What I did for beer today

I spent most of the week trying out beer in Vietnam during a business trip. The local beer is all uninspiring light lager in the US mode. Tried a couple of microbrews that were better but nothing notable.

That said, bigger places offer some nice European beers Steiger (Slovakia), Budvar (Czech), Dinkelacker (Ger), etc. Some of it on tap like this Steiger 3 liter serving container with a cooling tube in the middle filled with ice. I had never even heard of Steiger before, but it was quite nice. I hadn't had the Budvar dark before, and it was fine but my palate prefers Urquel.

Vietnamese food/beer hall with the Steiger serving container:

Ordered some more Nottingham yeast on Amazon today; the batch I've been using for 4 generations needs to be buried at sea. I had another fresh packet but donated it to a friend for his latest batch. Also sitting here after a long workday sipping on my NB blonde that is, to me, truly spectacular. Strongly tempted to brew another batch of it on Sunday, but ferment fridge is taken up with WF lager that is lagering at 45 for a week, so can't. Darn it.

Pitched yeast after a viability check on a kviek strain (it had been shipped and became rather warm) into a steinbrew wort share.

Yesterday hit up the LHBS for the parts to get my CO2 bottle out of the keezer. Installed a 4-way splitter inside and now can push CO2 into 4 kegs at once.

Now I need to brew some more beer to have on tap. That is a good problem to have, I believe.

Last night I did a really fast DME with soaking grains and Sorachi Ace hops. Kind of a throwaway batch. Let it cool overnight and then split batch into 2 fermenters that hopefully have been cleaned of the pichia apotheca yeast. Dang, that stuff is difficult to get rid off.

Pitched one with Opshaug Kviek strain and one with Windsor. About 2 gallons each. Will know soon enough if pichia remains, and if it does these fermenters are going in the trash.

Also, not sure what the Sorachi Ace tastes like in homebrew. I've drunk far more than my fair share of Sapporo when living in Japan, so I've had Sorachi Ace before. That said, Japanese lagers are not hop forward, so no real impression on the Sorachi Ace.

I'm gearing up when it gets a bit colder to
a) make a second batch of sake, and
b) do the moto and moromi stages, then pitch a nice beer wort hopped with Sorachi and see what comes out.

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Saturday I judged in my first every competition - interesting experience. None of the ones I had were great, though 1 medalled. More excited for getting a gold for my first ever Belgian strong dark ale with a 39.
Moving soon, so kegged a couple of the aging beers yesterday for easier transport.

Kegged my celebration clone. I used whole cone hops and mine is a good bit higher in ibus because I overdid the ratio lol, but taste almost identical!

Last chance to get a brew in before Thanksgiving to share with our guests this year. This one will be a pale ale using my home grown Shaddock and Old Mission hops. Oven-toasted 1 1/2# of the 2-row and wheat malts.

Also getting to drink the last brew, my red rye.

Finally installed 1/2" valves on my fermenters! Goodbye siphons!!!

Bottled my marzen AND my first attempt at mead! Got two cases of Octoberfest along with 4 quart bottles of a basic mead.

Now I have some Xmas gifts for my friends that drink.

I got my old, fat, bald, bushy-white-bearded self carded by a teenage checkout girl when I bought beer. [emoji23]

Robert65 said:

I got my old, fat, bald, bushy-white-bearded self carded by a teenage checkout girl when I bought beer. [emoji23]

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Which is worse? When you go to a place that carding is mandatory, and they bypass it?

aharri1 said:

Finally installed 1/2" valves on my fermenters! Goodbye siphons!!! View attachment 653155

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Best thing I’ve ever done!!

Last night moved the pale ale into the keg for dry hopping and spunding. Repackaged 1# of Mosaic pellets into 1oz bags. Bought the malt for a Winter Spice Ale and a Stout.

Ordered ingredients for my next several brews. Trying my hand at few lagers this winter, and also purchased some grains and hops that I haven't tasted, so a few small batch ales will be coming up as well. I'm excited for lagers and Keller or two.

Hopefully I'm set for another 3-4 months. Unless theres a good sale...

Brewed an American amber ale. Cooling as I type. It's a scaled up volume, all grain version of an extract brew from late last winter.

Ordered champagne bottles and corks/wire baskets for the next batch of tripel. It's gonna be kinda sparkly!

In less exciting brewing updates, I just smashed a hydrometer. First one! Wooo...

Immocles said:

In less exciting brewing updates, I just smashed a hydrometer. First one! Wooo...

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Hope you have a spare?

Immocles said:

In less exciting brewing updates, I just smashed a hydrometer. First one! Wooo...

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Add it to the count. It’s not ‘if’ but ‘when’.

Yeah, I bought a bunch of random items off a brewer here on HBT about six months ago. There was a hydrometer and test jar included. Bound to happen at some point!

i swapped my 20# co2 tank today, unfortunately, in my usual scrutiny to make sure i don't have a leak. I found out i should have asked for a new tank washer...

Just split off a gallon in my Ukeg of an Oatmeal Stout I call Roost Stout and the rest of the batch got some of @pshankstar home roasted beans tossed in for the next 24-36hrs to bottle my 3 Cups of Joe.

Replaced all of the o-rings on the four well-used kegs I received from another HBT member. Tomorrow, they get a good soaking and pressure testing.

Went shopping all day. First to Home Depot for wood for beer crates and buckets for grain storage, then to the LHBS for various yeasts and hops. Also picked up another dozen champagne bottles. Then grocery shopping for meat and a six-pack of Guinness extra, and 24 gallons of distilled water.
Actually have everything I need for the next brewday (Westmalle tripel clone), but I'm beat. Maybe tomorrow.

Brewed the spiced winter warmer, 8.2% estimated. Should be aged enough by Christmas.

Had enough wort left over to make a 1/2 G of winter spice saison, so what the heck, why not.

Cleaned out the new (used) kegs.

I kegged 6 gal each of three different beers. A Blonde Session, a Dark Mild, and a Whiskey Barrel Aged (6 months) Black IIPA.
In the process of cleaning all the fermentors and other equipment.
I also cleaned three kegs and relocated several to make room for the new kegs. Two beers are keg conditioning.
I currently have no room for more kegs yet I’m brewing tomorrow with my daughter.
At least there’s room in my ferm chamber!
I’m tired!

Brewed a Porter, sampled the 12 BOC Abbey Weizen,and built a ghetto quality 25 watt light fixture to serve as a heater in my antique Hotpoint ferm fridge.

Drank a few (kinda) pints while changing the oil in the passat this morning. Good thing it was only a few because had to make three trips to various stores for first the oil & filter, then another one when I couldn't find my 19mm impact socket, and yet ANOTHER store because my oil filter wrench flew the coop. Leaving me with no choice but to brew something tomorrow to make up for today. Car runs great though.

seatazzz said:

Drank a few (kinda) pints while changing the oil in the passat this morning. Good thing it was only a few because had to make three trips to various stores for first the oil & filter, then another one when I couldn't find my 19mm impact socket, and yet ANOTHER store because my oil filter wrench flew the coop. Leaving me with no choice but to brew something tomorrow to make up for today. Car runs great though.

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Sounds like my day.

seatazzz said:

Drank a few (kinda) pints while changing the oil in the passat this morning. Good thing it was only a few because had to make three trips to various stores for first the oil & filter, then another one when I couldn't find my 19mm impact socket, and yet ANOTHER store because my oil filter wrench flew the coop. Leaving me with no choice but to brew something tomorrow to make up for today. Car runs great though.

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You could have had the dealer do it for less (time & parts) and gotten a car wash in the same time and not wasted drinking time!

Assisted brewing a christmas cookie beer at work that resembles a belgian dark ale somewhat with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, lactose and molasses. They wanted it done by the 10th of December, so hornindal kveik it is! Lol

seatazzz said:

Drank a few (kinda) pints while changing the oil in the passat this morning. Good thing it was only a few because had to make three trips to various stores for first the oil & filter, then another one when I couldn't find my 19mm impact socket, and yet ANOTHER store because my oil filter wrench flew the coop. Leaving me with no choice but to brew something tomorrow to make up for today. Car runs great though.

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Now that you've finished the job, go back out to the garage in the morning, and that socket and filter wrench will be right where you were looking for them. Never fails. It's the tool gods' way of making us increase our collection.

Robert65 said:

Now that you've finished the job, go back out to the garage in the morning, and that socket and filter wrench will be right where you were looking for them. Never fails. It's the tool gods' way of making us increase our collection.

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Been there, done that, got the tee shirt! (and about 6 19mm sockets)

Dave Sarber said:

Been there, done that, got the tee shirt! (and about 6 19mm sockets)

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Still haven't found them...but did apparently find a magic propane tank that should have been empty, but had enough to get the strike going for this morning's brew. As for the sockets, I've got about 6 10mm sockets in my toolbox but can never find one when it's needed....and of COURSE everything is 10mm dammit.

govner1 said:

You could have had the dealer do it for less (time & parts) and gotten a car wash in the same time and not wasted drinking time!

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Where's the fun in that? Dealer charges $140 to do an oil change on this damn car anyway. That's $$ I can spend on brewing! And I love working on cars almost as much as I love brewing. Yes I'm weird.

Bottle primed spiced Dunkel wiezenbock

Mulched all the hop plants in preparation for the storm coming in for Thanksgiving.

Went to LHBS and bought a couple more floating dip tubes for two of my kegs (only two more to go!). Also, found out one of my new (used) kegs had some sort of tapered plastic gas-in post. Drilled that out and put in a standard SS gas in-post.

Brewed a tripel with a real long step mash, hit my numbers dead nuts. Chilling now with pizza and a beer.

While I was brewing the tripel, found a large, thick silicone washer (while looking for my WhirlFloc)! In between waiting times for the mash and boil, finally fixed the leak at the valve on my 20 gallon BK. If I'd done that a wee bit sooner, could have made a double batch today. Obie wellbie, I'm out of Saaz anyway. More coming in the mail, but with the Thanksgiving holiday, I'm not sure when.

EDIT: And, I found the WhirlFloc! Naturally, it was right next to the silicone washer

EDIT AGAIN: I cut a WhirlFloc tab in half, and found both halves today.