So who's brewing this weekend?

[jrgtr42]

Have you considered re-using yeast slurry? Many of us here do, and it usually works just great. No freezing necessary, just sanitized Mason jars. Kept cold, they can still be viable up to two months (or longer, for some). Money saver right there.

I do that when possible, but i don't always brew that often, especially more specialty yeasts. 1056 / S05 I keep and reuse fine, but something like this one, the Irish Ale I use for stouts, Saison and so on I don't use as often.
Sadly, I'm not an every week brewer, more often it's 2 to 3 months between at best.

 

[jcav]

Taking a stab at brewing my first Christmas beer and the mash is almost over. Got a great recipe and I got all the spices, honey, light molasses, and even Madagascar vanilla beans (man do they smell wonderful) so I am excited to see how this one turns out! Have a great weekend everyone!

John

 

[corkybstewart]

Have you considered re-using yeast slurry? Many of us here do, and it usually works just great. No freezing necessary, just sanitized Mason jars. Kept cold, they can still be viable up to two months (or longer, for some). Money saver right there.

Something I do pretty often is fill kegs on brewday and refill the fermenter with my next beer immediately. Often I would brew a pale ale, then a stout, and finish with an imperial stout, without ever opening the fermenter. Most people on this site say it's a terrible idea, but I've never had an issue with doing it. So Tuesday I'll brew a stout and pour it on my IPA yeast cake.

 

[seatazzz]

I do that when possible, but i don't always brew that often, especially more specialty yeasts. 1056 / S05 I keep and reuse fine, but something like this one, the Irish Ale I use for stouts, Saison and so on I don't use as often.
Sadly, I'm not an every week brewer, more often it's 2 to 3 months between at best.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy, even after a few months. Just do a starter, either the traditional route or a vitality starter on brewday with some chilled wort. I know people who have used slurry after 6 months or longer who have made great beers with it. Just make sure you leave some beer with the slurry when you jar it up; keeps it moist (oh how I hate that word) and happy. As long as your sanitation is on point, and the slurry stays refrigerated, should last a long time. I do get some snarky comments from my husband at times, that our refrigerator is more of a yeast farm than a food storage facility....

*edit And because you may be thinking it, don't worry about dead yeast cells in the slurry; as long as it made good beer the first time, there will be plenty of viable cells left to start another one. After all, yeast nutrient is basically nothing but dried dead yeast.

 

[leedspointbrew]

Just finished the Cook's Corner Sinful Delight coffee stout - SD is the flavored coffee that I used, not necessarily the expected end result - I do hope that it'll be good. Anyone brewing nearing Galloway NJ should go to Cook's Corner for 1). great coffee and 2). a wealth of information about coffee. The owner Adam Perfetti expounded at length about the problems using high-acidity Kenyan coffee in pale ales. Great place.

 

[riceral]

put a Kentucky Common in the fermenter about 30 minutes ago.

 

[AlexKay]

Packaging this morning, brewing this afternoon. Here we have a Grodziskie, a passionfruit gose, and a blueberry Kolsch:

 

[AlexKay]

Making a black IPA. Here are the (bottom to top) 60, 5, and hop stand additions for a 2.5 gallon batch:

 

[AlexKay]

Mashing In for an Oud Bruin:

 

[AlexKay]

And now … I don’t know what to call this. It’s kind of an APA, but less bitter, and (once it’s fermented, hopefully) quite sour. Light grist, hopped with a good bit of Citra and Nectaron.

I’m working off memory to get something like the now-defunct Phase Shift from Central State Brewing.

Mashing in:

 

[corkybstewart]

I just mashed in for an oatmeal stout. Kind of a hybrid to use up some of last year's Munich malt.

 

[AlexKay]

Another sour, another somewhat-a-clone, somewhat-a-tribute, this time for Ommegang’s Pale Sour. Here it is just in the fermenter:

 

[Apmarand]

Running CIP after brewing a DIPA with the full gamut of hop/fruit forward products phantasm, incognito, lupomax, and thiolized yeast

 

[Bill9000]

Brewed a red ale today. Had a classic complacency error as I used my unsterilized stir spoon to fish out hop bags at the end of cool down. Used it to stir the boil, but had it sitting on a paper plate on a counter. Hoping it won't do any harm.

Might be my last 5 gallon brew. Don't drink much and feel I'm pushing my luck lugging around 40 pounds of hot water and a carboy down the basement steps. At least going to try a few 1 gallon recipes and see what that gets me. Should let me build some variety in my inventory.

 

[Teufelhunde]

Brewed a red ale today. Had a classic complacency error as I used my unsterilized stir spoon to fish out hop bags at the end of cool down. Used it to stir the boil, but had it sitting on a paper plate on a counter. Hoping it won't do any harm.

I wouldn't worry, I don't think you'll have any issues...

 

[Pkrd]

I’m just mashing a pale ale in the Grainfather. Columbus and Taiheke(NZ cascade).

I haven’t brewed since December so will be interesting to see what I screw up. Stay tuned.

 

[AlexKay]

Oak-smoked Schwarzbier getting ready for the boil:

 

[riceral]

Might be my last 5 gallon brew. Don't drink much and feel I'm pushing my luck lugging around 40 pounds of hot water and a carboy down the basement steps. At least going to try a few 1 gallon recipes and see what that gets me. Should let me build some variety in my inventory.

I hear you. I hurt my back a few years ago and have been watching what I do. Cut back from 5 gallon recipes to 3 gallons. Something to consider when you find a recipe you like.

 

[Abrayton]

Smoking a turkey and brewing a black ipa on Wednesday. A first for both.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Milled some grain last weekend and made a small Verdant/Liberty Bell yeast starter last night. Gonna brew an Old Peculier inspired ale on saturday after I drop off SWMBO and kids at the airport to visit her parents for a week.

 

[DuncB]

Milled some grain last weekend and made a small Verdant/Liberty Bell yeast starter last night. Gonna brew an Old Peculier inspired ale on saturday after I drop off SWMBO and kids at the airport to visit her parents for a week.

Great plan.
I'm picking elderflowers early on Saturday am and making my elderflower Saison again. 2.5 litre starter is chugging away and then it's England Vs USA.

 

[Newsman]

So I'm working on some cider, somewhat following a YouTube recipe (heavily modified.) I condensed two gallons of cider down to about 1.25 gallons, then added two cans of apple juice concentrate, a package of (boiled) baker's yeast and a pack of Mangrove Jack's M02 Cider Yeast. I put it all in my 6+ gallon BMB fermenter with the "universal" lid, one solid bung and one drilled. I keep having to force the lid back down because it keeps getting pushed up. Of course this causes the CO2 out through the airlock, so I have to refill that...

 

[Sailingeric]

Did 5 gallons of a hef.. My neice Heather likes hefs so I made a Heatherweizen

 

[Abrayton]

So I'm working on some cider, somewhat following a YouTube recipe (heavily modified.) I condensed two gallons of cider down to about 1.25 gallons, then added two cans of apple juice concentrate, a package of (boiled) baker's yeast and a pack of Mangrove Jack's M02 Cider Yeast. I put it all in my 6+ gallon BMB fermenter with the "universal" lid, one solid bung and one drilled. I keep having to force the lid back down because it keeps getting pushed up. Of course this causes the CO2 out through the airlock, so I have to refill that...

I have found that reversing the gasket helps keep the lid from popping off of the Big Mouths.

 

[brewbama]

Brewed a 2x Bock. Filled the MLT with this one. Missed OG by 4 pts but that’s OK. Close enough.

 

[Derp]

Just pulled out my 64L Brewzilla to fill it with water for tomorrow’s brew: a Czech Pilsner. Saw a huge roach running around inside and decided to cancel tomorrow’s brew day. I’ll do a deep cleaning Sunday and brew next week, I guess.

Yuck.

 

[Brewsmith]

Brewing a pale ale with my home grown hops. I have cascade and Columbus. There’s enough for the finishing but not enough for bittering, so I’m using half ounce of cascade pellets for the bittering addition. Everything else is the home grown in the last 15 minutes. The grain bill is simple and makes a solid base for trying different hops. It’s my go-to pale ale.

 

[orionol73]

First brew since March! Finally got around to brewing the Sierra Resilience IPA

 

[AlexKay]

Tried to brew an Imperial California Common today. Ended up way low on gravity (too much grain in the mash to mix well?) and very dark. Oh well, it’ll be beer:

 

[HM-2]

Planning an 8% old ale, half size batch with 5L to go to my dad and the rest in bomber bottles to age.

84% MO with 6% golden syrup. 3% each of Biscuit and Special B, 2.5% Cara Munich II and 1.5% Carafa Special. S-04/London copitch, 40IBU of target on the boil then 10 of CF184 in a 20m whirlpool.

 

[DuncB]

Just pulled out my 64L Brewzilla to fill it with water for tomorrow’s brew: a Czech Pilsner. Saw a huge roach running around inside and decided to cancel tomorrow’s brew day. I’ll do a deep cleaning Sunday and brew next week, I guess.

Yuck.

Spider with a body about an inch long in the bottom of my Guten 70, tipped it out and rinsed the guten out and did my Elderflower saison. I think there was a fair few small creepy crawlies on the freshly picked elderflower. But they won't make it to the glass.

 

[Section1]

Made a English Bitter today. Been awhile and was craving one.

 

[ZapperMike]

Caribou Slobber. Tried this one yesterday. Looks good so far.

 

[AlexKay]

This is what my hop stopper looks like after a spruce ale today.

 

[ChihuahuaTN]

Brewing a Low Carb IPA Thursday Night.....finalized the recipe and the ingredients tonight. Cleaning and prep work tomorrow night......

 

[leedspointbrew]

Smithville-wicks tomorrow; how does this recipe look?

5.5 lbs Crisp Maris
1 lb Crystal 60
.25 lbs Chocolate
.75 oz Fuggles @ 60
.24 oz EKG @ 10
Pitch S-04

Thanks.

 

[cfrazier77]

An EKG English pale ale

 

[leedspointbrew]

AOH (Absegami Original Hibernian) is just about in the fermenter. Perfect wet, misty, rainy day to brew an Irish amber.

 

[Brewsmith]

Brewing right now, a red IPA. I kegged my pale ale from last week and the yeast is getting repitched into this one.

 

[AlexKay]

Mashing in on an Imperial Eiskolsch, which is a style I just made up. Kettle is a little full.