DME had hardened into a brick, so I used the only other bag I had on hand - Sparkling Amber. We'll see how that turns out.

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That rock will dissolve.

My thoughts about a hard brick of DME too...just let hit dissolve in boiling water, don't waste it

i posted on HBT about "Plain Form" hydrometers...for all the people that just care about Specific Gravity, only to be shown plato, or potential alcohol!

(and yes...that was always a big annoyance to me!)

edit: i also put my malt in the oven to kiln at 150f....Brew day tomorrow!

Drinking all kinds of commercial craft beers. Aka. “Research”, R&D dept. (belly) keeps expanding. [emoji41]

6Tap said:

Drinking all kinds of commercial craft beers. Aka. “Research”, R&D dept. (belly) keeps expanding. [emoji41]

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they say R&D is the most expensive part of drug discovery!

seanjwalker1 said:

My thoughts about a hard brick of DME too...just let hit dissolve in boiling water, don't waste it

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That didn't even occur to me since I usually mix and boil my starter right in the flask. I'll try dissolving it in a separate pot next time.