What I did for beer today

So true. Don't we all...

 

Helped a friend brew 10 gallons of porter, then he helped me brew 5 gallons of brown. Had tri tip and potato salad in there somewhere.

 

Bought a freezer to turn into a keezer.

 

Dopeness. That is all.

 

I brewed 10 gals of vienna lager yesterday. Turned out great right on the money.

 

Got more CO2 for the keg fridge and picked up ingredients for two batches I have planned for next weekend (Packers have a bye week, so I better take advantage of the free Sunday!) Doing a Scottish 70 shilling and a Belgian dubbel.

 

Well,with all my fermenters full,money gettin low,another batch in the BB will have to wait till the 1st. Bottles all clean & ready as is all my equipment. So I'll be sending a care package to a fellow member & call it a day.

 

Since I ended up being immensely lazy yesterday and did nothing but drink some beer and watch football, today I have to get my @ss moving! Need to bottle my pomegranate saison and clean some bottles!

 

My wife filling bottles, and my father in law capping. Bring on the Imperial Stout!

 

Kegged my Amber. The FG sample tasted GOOD

 

Designed and ordered caps for my Russian Imperial Stout, named "Dolph".

 

Checked f.g. of last batch, 1.015, and I'm not happy about it... I thought I mashed low enough, and I used wlp007. Oh well, there goes the f.g. 1.010 streak.

 

No bottling wand?

 

I scrubbed my keezer, and cleaned the lines. Thursday I brined a turkey in it and the bag leaked. Figured turkey brine should get cleaned out thoroughly ASAP... which was today.

Also cleaned and sanitized the four kegs that were in there...

 

I was so impressed that he had other people bottling for him I didn't even notice!

 

Drove across town to pick up a couple of cans of Maui Brewing Company's coconut porter. It's been out of stock everywhere for a while.

 

This was actually Saturday, but I was too tired to post by the end of the day. I brewed my second all-grain batch, with friends who were newer to the process than me. We avoided the temperature loss problems I had the first time in my mash tun, but seemed to have temperature problems in my hot liquor tank this time, instead. Weird, since we pre-heated both of them.

Also, when recirculating it took a very long time for the mash to run clear. Probably because we stirred right before adding the mashout water. Oops. I know we lost some mashout temp during that extended process, and also while waiting for more water to boil to add to my HLT. I think it probably came out okay, though. The gravity was pretty close to but just under target, so I suppose mashout was successful despite the delays.

I had no problems with too much water in the kettle, and resulting boil overs, this time. I think this was largely because I also used BeerSmith 2 this time, which I didn't do last time. I liked it, and I suppose I'll buy it.

 

That looks like a nice little counterflow wort chiller, so why do you need the ice bath?

 

Bottled my pomegranate saison split. Got 21 375ml bottles filled, corked and caged - and had a glass left over to sample and enjoy!

 

Yeah, it worked great, but it's been sitting around waiting for full boils.

I haven't picked up a burner, yet, so I can't use that nice keggle, either.

I'm doing my partial boils in that old canning pot sitting on the counter. It's too wide for an ice bath in the sink.

I'm hoping to pick up a burner, soon. Been trying to hold off for a Blichmann, but might go the other route and pick up something cheap, for now. Looking to pick up one of those Dark Stars, maybe.

 

Wait for the blichmann you won't regret it

 

Brewing up a 3 liter starter for my Pliny the Elder inspired IIPA, "Shredy the Brewer".

 

Racked my Dark Chocolate Hazelnut porter to secondary & racked my Whitbread Flowers Ale & Attitude 65 IPA to kegs for conditioning

 

Kegged my Oktoberfest and brewed up an Autumn IPA. Decided to keep it simple, I ditched the keg mash tun and the pump for this batch and used my trusty 5-gallon cooler as my mash tun.

 

Built that DIY keg line cleaner. Worked like a boss.

Through Holmesian deduction, found out my stir bar is probably in the bottom of our IIPA.

Needed to check to viability of an old vial of yeast so made a 1L starter and will just do the old stir method instead.

 

Stepped up my starter for the Scottish 70/- I'm doing this weekend. (I'm stepping it up because I decided to split the smack-pack so half of it goes to the Scottish ale, the other half went into cider)

AND I got a starter going for the Belgian dubbel I'm doing this weekend (It'll be a busy weekend of brewing.) I'll step the Belgian one up later because I need a 3L starter for that one.

 

June 2012 vial dead. road trip across town for yeast tomorrow.

 

Preparing a talk I'm having today. Here in Bergen, Norway we have a student organization, which I have been a part of the last 6 years, which run this concert place, and I'm going to talk about tasting beer to all of the volunteer bartenders. It's common knowledge that volunteers are fantastic people, but they sometimes lack experience and information about beer, and it's my job today to give them knowledge about the product they are selling, and how to handle and serve beer.

My beer interest seriously picked up in the autumn last year, and I started brewing in January, and from there it has escalated quickly. So being asked to do this talk is a big thing for me, to be renowned as "the beer guy" in my social circle is quite fantastic.

So today we are going to taste through this list:
- Bulmers
- Lervig White Dog
- BrewDog Trashy Blonde
- Fullers London Pride
- Lervig Betty Brown
- Kona Longboard
- Lervig Lucky Jack
- Kona Big Wave
- Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
- Lervig Hoppy Joe
- BrewDog Punk IPA
- BrewDog Hello, my name is Mette-Marit
- BrewDog Rip Tide

Wish me luck!

 

transferred to secondary my pumpkin ale ..

 

Went to my local pub this morning at 8:30, it doubles as a coffee shop in the AM. Got in line with all the coffee drinkers, got to the front of the line, asked coffee girl if I might have a taste of the Farmhouse ale that I think I was drinking last night but don't quite remember . Coffee girl gives me a look, tells me the bar is not open yet. I give her a smile, puppy dog eyes, tell her I wanted to brew a batch but had to taste it again to get a better idea how it was made. Just a little sample. Coffee server girl gives me a look, realizes I'm serious. Says she is not allowed to pour beer samples. Coffee girl realizes I'm not leaving and, after a moment of indecision, decides to go over to the bar and pour me a small sample. "Yup, that's the stuff I say!! mmmmm A sort of saison I think, with some rye maybe? spicy, a little fruity, a little sour note, nice balance, smooth, dry finish, must be a Belgain type yeast" Coffee girl looks at me like I'm crazy. I'm going to try and make a batch this weekend.

 

Awesome, dude. I want to hear how it turns out.

My day: Took the boy to the dentist at the crack of dawn (+goodwill points from SWMBO.) Took a gravity sample of my Saison and declared it delicious and ready to bottle. Moved it out into the shed on top of the ferment fridge so it can settle back down for racking tomorrow afternoon.

 

Planning a double brew day to make sure I have sufficient beer to provide at a prominent local businessman's Oktoberfest party to market my new brewery and ordered three books: Water, Yeast, and Hops.

 

Just got my copy of Water today (to go with the others) and can't wait to sit down with a beer and start reading it!

I wonder when Grains will be coming?

 

My copy of Water is on the UPS truck. The driver actually told me to 'have a nice day' yesterday, so I'm guessing he'll just throw my book in a ditch somewhere so he can get home early.

Guess I better finish re-reading Yeast this afternoon if I can. I'd love to see Grains as the next book.

 

I agree, that would be awesome!

 

Kegged my first all grain -- a Left Hand Milk Stout clone.

 

I topped up all my propane tanks to get ready for a double brew day tomorrow. PumKing + Doug's Dunkel.

 

I drank my own homebrew from frosted mugs...

My mother-in-law thinks frosted mugs are this extra special kind of thing, and I haven't the heart to correct her. My brother-in-law and his wife both loyally complemented my beer, and I believe they may have even meant it. :grin:

 

Set up a temporary "entertainment system" in the garage so the boy (7 years old) won't tell me he's bored while we are brewing this afternoon.

 

Bought sum.

Upland brewing variety pack