What I did for beer today

Picked up grains, hops and yeast for one of next weekend's batches called Spotted Dog Brown Ale.

 

Put these in the beer fridge so a couple will be ready for my 25th bday on Thursday god I can't Wait to pop my heady topper Virgin taste buds lol

 

Pulled a sample of both versions of my Centennial Blonde - just because. I also discovered that the roastiness of my Arctic Brown goes amazingly well with chocolate chip cookies as a dessert.

 

Decided to brew a batch of my IPA (used Summit, Cascade, and Citra in this one). I hope it turns out good.

 

Just ordered some dextrose & o2 barrier caps along with a PM berliner wheat kit from midwest for national home brewer's day 5/4. Chose the Wyeast option too. Had to go to Northern Brewer for the barley crusher grain mill with base & 7lb hopper to crush my grains with. Finally be able to get a good crush instead of flour like with the mini food processor I've been using. I'm hoping this will help with my chill haze problems I thought might also be because of the floury crush.
I'm also thinking of once again adding some Realemon to the priming solution for the wheat beer.

 

Bought 36 lbs of extra like lme, 4 lbs munich lme, 4 oz of clumbus and magnum hops. some for my barley wine, some for maybe a ten-fidy clone, and extra lme for whatever I want to do with the rest, good for 2-4 more beers. I figure buy more now and save for future batches.

 

Well it looks like I have to brew now on 5/4!!

 

I've been trying to since they passed it. All for brew,brew for all,as Northern Brewer says!

 

It falls on a Saturday so I'll be free. If it was during the week, I would have to rearrange my gym schedule. This works out perfect. Loooks like that ten-fidy clone is getting done that day.

Question ( also asked in another one of my threads) : would a scottish edinburgh yeast work with a RIS? Or should I just go with an american ale yeast for the ten-fidy clone?? I want to use that yeast from my wee heavy for something, so maybe I will try and wash it for a future batch?

 

Idk...it might be interesting to use it in the stout.

 

Right, I may just use it for another wee heavy if my first one comes out good. I think I'll stick with what the clone uses for yeast, which is the american ale yeast. As long as I save the good stuff!

 

Walmart has 12 packs of 4oz. mason jars for 10 bucks.

I bought em, cuz i have officially run out of Erlenmeyer flasks to store yeast in.

I also picked up some glycerin and ascorbic acid at my LHBS and i am going to attempt to freeze some yeasties that i don't use so often.

 

Ordered a bunch of odds and ends for upgrading my system:

3 SS ball valves, two bulkheads, 9 quick disconnect sets, several feet of thermoplastic tubing and some silicone tubing, two street elbows, a March pump, and a Blichmann floor burner.

Have been needing to do this for a while!

 

Got a starter on the stir plate for Saturday's smoked porter.

 

Made a starter for this weekend's Spotted Dog Brown Ale brew. First time using WYeasts 1275 Thames Valley. Stir plate is crankin!

 

Yesterday picked up whats going to someday be a keggle. Yep got me a old German keg.
Today picked up stuff for brewing tomorrow evening.

 

Got the shipping notification for my supplies.

 

Day off, used it to best advantage:

- chopped all of the first growth on my 15 third year hop crowns down to grade

- built two stir plates almost entirely from odds and ends on hand, only had to buy the hobby boxes ($10 each)

- swapped three kegs into the keezer. Now serving a Three Cs + 1A Blonde Ale, a Dark Ale, an American Wheat, an all Home Grown Hopped IPA (Chinook, Cascade and Centennial), an ESB and a Triple Chocolate Imperial Honey Stout.

- cleaned three kegs

- fed my science experiment (IIPA that's transitioned into barleywine territory with an ABV closing in on 20% - and still rockin' with just US-05)

- racked a huge stout out of primary onto 8 ounces of cocoa nibs that had been soaking in dark rum for a couple of weeks

It was a Good Day!

Cheers!

 

I got my bottles in, so bottling day will be tomorrow. 5 gallons of Centennial Blonde and 5 gallons of cider to bottle, plus I want to get another batch of Centennial Blonde together to pitch on my yeast cake while bottling. Whew boy! Wish me luck!

 

Just about to get started brewing a batch of Spotted Dog brown ale and a batch of I'm a Hoppy IPA. While they are brewing I'll be bottling a batch of Cream of Three Crops and a batch of Amarillo APA. Full schedule but I love it!

 

Harvested some Bret from a bottle of Funky Galaxy for a batch of Saison I have planned in a couple of weeks...

 

Bottled up 5.5 gal of BM`s Cream of 3 Crops.

Cheers

 

Bottled just over half a keg to move the beer so my soon to be ex doesn't ruin it.

 

Bottled up my first Gose-with hibiscus flowers and the sample was fantastic!

 

Transferred my APA to secondary and I'm dry hopping it with 2 ounces of Cascade hops.. ..... .... ... .I also managed to break my racking cane trying to pull the hose off the inner bend..... so is life.

 

Bottled 5 gallons of cider today. Tomorrow I will be bottling 5 gallons of Centennial Blonde while simultaneously brewing another 5 gallon batch to toss on the yeast cake. Going to be busy!

 

I have had a very "Simple Saison" sitting in secondary at 80° for past month or so. It finished nice and dry, crystal clear and with a nice tartness. Looking forward to it carbonating. Yesterday I racked 5 gallons to keg and the rest I bottled.

Also racked 5 gallons of wheat onto 6lbs of raspberry puree and another 5 gal of wheat on sweet orange peel.

 

Bottled a Flower Power clone (late hops) and cleaned up the mess.

 

Gotta hear more about this...

 

Completed my first brew in 12 years yesterday.

Today I bought some more camlock fittings, another pump, a big o ring for my plastic conical fermenter, some other odds and ends in order to get ready to do another brew on May 4th!

Also made this. I've got fermentation!

 

Welcome back. Why such a. Long hiatus? And why the return?

 

I can't really pin the hiatus on anything in particular. Just kind of stopped one day and other hobbies took over.

I've always been planning on getting back into it and started the process last august.

I have a bit of a get together scheduled in a couple of months so thought it would be nice to make up some beer for it.

Made 10 gallons all grain batch of a pale ale yesterday, will do up another 10 gallons of probably a lighter beer like a CAP for my guests.

 

Nice what kind of recipe did you use for the pale?

 

Very basic recipe. I used pretty much the same recipe as my previous brew (12 years ago), except the LBHS didn't have 40l crystal, so I subbed in some 60l.

24# of 2 row pale malt, 2 pounds 60l crystal, .25# of chocolate. OG of 1063

About 73 ibu's of willamette and cascade hops. Now that I look at the ibu to og ratio, it appears I might be a little on the high side? All I know is that I based this off of the last recipe I made in my log book, and I actually backed down on the hops a bit from that. Never had any problem with me or my friends drinking it back then.

I had some old 1056, I'm ashamed to admit, that I bought last august when the bug to brew again first bit. I made a starter and stepped it up a couple of times on my stir plate. I had a nice little cake of yeast in the bottom of the gallon jug, so I decanted off most of the liquid, and swirled up the yeast cake to add into the fermentor. In a last minute panic, I also had a vial of white labs american ale yeast I bought at the same time as the 1056, so I cracked it open and dumped it in as well. It's not rocket surgery, right?

I'm thinking it will be a little dark for a pale ale. Guess that's part of the fun of brewing!

The whole brew day went pretty smooth. I'm thinking I had a little lower efficiency than I used to but no big deal.

Here's a link to a little timelapse I did of the brewday. Drank an Arrogant Bastard to make the whole thing go smooth...




The fermentation is going great right now.

 

Brewed hefe
Crashed amber

 

Kegged my first batch of Da Yooper's House Pale Ale.

 

Checked my email which showed all my ingredients have been shipped! Hopefully it's here by Friday to brew on Saturday!

 

Went to the LHBS over lunch and bought a 50# sack of 2row, a bunch of specialty malts, way too much hops, and 3 different kinds of yeast.

Looks like I'll be brewing a porter this weekend, and a pilsner the next!

I say if anything is worth doing, it's worth overdoing. I'm going to get all my lonely empty kegs filled at one time if its the last thing I do!

 

- Steamed some French oak cubes and added them to a nice Bajan XO Rum for my Barleywine
- Brewed a Surly Bender clone
- Ordered the cacao nibs and vanilla beans to turn said Bender into a Moe's Bender

 

Missed the UPS guy with the brewing supplies by about 10 minutes. Oh well. I'll have everything tomorrow, and I won't be brewing until the weekend anyway.