Snohomish(ish) WA

[Rodent]

recent convert to all-grain, and who has been brewing extract with specialty grains for a couple years. started out brewing as part of a group buy from a HBer who was moving and had to sell off his gear, and dwindled down to just me over the first year.

- insulated 15G stainless mash tun with a redd-nekk homemade HERMS system so I can adjust mash temps if/when I want

- 5G sized batches of mostly 2xIPA or Imperial Stouts

- recently added a mini freezer, inkbird temp control, and fermwrap to better control fermentation temps ... and have opened the door to lagering, so I anticipate a couple of these on the near horizon

 

[Kent88]

Welcome!

 

[BruceH]

Hello from Marysville.

 

[doug293cz]

Welcome from the Fairwood/Cascade area. Sounds like you are continually upping your game.

Brew on

 

[MaxStout]

Welcome to the forum, from Minnesota!

 

[Electrake]

Born and raised in snoho!

 

[Tbagger]

Hello from Mt. Rainier and congrats on the upgrade.

 

[Horseflesh]

Welcome from Woodinville.

 

[Rodent]

thanks for the welcomes!

 

[PeteSeattle]

Welcome from Seattle. Cheers.

 

[Elkobrewer]

Welcome to the obsession

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

Hey Rodent! Greetings from Lake Roosevelt. You might be the guy I need to talk to since you switch from extract to All Grain. I want to make my first extract IPA beer this week. I have been reading a lot on the forums and I find so many different ways of doing it. The one that intrigues me most is only using half of your syrup during the boil and then adding it after flame out the rest of it. Have you heard of that before? And I also learned about whirlpooling and hopstand. I was wondering if I use only half of the amount of hops required for 60 Minute boil and do a 20 minute flameout Edition with the rest and then at 170 degrees add the other hops they suggested I put in at 0 minutes left in the boil. Help me out bro

 

[Rodent]

@kl Roosevelt brewer - howdy ho!

- not familiar with the 1/2 extract now + 1/2 later approach, so don't have a comment based on personal experience

- I did my first FWH and WP additions on the SMaSH IPA I brewed last month. in my case the WP addition was for 30 min and constituted ~50% of my total hops addition not including dry hopping. I liked the results, but I'm sure there's an unlimited number of percentages that could have been used with differing results.

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

Hey rodent what was the temperature when you ran to Whirlpool for your hops?

 

[Rodent]

here's a pair of images of the SMaSH IPA (Maris Otter x Mosaic)

first tapping

a week later with less than a gallon remaining

and a Russian Imperial Stout I brewed in March that is just coming on rotation

 

[Rodent]

Hey rodent what was the temperature when you ran to Whirlpool for your hops?

I whirlpooled at 180F for 30 min, then chilled down to 64F and pitched Imperial 'Flagship'. Fermented at 64F for four days, then raised to 68F for another 10 days. Dryhop and maintain 68F for four days, then cold crashed to 35F for a week before kegging and force CO2 carb.

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

If you can explain forced carbonation to me.

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

How many pounds? For how long? At what temperature?

 

[Rodent]

How many pounds? For how long? At what temperature?

20 PSI applied to a full 5G corny keg for several days with contents kept at 35F +/- 1F

 

[kl Roosevelt brewer]

Thank you

 

[doug293cz]

If you can explain forced carbonation to me.

How many pounds? For how long? At what temperature?

20 PSI applied to a full 5G corny keg for several days with contents kept at 35F +/- 1F

Thank you

Actually "forced carbonation" is whenever you use bottled CO2 to carbonate, rather than creating the CO2 by fermentation (i.e. natural carbonation.) Many people however say "forced carbonation" when they are talking about accelerated forced carbonation. Non-accelerated forced carbonation is when you set the CO2 pressure at the chart value for the volumes you want at the temp the beer will be stored. This is commonly referred to as the "set-and-forget" method. There are four basic methods of doing accelerated forced carbonation.

1. Use the chart pressure for the volumes you want at the current temp of the beer, and then agitate the keg by shaking or rolling to speed the absorption of CO2 into the beer.
2. Use ~30 psi for about 36 hrs on cold beer, then vent the keg and lower the pressure to chart value. Other combos are 40 psi for 24 hrs, or 20 psi for 48 hrs. Best to find what seems to work for you and stick with it.
3. Use ~30 psi on cold beer and agitate the keg until you think the beer is carbonated enough. This is the least controllable method, and the easiest way to over-carbonate beer.
4. Use a carbonation stone starting at low CO2 pressure and gradually increasing the CO2 pressure to just keep a low flow of CO2, until the CO2 pressure reaches the chart value. This is how many (most) commercial brewers carbonate.

Brew on

 

[HotRod9mm]

WELCOME from the dry side(well not today) of the state!


Nice looking brew!

 

[Rodent]

Update: I recently relocated over to the 'dry side' of WA State and now reside nearby to the Yakima area (not Yakima itself, but within 15ish minutes of it)

All my brewing gear is packed in the garage, and I no longer have a commercial natural gas stove to brew on. I have a lot that's going to keep me busy this year, but hoping to get a 2xIPA brewed in time for hops harvest as I have a new friend who manages the hops division of a large grower in the area. We've discussed Mosaic wet hops and I have an open invite to join him during harvest season and go home with what I need to wet hop that night

I'm also extending our small homestead type orchard to include a couple cider type apple trees, and plan to add a couple more next year plus a pear cider type tree or two