KiwiSander
Active Member
I am making my first ever ported this weekend, with winter coming I have had a hunkering for Porter lately...
Weird, so are we. Fifty gallons that we’re going to split between 10 members.Brewing a Czech Dark Saturday at my club's Big Brew day. It's for NHC finals, so going to have to fast ferment this one. Was so sure my NY Pils would be the one of two beers to advance at NHC, based on results from prior comps, I brewed that one over a month ago...so now I am stuck in rush mode for the Dark.
Have to brew that one again soon ... Man that was a delicious beer.Imma gonna try @Miraculix 's Hazy Cheapskate. Obtained the Sabro and just need some time Saturday and a bag of flour. Might not make it to @bracconiere style inexpensiveness, but we'll see what happens.
... except the kid's baseball schedule has thrown a wrench in the works. Won't know until 9 tonight if he is playing at 12:30 or 3:45 - either way, it doesn't look like I can fit a brew day inNow that I have my mill figured out, I hope to brew a Dunkel and a Cold IPA this weekend. It's been a while.
Welcome back to it. Just started again after a 2 year break a few weeks backgetting prepped to brew Hank's Hefeweizen as my virgin run after taking a break for 9 years
Ok I'm in for the weekend. Not sure if Saturday or Sunday. Going to prep tonight. Focus for this brew (besides making a great session tailgate beer) is think through my brew timing and try to get more time efficient. The last couple brews took longer than I would have liked. Part of that is going to be getting everything ready ahead so I start out almost immediately at mash start on brew day.Hoping to brew up a session IPA this weekend. Summer and then fall tailgate season I was to find a good low ABV option to have on tap.
Cook the cornmeal first (a cereal mash.) Your flakes have the starch gelatinized already, but the cornmeal will not. (If you get "instant" cornmeal/polenta/grits/whatever then it is also gelatinized.)BBD SNPA clone yesterday went very well; it's chugging away. So today I'm brewing up the new House cream ale. First one was absolutely yummy, and I want more. Also dipping my toes into the fascinating concept of fermenting in a keg. I have the means to transfer to a serving keg later if I want to. And I just want to see if it works. I'm not keen on the idea of cutting a diptube, so I'll just purge a pint or two when it's time to transfer. Didn't get to LHBS yesterday to get more flaked corn, so I stopped at the store and bought some Bob's Red Mill coarse cornmeal to augment the 1.5lbs I had left. Looks almost the same so I think it will work.
I do have a couple of floating dip tubes for my pressure lids, but I don't have an extra short gas-in diptube; so I'm just going to run with what I've got. The thing that is freaking me out, is I'm always nervous when my volume gets too low in the BK. Sitting at 5g right now 5 minutes before flameout, and I'm nervous as hell. It will be beer I know that, but everything I've done the last 5 years is tumbling down around my ears.Cook the cornmeal first (a cereal mash.) Your flakes have the starch gelatinized already, but the cornmeal will not. (If you get "instant" cornmeal/polenta/grits/whatever then it is also gelatinized.)
Alternately, save the cornmeal for dinner and augment your flakes with straight sugar. You will probably not notice the difference.
Fermenting in kegs is great. I highly recommend a floating dip tube for future batches (and specifically, this one.) Purging that pint or two is fine in theory but in practice that pint or two can gunk up your out post something fierce.
Too late to cook the cornmeal; I just dumped it in with the rest. I did do a longer mash at 152, so I'm hoping for goodness here. I've got 2 months before this beer needs to be dialled in for an upcoming competition, so I can improve (if needed) on the next one; first one tapped less than a week ago is almost gone, it's that good.Cook the cornmeal first (a cereal mash.) Your flakes have the starch gelatinized already, but the cornmeal will not. (If you get "instant" cornmeal/polenta/grits/whatever then it is also gelatinized.)
Alternately, save the cornmeal for dinner and augment your flakes with straight sugar. You will probably not notice the difference.
Fermenting in kegs is great. I highly recommend a floating dip tube for future batches (and specifically, this one.) Purging that pint or two is fine in theory but in practice that pint or two can gunk up your out post something fierce.
Buttoned up in the ferment fridge, from preboil of 1.040 I wound up with 1.075 SG, holy crap. Bit disappointed that I don't get to watch the fermentation (didn't I see somewhere clear kegs for sale???), but I'm looking forward to crisper beer out of it.Too late to cook the cornmeal; I just dumped it in with the rest. I did do a longer mash at 152, so I'm hoping for goodness here. I've got 2 months before this beer needs to be dialled in for an upcoming competition, so I can improve (if needed) on the next one; first one tapped less than a week ago is almost gone, it's that good.
I started up in March after a 6-year break. Tomorrow I'm doing my first ever decoction mash. This should be interesting.Welcome back to it. Just started again after a 2 year break a few weeks back
That was my quickest brew day ever (except for when I do no-boil beers, and it wasn't that much longer than they are) Wife was going to be gone for 3.5 hours and I wanted to be done when she got back because she *hates* the smells of brewing (or pretends to). I got the grain weighed and milled this morning. Found all my equipment, etc. this afternoon. A half hour before she left I got the water ready. I wasted about 20 minutes by overshooting the strike temperature and had to cool the liquor down, then overshot a little on the way down too and had to heat it up again. That was the only gaffe. When she walked in the door, the wort was in the bucket, the kettle was washed and put away, and I had most of the mess cleaned up.I *just* started a SMaSH beer with Vienna malt and Tradition hops; about 18 IBU. I will ferment it with Munich Classic yeast. If I were using Pilsner malt with a little Munich this would be a Dampfbier (German "steam beer"), although the bitterness for that should be 15 or a little less.
My wife won't touch a drop of beer, but she loves the smell of me brewing in the kitchen. She says it smells like I'm baking bread. Except for rauchbier. "Are you brewing bacon beer?" "Well, sort of..."Wife was going to be gone for 3.5 hours and I wanted to be done when she got back because she *hates* the smells of brewing (or pretends to).
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