What I did for beer today

I made my first starter at 5:30 this morning for my brew day tomorrow.

 

There are five other smaller bottles you don't see - they're crown-cap bottles, and in a Rubbermaid bin.

 

I've never made a lager. Do you make the starter at room temp or does it need to be kept at lager temps?

 

I do the starter at room temperature. The reason being that I'm not worried about any off-flavors produced in the starter wort , since the primary purpose is for yeast reproduction. I then put the starter in my fermentation chamber, so the yeast will be at the temperature I intend to pitch, and decant off the liquid before pitching.

I was hoping to about do a double starter, but unfortunately my yeast arrived on Friday, and today is my only chance to brew in a week, so it will have to do!

 

Ordered a Blinchmann floor burner to go with my new pot, ordered ingredients for a SMaSH APA, about to order a temp controller! Im tired of making only average at best beers.

 

I got enough grains,plain light DME & hops for two more batches of my IPA's. The Maori one will have fresh hops this time. And my newest version,Cougar Country will have mosaic & simcoe in it,to name two hops used.
I also added more tags to all my Brewvision videos on my youtube channel (unionrdr there too). It's been a lot of work to figure out what heading to list my brewvision videos under,much less the tag lines people will think of searching for them. Really need more views to put this hobby on a payin basis without all the work & expense of going commercial.
I also got the idea of moving "homebrew wednesday" to "tgif tasting" on Friday. I figured,since Murray Saul made a darn good living with his weekend salute on WMMS FM,that I'd try something of the same thing here.
We gotta gotta gotta gotta gottagottagottagottagottagottagotta get down,damnit!

 

Brewed my first all grain batch today. We'll, still boiling, actually. Kept losing temp in my new Rubbermaid 10 gallon MLT, and so ended up adding too much hot water for my boil kettle. It's really a turkey fryer, too small for these shenanigans, so I couldn't completely sparge and I've had some boil overs while working my way down to 5 gallons. Only 4 minutes of boil to go, though. My neighbor in our condo building thoughtfully brought out a work light and ran an extension cord out his window (which I'm brewing right under) so I can see to keep going.

Also, my 2 year old daughter helped me recirculate. Is that legal?

All in all, good brew day. :-D

I just hope I learn why I kept losing temp so I can avoid it next time.

 

I bottled 5 gallons of my 10 gallon all grain Octoberfest With A 'C' Ale. The one that took four weeks to reach an acceptable final gravity using Wyeast 1007. I used a secondary and cold crashed, and I am very pleased with the clarity, color and the aroma. We will see how she tastes in three weeks.

The other 5 gallons will be kegged as soon as I can find someone to fill my damn CO2 bottle.

 

Is the lid or walls dead air space?? Mine was, I fiilled the void in the lid with a can of foam insulation, now I can hold mash temp within a degree for two hours!!!

 

I put some washed Oktoberfest yeast in a starter to get it ready to be used to bottle my Oktoberfest next week and I bottled a batch of Yoopers American cream ale. I usually ferment all my ales for 21 days, but after 14 days, no activity and it hit FG of 1.010 and had no off flavors, so, time to bottle!

 

Took my first pour of an Alt I brewed.
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Taste
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Something is off

 

Switched my citra-hop-heavy APA into the secondary and added 1/2 oz of diced ginger root. One more week, and we'll see what we have!

 

Got some more newly emptied HB bottles to clean. Been spending the last two weeks on my youtube channel. Hard to get views without one of the cheating apps out there. Got a big box of grains,dme,& a new load of hops in the freezer,yeast in the fridge waiting for another cool spell to brew two more PM IPA's.

 

Brewed a Milk Stout and English IPA.

 

Worked on recipes for my next few beers. Cascade/Centennial saison, lamebic, and biere de garde.

 

Cleaned the keg and lines my dry irish stout was in. Dumped the trub in my new conical.

 

Built a stir plate and stared at my empty CO2 bottle. But I did find a place to fill it, so I will get around to taking a vacation day to get it filled.

 

Recovered from a beer centric bachelor party for my brother, way better than playing golf. Stopped by Philly Homebrew Outlet on our way home and that place was awesome. I picked up some bottles and some yeast but would love to go back and hand them more of my money as they offered me some Skeeter Pee which really took the edge off.

 

Brewed a citra sessions ale and put IPA in the secondary. I got a Blichmann kettle yesterday; much nicer than my turkey fryer stock pot. Will be able to use the Blichmann down the road for AG.

 

Replaced thawed bottles in swamp cooler with frozen ones to keep my Notty under control in the Ranger Creek Oatmeal APA I brewed yesterday. Staying at 60-62 ambient thus far. Keep it up for 5 days then move to 72 ambient.

 

Put the Finishing touches on my larger Brew Paddle and more work on the smaller one. Fabricated a SS grain loading piece for my Phil Mill and now works like it's brand new (the guy I bought it from lost the piece that protects the grain to load into the correct side of mill over the grinder -but got it cheap, and I fixed it with stuff I had at home). Poured my first batch of Old Ale, turned into 3 large mugs-damn that stuff is GOOOD and smooth and also 8.6% ABV !! And made a batch of my first Belgian Candi Syrup (I have the candi sugar down to a science, but this stuff is really gonna rock up my Belgians!!)

 

The walls shouldn't be. I used the amateur-standard Rubbermaid 10 gallon coolers. From what I've read, I should have heated my mash water about 10 degrees higher, let some of the heat be absorbed into the cooler walls and head space, and then just waited until it reached the strike temp.

Makes me think i should definitely add a thermometer to my mashtun with one of these methods.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/rubbermaid-cooler-thermometer-171517/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/remote-probe-thermometer-wort-proofing-26905/

 

Yeah, the walls of mine were insulated, but the lid wasnt, so I insulated that. Ive jus been using a floating type food grade thermometer, a cany thermometer I think. Real tight +/- tolerances in the 170 deg range. I mash in this big cooler. Can easily hold 30 lbs of grain.

 

Brewed 3bbl of Amber
Refrained from beating the idiot that keeps slamming the walk in cooler door

 

A floating thermometer sounds easy, but I want to avoid opening the cooler. Also, how deep does the probe go when it's floating?

My boil kettle is really an aluminum turkey fryer, and above 7.5 gallons or so, wort leaks out the handle rivets, runs down, and gives the burner cause to flare up and around the sides... I'm going to have to do something about that.

But anyway, even the 10 gallon coolers are more than I need until I get a bigger kettle.

 

Its what beer did for ME today. Was a rough day no breaks, 10 min lunch and OT but we got the work done. Came home and had a nice glass of beer to recharge the body. Will have another one to relax with wile I am eating supper.

 

Got the bottle filled up and kegged the other half of my Octoberfest With A 'C' Ale...we will see how it tastes in two weeks

 

Nothing better than that first beer after a long day of hardwork. Especially when you feel it in your bones that you earned every drop.

 

I did a screen capture for a new avatar. Got some more bottles to clean after this past weekends drinking. Just remembered I need to go out & get 2 bags of demerara sugar for the two PM IPA's I'm waiting for cooler weather front to brew. Still not smoking,feelin a tad better,senses gettin a bit sharper too.

 

I bottled my Oberon clone...holding on to summer as long as I can. I hope to brew my next batch tomorrow or Thursday. I've tweaked my house IPA to have a deep red hue for the start of my Wolfpack's football season.

 

I put coat 1 of stain on my stir plate because I've run out of beer stuff to do at the moment. Don't have a big enough chunk of time to brew until this weekend...so I'm just biding my time.

 

Spent all afternoon bottling a wheat and an APA. It sucked. Operation keezer begins soon.

 

Stupid autocorrect. I'm sure you meant a deep scarlet hue for the start of the Buckeyes football season. Good thing were on the same page. Go bucks!

 

Perhaps he meant crimson.

Boomer Sooner!

 

Ha. NCSU, as I thrive on low expectations, but somehow still end up disappointed year in, year out.

Good luck with your season. I enjoyed our series with you a few beers, err, years back. Didn't make it to Columbus but went to the game in Raleigh.

 

I got this off of Craigslist yesterday. The capper was $20, and everything else was $20. So for $40, I think I made out pretty well.

 

For you to get that, it means someone stopped homebrewin. And thats sad

 

Yesterday: started first sour mash
Today: testing/tasting mash
Tomorrow or Thursday: brewing the batch

 

My cooler is so big and flat, the thermometer goes usually all the way to the bottom and I can move it around to get readings from diff areas. Jus simple.
Loose rivets can be tightened up by using two hammers. Have someone hold the item, place the flat part of one hammer on the mushroomed side, and strike the other side with the head with the other hammer. Ball peen or claw hammers work fine. Good and hard. Should only take a few hits.

 

Yeah, but if they were going to stop anyway, it's better somebody use the gear than let it sit in a box in the garage.