Random Brewing Thoughts

[TripleSixHoppia]

Anybody here using sanke kegs for primary fermentation?

Soon time to replace my janky big mouth bubblers, and I’m seriously considering this option as it seems like a pretty cheap way to ferment in stainless.

Looks like a brand new 1/4 barrel keg is around $100 online, plus $80 for the spear removal tool.

Any experience out there w this? Wanna talk me into/ out of it?

Yes all the time. You don't need an $80 tool to pull the spear. You just need a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. Orange carboy caps fit over sanke kegs really well. 2 inch tri clover clamps and accessories will fit the top of a sanke if you want to get real fancy.

 

[YungCoolship]

I just can't get into these arbor mist sours. Don't like the texture and don't like paying $30 for a bottle of carbonated, partially fermented fruit juice. I didn't like them when I started seeing brewers adding 2-3/lb fruit per gallon. Now it seems like a race to add more and more fruit. It's the same attitude of using a base beer as a foundation to add as much of something to it rather than trying to create an integrated beer. It's the west coast DIPA racing too max IBUs, NEIPA racing to multiple dry hoppings, BA stouts racing to add max adjuncts.

I know they sell and sell for a premium so I know they aren't going away. I just tend to avoid buying fruited sours. More for the people who enjoy them.

To keep this on the brewing subject: I don't fruit my sour beers too much anymore but when I do I usually keep it to 12-16oz/gallon. If the base beer pairs well with the fruit then it's enough fruit to create a complex and integrated beer.

I'm still dumbfounded at how at excited people in my area get when they land Joose Crowlers. Isn't it just Anderson Valley Gose base with a **** ton of puree added? It tastes like melted popsicles with a pinch of lactic acid.

 

[wuntrikpony]

Isn't it just Anderson Valley Gose base with a **** ton of puree added?

They're contract brewing the gose base now, but Joose tastes the same as when they used AV gose. I liken them to a carbonated jamba juice...they are sweet, intense, and fun in a small pour, but anything over 4oz and I just get filled up from fruit so quickly. One thing you can do with them is blend back with whatever cheap berliner/gose you have on hand.

 

[JCastle1]

They're contract brewing the gose base now, but Joose tastes the same as when they used AV gose. I liken them to a carbonated jamba juice...they are sweet, intense, and fun in a small pour, but anything over 4oz and I just get filled up from fruit so quickly. One thing you can do with them is blend back with whatever cheap berliner/gose you have on hand.

Never gotten my hands on these fruity goses but I've wanted to reduce one to syrup and blend with another berliner. I did it with Rubaeus and it was great.

 

[wuntrikpony]

Never gotten my hands on these fruity goses but I've wanted to reduce one to syrup and blend with another berliner. I did it with Rubaeus and it was great.

Considering how thick they are, I'd imagine it would reduce down into a sauce.

 

[coldcrash1]

Yes all the time. You don't need an $80 tool to pull the spear. You just need a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. Orange carboy caps fit over sanke kegs really well. 2 inch tri clover clamps and accessories will fit the top of a sanke if you want to get real fancy.

I like this setup more & more as I look into it.

Tried the screwdriver/ pliers technique on an empty keg. Not hard at all; thanks for saving me $80. Guess that can go toward the new chest freezer I now need since my current one is about 1/2” short on diameter for a quarter keg...

 

[JCastle1]

Anyone got any easy-drinking, crowd-pleasing simple recipes? I'm thinking a simple blond ale with a touch of wheat and maybe Cascade or Centennial. Wanna brew something cheap and easy for beach drinkin'.

 

[rcubed1]

Anyone got any easy-drinking, crowd-pleasing simple recipes? I'm thinking a simple blond ale with a touch of wheat and maybe Cascade or Centennial. Wanna brew something cheap and easy for beach drinkin'.

Pilsner malt (whatever is cheapest) with some wheat and rye. US05 or Cal Ale. Pick a C hop or two and hop burst it.

 

[TripleSixHoppia]

Anyone got any easy-drinking, crowd-pleasing simple recipes? I'm thinking a simple blond ale with a touch of wheat and maybe Cascade or Centennial. Wanna brew something cheap and easy for beach drinkin'.

Cream of 3 on homebrewtalk. I’ve also done it with 3711 and it came out great.

 

[JCastle1]

Pilsner malt (whatever is cheapest) with some wheat and rye. US05 or Cal Ale. Pick a C hop or two and hop burst it.

That's pretty much what I had in mind but hadn't considered the rye. What do you think for rye, like 5-10% of the grist?

Cream of 3 on homebrewtalk. I’ve also done it with 3711 and it came out great.

That one sounds solid but I may substitute the Crystal. What are your thoughts on the rice though? I've never brewed with rice before and I'm like 90% sure I've never seen instant rice around here.

 

[Vogt52]

Anyone got any easy-drinking, crowd-pleasing simple recipes? I'm thinking a simple blond ale with a touch of wheat and maybe Cascade or Centennial. Wanna brew something cheap and easy for beach drinkin'.

Ziggy and I brew a kolsch that's a crowd pleaser of both craft and non craft drinkers. Added some lime extract this time around and it was great!

Edit: I'd image it would be awesome with a dry hop addition

 

[rcubed1]

That's pretty much what I had in mind but hadn't considered the rye. What do you think for rye, like 5-10% of the grist?

I love rye so 10% would be closer to where I would go.

 

[TripleSixHoppia]

That's pretty much what I had in mind but hadn't considered the rye. What do you think for rye, like 5-10% of the grist?


That one sounds solid but I may substitute the Crystal. What are your thoughts on the rice though? I've never brewed with rice before and I'm like 90% sure I've never seen instant rice around here.

I've brewed cream of 3 quite a few times. Instant grocery store rice is great, it just kind of drys the beers out and helps gives it that super pale color.

 

[MooseLang]

I've brewed cream of 3 quite a few times. Instant grocery store rice is great, it just kind of drys the beers out and helps gives it that super pale color.

Link?

My buddy dropped off a ton of malt from his malt house, so I'm trying to think of some beers to brew in the upcoming weeks.

 

[TripleSixHoppia]

Link?

My buddy dropped off a ton of malt from his malt house, so I'm trying to think of some beers to brew in the upcoming weeks.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/cream-of-three-crops-cream-ale.66503/

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Safale - 05
Yeast Starter: Prior Slurry
Batch Size (Gallons): 11.5
Original Gravity: 1.040
Final Gravity: 1.005
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
IBU: 14.3
Color: 2.9
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 Days at 68 Degrees
Additional Fermentation: Kegged and chilled for 10 days
Cream Ale Recipe

This is a very simple, inexpensive cream ale recipe that will get every BMC drinker in the room enjoying homebrew. So named because of the three different crops that go into the grist (Barley, Corn and Rice).

I brewed up 10 gallons of this and after kegging, bottled up a case to take to a family event (Mothers Day). Even my 78-yr old FIL, who is strict Miller Lite drinker, ended up having two pints. The chics dug it and we ran out well before the end of the evening.

The grain bill is cheap and in this case, you can use Minute Rice instead of flaked rice. No step mashing required. Simply combine the ingredients and follow a simple single infusion mash at around 152 degrees. I also mashed this for 90 minutes to get a highly attenuated beer. FG was 1.005...leaving a very dry, crisp beer with no noticeable graininess.

While this doesn't adhere to the strict beer laws, and I don't consider this one of my "craft" efforts, it is without a doubt the beer that I get the most "you really made this beer?" comments.

So if you've got some hard core "If it ain't Budweiser it ain't beer…" drinking friends…give this a try.

This beer clears up quickest of any of my recipes.




Batch Size: 11.50 gal
Boil Size: 14.26 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 2.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 14.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
4.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
1.00 lb Minute Rice (1.0 SRM)

1.00 oz Willamette [5.20%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Crystal [3.50%] (60 min)

 

[MooseLang]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/cream-of-three-crops-cream-ale.66503/

Interesting. I saw above where you said you used 3711 and liked the results. I may use a Saison yeast that is a little more peppery, a touch of American hops, and then see if I can make a hazier cousin to Classique.

 

[TripleSixHoppia]

Interesting. I saw above where you said you used 3711 and liked the results. I may use a Saison yeast that is a little more peppery, a touch of American hops, and then see if I can make a hazier cousin to Classique.

That’s exactly what I was going for. I use to drink a sixer of classique a week.

 

[JCastle1]

I've brewed cream of 3 quite a few times. Instant grocery store rice is great, it just kind of drys the beers out and helps gives it that super pale color.

I'll try it out without the rice I think, also had a Classique-like beer in mind with that one.

 

[user 307594]

might as well throw our mosaic blonde recipe in here for the considering:

88% pils or 2row malt (I use Rahr)
12% wheat malt

mash at 150, 50/50 cascade/mosaic at FO for ~20 ibu, backfill bittering charge to make it up to 25 ibus total. ferment with preferred english strain (I've done london III, S-04, and BSI-7), and dryhop with mosaic at 1-1.2lb/bbl.

The mosaic and english yeast combo typically throws big fruit flavours, in particular pineapple, and is super-approachable even for folks that don't like hops (which usually means hop bitterness).

 

[JCastle1]

might as well throw our mosaic blonde recipe in here for the considering:

88% pils or 2row malt (I use Rahr)
12% wheat malt

mash at 150, 50/50 cascade/mosaic at FO for ~20 ibu, backfill bittering charge to make it up to 25 ibus total. ferment with preferred english strain (I've done london III, S-04, and BSI-7), and dryhop with mosaic at 1-1.2lb/bbl.

The mosaic and english yeast combo typically throws big fruit flavours, in particular pineapple, and is super-approachable even for folks that don't like hops (which usually means hop bitterness).

I love that beer, gonna have to try it out.

 

[TripleSixHoppia]

Starting the farm brewery is one step closer. One the the local judges signed the order to add it to the ballot late last night.

 

[TripleSixHoppia]

Is Farmhouse brewing supply the only place that doesn't try to screw you on shipping small orders of hops? You could fit a couple pounds in the small USPS flat rate boxes for 7.20. Not sure why 8-16oz should cost $12.

Ordered some Saaz to do a pilot of a pilsner urquell clone with kveik.

 

[Saind]

I guess kegging isn't very popular here

 

[coldcrash1]

PSA for you Maryland guys:

MDHB has a couple interesting looking events coming up. Saw this come across the face page and figured I’d share:

http://mdhb.com/events.php

Thu 10/11 Mark Schwartz from Omega talking about Norwegian strains

Mon 10/15 Michael Tonsmeire talking about what he talks about

I’m thinking about making the hour drive for the Omega talk.

 

[Thorpe]

I guess kegging isn't very popular here

Is that a quick disconnect with a beer but attachment? If so, mind sharing the source of the photo? Would love to get some of those.

 

[Saind]

Is that a quick disconnect with a beer but attachment? If so, mind sharing the source of the photo? Would love to get some of those.

The source is my desk

"A beer but"? Don't know what that is.
It's a quick disconnect with a thingy that let's me connect it to the tap

https://www.unibrew-nederland.nl/bi...2-bsf-interne-draad-naar-5-8-buitendraad.html

This is the specific one

 

[Thorpe]

The source is my desk

"A beer but"? Don't know what that is.
It's a quick disconnect with a thingy that let's me connect it to the tap

https://www.unibrew-nederland.nl/bi...2-bsf-interne-draad-naar-5-8-buitendraad.html

This is the specific one

Oops, that was supposed to be “beer nut.”

Looks awesome. And I take it that it works well with a standard QD that’s 1/4” even though the website seems to refer to 1/2?

 

[Saind]

Oops, that was supposed to be “beer nut.”

Looks awesome. And I take it that it works well with a standard QD that’s 1/4” even though the website seems to refer to 1/2?

Hmmm it may be the wrong one in that case, I got it from the physical store and this was the only one on the website.
But yeah it's definitely 1/4" inner thread, not 1/2"

 

[MooseLang]

Random question -

I’m going to pitch some Brett/bacteria into a keg of saison. Going to let it sit at room temp, and let the bugs ferment under pressure for a couple months.

What PSI should I set the keg at? 10?

 

[TripleSixHoppia]

Random question -

I’m going to pitch some Brett/bacteria into a keg of saison. Going to let it sit at room temp, and let the bugs ferment under pressure for a couple months.

What PSI should I set the keg at? 10?

What gravity did the saison finish at? Just know you can gain 1 vol of CO2 per 2 points SG dropped. I would use that info to take the potential final volumes that just brett can make and minus it from your desired serving volumes. You can always add more gas if it doesn't go as high as you want.