What I did for beer today

Added a second tap to my tower last night. It was so easy i cant believe i waited so long to do it.

 

Swung by the LHBS. Spent a lot. I'd told my wife I was going, but not how much I was spending. So I think I'll be spending the next few days in hiding :cross:

A little later I'll rinse a round of bottles soaking in PBW, and replace them with the next round.

 

I just finished bottling a batch of Hefeweizen, and cleaning up the mess.

 

Not today but Yesterday.. went to 3 different stores to find stainless steel washers..

Ended up finding a great selection at West Marine.

 

Finished cleanin/poilishin my SS BK & re-arranged my fermenter/storage stand. Finally got all those coiled up tube & pipe/wand assemblies off on their own shelf outta the way. Made all my auto siphon,brushes,long spoon/paddles,scales,etc easier to get to without exploding everything all over the floor. Tossin out some stuff in man cave/fermenter area too. This pack rat stuff in his part of the house is freaking done. Spring cleaning in the fall for winter.

 

Kegged my Chimay Blue Label Clone, cleaned the carboy. Measured my chest freezer for the 13th time so I can buy wood this weekend. Now, I have a Belgium Ale, a Wit Beer and my Chimay clone on tap. nothing in the Fermentor! Hmmm? What to brew next?

 

Listened to bbr and the saison podcast with mike tonsmiere aka oldsock here from hbt

 

First got home from working a 24 at the firehouse which i can tell you throughout i was wondering if my belgian strong and pale ale were still fermenting at the pace they were when i left them. Checked on them when i got home to see the activity had definitely slowed in my pale ales carboy primary. My belgian had stayed quite about the same from what i could tell through airlock activity anyway.

Then the fun began. Saw a horrible movie. (Sinister is terrible) save yourself time and money. But afterwards enjoyed a brooklyn brewery ocktoberfest, 2 sixpoint sweet actions, a goose island ipa, and a edison place dark special amber bock. Needless to say . I enjoyed each and every drop. And if possible i would donthe same for beer each and everyday. More if possible.

 

Moved a full sized fridge into my basement. Not one of my shining moments. had to remove the doors, (while it was stuck on the landing.) and still ripped the **** out of the drywall. I will be doing some mudding, sanding, and painting for sure. But we got it down there, without a millimeter to spare. room for 3 corneys and a pony, totally worth it.

 

Mudding and sanding is made for beer drinking.... I think that it is all right to have a brew while painting. Hmmm. Sound like you won all the way around. Enjoy

 

Bought a 5-gallon cooler to keep my 3-gallon keg cold for a party in a few weeks. Built a stainless steel hop spider. Planned a brew day for tomorrow. Picked up a few remaining supplies for the saison I'm going to brew next week. Bought an aquarium heater for the saison fermentation. Decided it was time to have another primary fermenter, so I picked up a 6-gallon plastic carboy.

 

Received a shipment of Rahr Pale Ale malt from 50lb Sack (aka Rebel) and received 5 packets of S05 yeast from Norcal Brewing Solutions. I am expecting a shipment from NB tomorrow with a (long overdue) new autosiphon, wine thief, and some glassware and growlers.

 

today was brewday, for me. I split 5.5 gallons of an ipa, and used us-05 and s-04.

 

now, i'm trying maintain a steady swamp cooler temp, by swapping frozen bottles out. I have two 3gal. better bottles inside of a 20gal. rubbemaid trashcan.

 

My buddy gave me 2 pint glasses and 2 tasting glasses. Broke in the tasting glasses by sampling the cranberry holiday spiced ale, chocolate coffee oatmeal stout, vanilla porter, and bourbon vanilla porter. Brewed an amber ale.

 

Im pretty sure I scorched my wort. I also let the s-04 yeast ferment to high of temp and fluctuating between 66-70. Im definitely pissed off about this and need to RDWHAHB because im worried I wasted time and space.

 

Got a shipment from aleinthemail.com - brews from Grand Teton BC (Sweetgrass American Pale Ale and Howling Wolf Weisse) and Florida BC (Key West Sunset Ale and Florida lager.)

Now I just have to wait for the fridge to chill 'em!

 

I used hopville's beer calculus to start writing a recipe for a partial mash version of my APA's. Gunna use NZ hops this time.

 

Pre-ordered 2 more pounds of 2012 pellets, Citra and Nelson Sauvin this time.

 

I haven't done it yet but after work I am going to the Eagle River Brewfest and Prime Rib Buffet in support of the Boys and Girls Club of Alaska.

 

Read the new BYO cover to cover it was a really great issue lots of useful stuff in there.

 

Check the gravity of my Punkin' Ale

 

Picked one quarter acre of Columbus/Erikson hops.

 

I tip my hat to you sir. You win the internets for the day. It's all yours, enjoy.

 

I bought the parts to build my first immersion chiller.

 

Brewed an American Amber call Mahogany

Picked hops

 

I would share... but...

 

I gathered and de-labels all my bottles for tomorrow. I have 2 batches that are getting bottled and I've never bottled before... Wish me luck!!!

 

Bottled my simcoe-amarillo ipa and slapped on some labels. Wish there was something to bottle every day...

 

Brewed my Christmas Ale yesterday, then spent the night nursing my first explosive fermentation. Caught it in the nick of time.... Apparently the whole Notty cake from the stout I just bottled might have been more than I needed...... The mess smelled great though!

 

Yesterday I delabeled and sanitized bottles, then bottled my fat tire clone. Today I am going to bottle my blonde bombshell and transfer the pumpkin ale to a secondary. Work, work, work.

 

Picked up a corny keg, 2 regulators, a couple CO2 bottles, and some lines from a coworker who was cleaning out his basement. Now I gotta come up with a good DFH 120 clone. Such a task... I Anticipate much experimentation and trial and error to come. :grin:

 

It's going to sound childish and stupid, but I purchased some Rogue Morimoto Imperial Pilsner, just for the flip-top bottle. I'm about to start my fifth brew, and my third five-gallon, on Friday.

I should grab a few more bottles this afternoon.

 

Today I pre-boiled my Alu pots and made a rather nifty ribcage IC next weekends the first all grain.

 

Dry hopping my IIPA. Came out at 1.013, lower than expected. So its around a 8% beer. The sample came out good, can't wait to taste after the dry hopping.

 

I remember watching imolatius on youtube makin one of those ribcage chillers. I think it's a good idea. How well is it working out for you?
I gotta wait for the missus to get done in the kitchen. I gotta rinse & ring out my now clean hop sacks/grain bag. Then heat some nice steamy water to cook out some dirty bottles I never got to. Rinse,scrub,hot soak,scrub & rinse again. That outta teach me not to be lazy...

 

Going to clean my pin lock keg and finally get my Oktoberfest style ale out of the primary after five weeks.

 

Filled three kegs and 18 12oz bottles that didn't fit in the kegs. Still have another keg to fill but no gas line to hook it up to.

 

Finally finished cleaning some dirty bottles. Rinsed,squeezed out & hung up my hop & grain sacks to dry.Looks like my PM cascade pale is finishing up as well.

 

Cleaned a bunch of bottles, then went to our homebrew club's attempt at a "how to homebrew" class at the local World of Beer, which was of course overshadowed by the Redskins game on and ended up not happening due to a lack of interest. Drank a few beers. Came home. About to clean more bottles. Then bottle my Imperial Red. Then clean more bottles

I have too many bottles to clean. Hah.