What I did for beer today

I built a wire cage so my Erlenmeyer flask can't fall off the stir plate. My soldering won't win any style awards, but should be effective.

Visited 3 Stars Brewery for a tasting and to drop off a competition entry, picked up some craft brews, and brewed an oat+rye saison.


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finsfan said:

Stepped up the dregs from a heady topper! Hopefully I wil have usable conan in a few days

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Send me some!!

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I cleared out and rearranged the brew closet - now important stuff is much more accessible, and old unneeded stuff has either been tossed or put aside for a buddy who has been thinking about joining our little obsession here.

tripplehazzard said:

Send me some!!

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I certainly can! I will make a massive starter now :rockin:

Bottled 4 gallons of Vienna lager and 4 gallons of pumpkin Dort.

I double checked that all my bottles were clean before using them. It was the first time I thought of bottling being a PITA. Kegging might be in my future. But it will have to wait until after I get the money together to build a HERMS.

finsfan said:

I certainly can! I will make a massive starter now :rockin:

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That would be the bees knees! ! I need to brew an ipa soon. And with my stir plate up and running now it would be perfect. Im about to propagate some brett from a prarie puncheon. Not sure what brett strain it is tho. Hard to find info. But I could send you some o that :fro:

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tripplehazzard said:

That would be the bees knees! ! I need to brew an ipa soon. And with my stir plate up and running now it would be perfect. Im about to propagate some brett from a prarie puncheon. Not sure what brett strain it is tho. Hard to find info. But I could send you some o that :fro:

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Sounds like a deal! I will try to make it close to 50 billion in an old white labs vial. Ill be stepping it up today and will see how viable it is. Hopefully I got enough from the can

Norwaybrewer said:

I owe my girlfriend 100$, but after reading a few pages i went right to an online store and ordered me some HB gear...

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Can't tell if you're proud of yourself or not.

I pitched yeast in my 2nd bucket. I screwed up yesterday by pitching yeast to a beer that already had yeast.

Warmed it up from the frigid cold... In my belly.

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Bottling my Smokey the Beer brown ale today. Incidentally, I was recently on the Midwest site and noticed it's no longer called "Smokey the Beer". It's now "Brushfire". Guess the Forest Service might've had something to say about the Smokey name. As a FS employee, I can tell you they are very protective of it.


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Norwaybrewer said:

I owe my girlfriend 100$, but after reading a few pages i went right to an online store and ordered me some HB gear...

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If you have to pay her, I don't think she qualifies as a girlfriend

Brewed the CYBI Arrogant Bastard clone #2 recipe. Just mashed in my second batch, a Spruce Brown Ale.

Checked the gravity on my Belgian Quad after 10 days in primary...hit 1.013 spot on. Transferred to secondary and dropped temperature to 51*. Ask me how it tastes in about 16 weeks.

Loaded my 61-minute IPA bottles in the cellarator for cold crashing. I will keep the temp at 38* for three days, then bring up to cellar temperature.

Checked my Amber after 1.5 weeks in bottles. Needs more time before cold crashing.

Bought four American Ale glasses and 4 tulip glasses. These will be stored in the shelves of the cellarator so as to not create too much artificial head from a glass that's too warm.

Moved my newly de-labled and dried bottles out of the bathroom and to my brew shed.

For it not to be a brew day, I still did a helluva lot for beer.

Dumped the last gallon of a black IPA I've been not so happily working on for several months....need the keg for a far more promising IPA. I cleaned with pbw, rinsed a ton and now have some starsan in there. Looking to keg 3.5 gallons of it and bottle 1.5 gal tomorrow to give away. If it wasn't for bottling to give away it would be kegged and in the fridge.

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Adjusted the temperature controller to 30 in the lager chamber. Grabbed some notes to go over while I get ready to brew a kolsch and a witbier today. Have a brew fest to prepare for!

I scored a pretty sweet shelf for cheap that fit nicely in this space, except that I didn't account for the floccin' step! I had to jimmy rig it because it doesn't fit anywhere else in my garage (height wise) and then bolt it to a couple studs to hopefully prevent tipping.

It filled up fast for sure but I feel better knowing everything has a place. If I get a single tier brew stand, this shelf won't go to waste anyway.


Also bought more CO2 as the other tank leaked and was empty and hoping I fixed the issues.

Hello said:

I scored a pretty sweet shelf for cheap that fit nicely in this space, except that I didn't account for the floccin' step! I had to jimmy rig it because it doesn't fit anywhere else in my garage (height wise) and then bolt it to a couple studs to hopefully prevent tipping.

It filled up fast for sure but I feel better knowing everything has a place. If I get a single tier brew stand, this shelf won't go to waste anyway.


Also bought more CO2 as the other tank leaked and was empty and hoping I fixed the issues.
View attachment 181888

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Shelves look nice!
Use a spray bottle of starsan on all of your connections to make sure you don't still have a leak! I know from experience on wasting co2

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Dropped 1.5 oz each of Galena and Centennial into my American Red Ale and started raising the temp toward 70F for dry hopping. I'll keg it this weekend probably.

SupervisingChildren said:

Shelves look nice!
Use a spray bottle of starsan on all of your connections to make sure you don't still have a leak! I know from experience on wasting co2

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I have. I did before but I must have missed it. So annoying.

Installed a sight glass on my brew kettle:

I brewed up my 3rd batch, an extract barleywine.


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Hello said:

I scored a pretty sweet shelf for cheap that fit nicely in this space, except that I didn't account for the floccin' step! I had to jimmy rig it because it doesn't fit anywhere else in my garage (height wise) and then bolt it to a couple studs to hopefully prevent tipping.

It filled up fast for sure but I feel better knowing everything has a place. If I get a single tier brew stand, this shelf won't go to waste anyway.


Also bought more CO2 as the other tank leaked and was empty and hoping I fixed the issues.
View attachment 181888

Click to expand...

It seems that pretty much everyone loses their first bottle of CO2. Or one of their first ones. I highly reccomend using keg lube on your O-rings on your refurbed kegs for a little piece of mind. I have noticed that my original 3 kegs seem to like to be difficult to seal even with new lid O-rings. I really need to remember where that McMaster Carr link for the thicker soft replacement ones.

Went to Tallgrass Brewing Company this morning to pick up a bag of 2-row, for only $40. Damn it smelled good in there! I ended up getting a pub style glass while I was there as well. The lady who was helping me told me about a local HB club that the head brewer was in and suggested that I join. Its kind of intimidating to think I could be in a HB club with a professional brewer, but I'm highly considering it. PLus they have a great name, Cluster Fuggle. Good way to start the day though

Im brewing the viking horn honey ale i got last week and watching Doctor Who The Water of Mars.

DrunkleJon said:

It seems that pretty much everyone loses their first bottle of CO2. Or one of their first ones. I highly reccomend using keg lube on your O-rings on your refurbed kegs for a little piece of mind. I have noticed that my original 3 kegs seem to like to be difficult to seal even with new lid O-rings. I really need to remember where that McMaster Carr link for the thicker soft replacement ones.

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Thank you. I did lube up first time after cleaning. I tried very hard to pay attention to everything I've read here, problems or not. What I had missed and the result of the leak was one little piece on the gas line that I didn't tighten. It was the second keg and I know I told myself I would tighten everything once it was chilled. I clearly forgot.

So far, I think I'm okay. I just hooked up the liquid lines this morning, CO2 is still registering as though it has gas. Nothing bubbles...

Reading this thread has got me going. So much brewing to be done!

I've been in limbo between old house and new house for months now. Have finally moved to the new one, and now building out the new electric basement brewery (finally! - pics to come in sep thread).

So, I've been making progress, but not actually brewing which is getting on my nerves.

Today I sent out specs for the Condensate Hood to two custom hood shops - and THAT is what I did for beer today

Excited but still lot's to do before I can put a new batch into the fermenter. Guess I could start dreaming about what the first batch will be in the new brewery... I've been planning for a Burton Baton clone, but I don't want to take on anything too outlandish until I get used to the new setup. Maybe I'll revisit the Red's RyePA clone that I ran out of in December... that was delicious and appreciated by all. I could also revisit the Centennial Blonde. That was well received also, and it's a real quick 'n easy brew.

Thoughts?

Bought my ticket to this Friday's session of the NYC Craft Beer Festival, registered as a supporting member here, and signed up for the Big Giveaway!

I hiked through single digit Chicago wind chill to slip into the LHBS just as it was closing to buy yeast for Saturday. While there, I copied somebody's idea to get a plastic racking cane and small drilled stopper to make a dip tube for the bottling bucket.

I also got my cheap step bit from Amazon, so I can drill the drain port on my turkey fryer big enough to install a ball valve.

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Attended my first local HB club meeting and joined on the spot. Like any diverse group of people, there were folks from all levels of experience. I was a little intimidated by the thought of presenting two of my beers, a robust porter and an American IPA, but after trying the other HB, mine were more refined and I immediately felt like I could make contributions to the group. When they got to the technical discussion about calculating points in the kettle, I was relieved that I already knew this technique and I began to be relax and fit into the group.

And that's what I did for beer today.

Harry

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Just checked in on my american wheat. It is happily bubbling away in the fermentation chamber though the krausen is starting to fall and it is slowing... right on time. Not much time to do brew-stuff during the week.

Not for beer directly but for the brewing community...

Picked up dinner last night and noticed a nice shiny keg sitting quietly next to the dumpster adjacent to the restaurant. Part of me thought "it's next to the dumpster, give it a good home!" but reasoning kicked in and I asked the manager about the keg next to the dumpster. Turns out, it was waiting on the distributor for an exchange, someone put it there and I guess he didn't even know. I told him that he may not want to leave it there as someone may grab it. He laughed, thank me and walked to the back as I walked out. By the time I drove out, it was already taken inside.

The best part, my 5 yr old son was with me and it was an opportunity to explain to him that taking that would be stealing.

Picked up some grain and yeast to brew a zombie dust clone. Brewing it now

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Bought a 10 gallon cooler, a 2L flask and a 15 gallon Blichmann Boilermaker with ball valve and thermometer. Hoping it all arrives soon so I can start brewing all grain!

Cleaned up the blowoff mess in my closet fermenter

Got a starter going of WLP029 Kolsch from a harvested mason jar. Mayne brew tomorrow.

Unpacked these from my wife's aunts hall back from Mass. Lots of good stuff 4 we can get around here but there still good so not complaining at all, but it was 60 bucks and I said that's like 4 batches of home brew I could of brewed 8cases instead of 1, but my wife loves to do this for me and surprise me so can't complain

Bought my first 50 lb. bag of base malt. Got some Briess 2-row. Also picked up a few pounds of crystal malts to round out some simple pale ales. Can't wait to get brewing. I'm guessing I'll get about 5 batches out of this bag of grain.

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Bottled a California Common and drank a Pale Ale in the process.

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Brewed my "Whiskey Oaked Chocolate Porter".