So who's brewing this weekend?

[Halfakneecap]

I have been wanting to try S-33. I finally tried Windsor which everyone says it sucks, but I think the Mild turned out well. Let us know how the stout does.

Will do. I tried windsor recently, i thought it was ok, but im in no rush to use it again.

Bit worried about S33. Some mixed reviews, and i really like Verdant. I'll use it for something i guess.

 

[Pennine]

Waiting for the recent best bitter to finish boiling. I stole the recipe then realized I didn't have the right adjuncts so I made some substitutions. Naked oats and corn, in place of oats and sugar.

 

[jdauria]

Brewing a Berliner Weiss tomorrow, well mashing and kettle souring it tomorrow,

 

[ernst_gouws]

Brewing a kölsch-ish beer. K97 and TheSwaen Malts.

 

[Halfakneecap]

Probably next weekend. I have too much malted wheat

Galaxy American wheat

46.2% BEST Heidelberg
53.8% Wey wheat

RICE HULLS !!!

Spalt to bitter
Galaxy dry hop

WLP 029.
1.038
25 IBU

 

[Pennine]

An impromptu batch of saison is going now. Using up the malt gems and munich I have. Will whirlpool and dry hop with Citra and use that new Lallemand Farmhouse.

 

[JC Mendyka]

Hafe wiesbier hell. Brewers Best kit. Second try. I’m still a baby.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Just mashed in on another pale ale. Since the hop bong attached to a corny keg has proven successful I have a lot of pales and ipa's to catch up on.

 

[Zadkiel]

brewday for my first grain brew is this sunday. I'm very excited Will be trying to make a California common, as I've posted about in another thread so I'm sure you're sick of hearing about it

 

[Tony B]

I’m about 15* away from mashing in on a Kölsch at 5:15pm. . Taking the day off tomorrow so not too worried about how long it takes.

 

[BongoYodeler]

brewday for my first grain brew is this sunday. I'm very excited Will be trying to make a California common, as I've posted about in another thread so I'm sure you're sick of hearing about it

Sick of hearing about it? Are you kidding? This is a homebrew forum. We live to hear all about it!!

 

[DuncB]

Planning black IPA, a beer I've never tried and difficult to find a commercial example.

 

[Halfakneecap]

Planning black IPA, a beer I've never tried and difficult to find a commercial example.

I havent brewed many black IPA's but i have made a few hoppy amber and hoppy dark ales. More dark and hoppy than a full IPA style but dark.

Really like them. I like Sinimar ( for colour ), or Midnight wheat, added late in the mash ( though i add dark malts late in the mash in all my dark beers ).

I have what looks like will be 7% in a cube awaiting yeast now, with a big cube hop addition of Centennial. Love the combo of dark and dank

 

[DaveDiamond]

Not brewing, but have Fermenter, will ferment!
New 15 litre came in the post today, cider on the way!

 

[BrewZer]

Mexican Lager was a success.

The Buckeye Hydro RO was a beast on my well water. My well water TDS is around 255-270 and it was getting the TDS to 13-15 the whole time I filled my kettle. Great rejection rate.

I had no idea how to install one of these systems, but I'm pretty hands on and Russ was exceptional answering questions. System comes with high quality membrane and filters. Not trying to sell this system for them, but really. I am impressed.

LOVED not filling up 20 gallons of water at my grocery store.

My hometown water system just commissioned a system-wide RO plant, dropping my home TDS from 29 to about 8. Now I use water softener salt at the rate of a bag a month instead of the prior 2.5 or so.

The Twin Blades of Fury is the first batch I've made with the softer system water, so I'll see what it does to overall brew quality. Shouldn't be much... but the proof of the pudding is when you open the bottle and pour the pudding out.

 

[BrewZer]

Definitely! I did a 12 gallon batch. Half got WLP940 and the other half got Cellar Science Baja to try it out.

 

[BrewZer]

I use stainless fermenters so I cannot see if a krausen is building or not,

@Bobby_M This sounds like a case for a camera port to be installed into the upper third of a pot... is it within the realm of possible?

 

[Zadkiel]

My hometown water system just commissioned a system-wide RO plant, dropping my home TDS from 29 to about 8.

I'm so jealous. here in the UK we have good mains water compared to many countries, but where I am in the center of London, TDS is high, about 400. I'd kill for 29, let alone 8! my Ca alone is 100.

 

[jwill911]

@Bobby_M This sounds like a case for a camera port to be installed into the upper third of a pot... is it within the realm of possible?

Hmm. That sounds like an idea.

 

[BrewZer]

My hometown water system just commissioned a system-wide RO plant, dropping my home TDS from 29 to about 8.

I'm so jealous. here in the UK we have good mains water compared to many countries, but where I am in the center of London, TDS is high, about 400. I'd kill for 29, let alone 8! my Ca alone is 100.

I misspoke -- my hardness has dropped to 8. That would put the TDS somewhere near 80.

 

[DuncB]

Waters okay here in NZ

 

[smurfjuicebrew]

A Christmas ale for new years ... grains
are a wee bit old ... se what happens

 

[DuncB]

All nicely organised today for the black IPA.
Strike at 55 c and then step mash.
Doughed in a quarter of the non roasted grains and then area wide power cut.

So looks like a long protein rest for part of the grain bill. Suggestion of three hour power cut.
15 minutes later and I'd been at 65, but 2 minutes later I suppose all grain would have been sitting at 55 and falling.

 

[Halfakneecap]

All nicely organised today for the black IPA.
Strike at 55 c and then step mash.
Doughed in a quarter of the non roasted grains and then area wide power cut.

So looks like a long protein rest for part of the grain bill. Suggestion of three hour power cut.
15 minutes later and I'd been at 65, but 2 minutes later I suppose all grain would have been sitting at 55 and falling.

That sucks!. Are you guys like us ( Oz ) in that the govt is hoping on the energy fairies to provide eletrical power, rather than the ridiculously abundant current energy source that's already readily available?

 

[Halfakneecap]

Verano Claro.

My light alcohol lager last year was surprisingly really good for 2.6%, i really liked it. I use very little crystal malt, i just generally prefer none, but the caramalt works really well. I will definately try it in bigger beers ( at a much smaller percentage though ) . Getting ready for summer.

81.6% Heidelberg
14.3% Caramalt
4.1% Chit ( getting rid of it )

Spalt 60 mins
Spalt in cube ( 20 min )

WLP 940 Mexican lager yeast 15c

1.028
27 IBU

 

[Zadkiel]

Doughed in a quarter of the non roasted grains and then area wide power cut.

Oof! Sorry to hear, that sucks.

 

[Willy]

Making a small batch of Czech pilsner (Simon Saaz, more Saaz hops ) - just a 6 gallon batch in the 100L kettle? Yes .... This is batch #2 on the Fat Man (Brewzilla 100L)... And I wanted to see how well it performed on a small sized batch. So far... Excellent! Preboil OG was 1.042 (expected 1.041) and the pH came in at 5.42 (dead on). Just a few more minutes before I put in the last oz of Saaz at 20 min. Really liking the big footprint of the fat boy and the faster pump, custom whirlpool port, and 6600 watt heater. Fat Man!!!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Not brewed today but transferred my American Amber to the bottling bucket. Will leave until Monday and bottle. It turned out at 5.4% ABV.

 

[leedspointbrew]

Bucktoberfest tomorrow. Last summer's iteration was good, but boozy, so I tweaked the recipe water volume. Crossing my fingers.

 

[Double_D]

I'm working my way through brewing the holiday beers that have been requested by the friend group and SWMBO... Date Brown today, Pumpkin beer last weekend and then I'm putting together a Festbier in 2 weeks once I can turn the fridge back down to lager temps. I have my kegerator and two friend's to fill up.

 

[jcav]

The wife and I are throwing a 60th b-day party for our neighbor next month. I let her pick what style of beer she wanted as it's her birthday. I couldn't believe she picked my pumpkin beer that I make every Thanksgiving as the beer she wanted. I tried to talk her out of it to no avail. So yesterday I brewed my Pumpkin Ale that has 16 pounds of pumpkin and the spices smelled so good on the back lanai. The birthday girl to be came over and got all the spices together for the flame out addition that I put in a screen tube. She also got to pitch the yeast for her beer. She had a great experience and learned a thing or two as well. All in all a great day!

John

 

[DuncB]

All went well once the power went on. Temp had dropped to 47, so I bumped to strike at 66 and doughed in the rest of grain.
Seems to be fermenting well.

 

[tenordrummer4life]

I've got an Oktoberfest-style SMaSH beer coming up on Sunday. Excited to play with Munich and Tettnang hops for the first time!

 

[Willy]

Got all the grains measured out today for an 11 gallon batch of American Pale Ale. Milling brew day, tomorrow. Grains used, about 23 lbs total. Golden Promise and Red X - 9 lbs, 8 lbs.
2 pounds of pilsner, 3 lbs flaked corn and about 8 oz each of biscuit and carapils. Hops... casacade, centennial and azzaca . This is a "what I got left" brew day batch, I am really low on grains and making a run to the Carolina Malt House early next week for enough grain for the next 5-9 months.

 

[lumpher]

Going to brew a Dirty Blonde Ale. Never tried 1, but it looks like it will add some complexity to a regular Blonde, and still light enough for the Texas Summer.

 

[Zadkiel]

Sick of hearing about it? Are you kidding? This is a homebrew forum. We live to hear all about it!!

OK, well. first grain brewday overall went well. There were mistakes for sure, but they weren't huge.

Biggest one was pH, perhaps my overconcerrn about pH and trying too hard to chase it and messing it up with a combination of a miscalibrated meter and bad decisions. Smaller mistake was completely missing one of my hop additions. And then doing a 15 minute hopstand, for the hops that I didn't put in lol.

But my efficiency was off the chart, at 93%, meaning my Cali Common is gonna be about 6%. The colour is also completely wrong, a dark brown instead of the coppery amber it's supposed to be, but fermentation went super well, from 1.054 to 1.012 in about 4 days, and it already tastes good, even with all the extra acid I had to add to the fermenter to get the pH to a remotely sensible level.

it's not right, but the next one will be a lot better thanks to it, and it's going to be very drinkable, so yay, win/win.

 

[MaxStout]

OK, well. first grain brewday overall went well. There were mistakes for sure, but they weren't huge.

Biggest one was pH, perhaps my overconcerrn about pH and trying too hard to chase it and messing it up with a combination of a miscalibrated meter and bad decisions. Smaller mistake was completely missing one of my hop additions. And then doing a 15 minute hopstand, for the hops that I didn't put in lol.

But my efficiency was off the chart, at 93%, meaning my Cali Common is gonna be about 6%. The colour is also completely wrong, a dark brown instead of the coppery amber it's supposed to be, but fermentation went super well, from 1.054 to 1.012 in about 4 days, and it already tastes good, even with all the extra acid I had to add to the fermenter to get the pH to a remotely sensible level.

it's not right, but the next one will be a lot better thanks to it, and it's going to be very drinkable, so yay, win/win.

Or it could become the serendipitous beer that turns out great.

 

[lumpher]

it's not right, but the next one will be a lot better thanks to it, and it's going to be very drinkable, so yay, win/win.

You know what's IS right? A beer that tastes good, so it sounds like that 1 is right.

 

[BongoYodeler]

OK, well. first grain brewday overall went well. There were mistakes for sure, but they weren't huge.

Biggest one was pH, perhaps my overconcerrn about pH and trying too hard to chase it and messing it up with a combination of a miscalibrated meter and bad decisions. Smaller mistake was completely missing one of my hop additions. And then doing a 15 minute hopstand, for the hops that I didn't put in lol.

But my efficiency was off the chart, at 93%, meaning my Cali Common is gonna be about 6%. The colour is also completely wrong, a dark brown instead of the coppery amber it's supposed to be, but fermentation went super well, from 1.054 to 1.012 in about 4 days, and it already tastes good, even with all the extra acid I had to add to the fermenter to get the pH to a remotely sensible level.

it's not right, but the next one will be a lot better thanks to it, and it's going to be very drinkable, so yay, win/win.

Sounds good!! As long as you’re having fun, and end up with something drinkable, it’s a win in my book. Just for some perspective, I have very few perfect brew days.

 

[DuncB]

@Zadkiel
You could always add some boiled water to get your target alcohol level.
When you say 93% efficiency which efficiency do you mean, you achieved your target volume and had more extraction?