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So who's brewing this weekend?

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Tried to brew last weekend and monday but kids and rain got in the way.
looking to do 10 gallons of cream of 3 crops on sunday.
I did manage to brew 5 gallons of Belgian for my blueberry beer under my gazeebo the other day while it was raining.
 
Pretty good brew day. Only issues are that I managed to spray some hose water into my cooled wort and I keep ending up with one extra gallon ever since buying a new brew kettle.
 
So, indeed off topic, but I've seen your frustrations...My Barley Crusher died after only 2 years (and 60ish batches). The knurling wore to the point that I'd have to triple crush, starting at .050 or more just to get it to grab. Adjusting down as I could. Some runout due to bearing wear as well. My own frustrations after spending about an hour each brew day adjusting and readjusting to mill for each batch, led me to buy the SS Brewtech mill and cart.

I know, I know...very expensive, but worth it to me. I now just measure my grains the night before, wake up and light my burner, mill my grains (15 lbs or so in 3 or 4 minutes), and go :). For those interested, -4 setting for rye or oats, -3 for everything else. I BIAB. Today I hit 80% efficiency (compared to 68-70% prior).
I know off topic, but thanks for the input on the mill!
 
Brewed up another batch of the house lager yesterday. The first two were done warm (64-66) and this one is fermenting at 55, just to see how the Lallemand Diamond lager yeast does at cooler temperatures. The WF ones turned out damn near perfect, and since I have enough in the pipeline have time to try a cold/cool one. No lag on the yeast (used a fresh pack) and it's happily bubbling away today. If anyone is interested, here's the recipe:

10lbs pilsner malt
1lb light Munich
1lb Carapils

Mashed at 152 for 60 minutes, lautered for 15

1oz Sterling FWH
.5oz each Hallertau Mittelfruh & Blanc at 10, 5, and flameout

SG 1.062 (let it boil a bit too long, gonna get about 4.75g in the keg, target SG is about 1.055)

Sitting in my ferment fridge, in one of my 7g fermonsters (oh yes way too much headspace) at 55; I'll let it go until the krausen starts to drop, then raise the temp to 62 for a couple days before dropping to 48 for a week or so. Should be a tasty one.
Recipe sounds good. Consider using a bit of acid malt? IMO, this give the Pils "bite".
 
Recipe sounds good. Consider using a bit of acid malt? IMO, this give the Pils "bite".
I have never used acid malt but now I'm intrigued. Might consider it for the next one. To be truthful, the "bite" I get from the lager yeast is pretty much what I want with my lagers, but I'm always willing to try something new.
 
BEA469B2-911C-40F0-8B88-DF8C33CCF5CF.jpeg
First hop addition in.
 
I put together a saison today.

Pale malt, white wheat malt, caravienne, Centennial hops. Belle Saison yeast. OG 1.051. This yeast usually goes to 1.000 for me if not a bit lower.

Warm weather is here. Saison it is.

For many years I used a chill box to ferment in. It was a cardboard box with all sides lined with "Reflectix" insulation. Holding 12F below ambient wasn't a problem just changing out a one liter frozen water bottle twice a day.

Bought a "Cool Brewing" fermentation jacket and trashed my box. The bag just doesn't stay as cold as the box did. Probably going to cut some Reflectix to line the bag while I'm using it.

I like the bag. It's water tight. Collapses so it's easy to store. VERY well made. Just not quite cold enough.
 
Brewing a Dortmunder Export Lager. Had planned on something else, but family stopped by, I ran out of 2 row, and things just got too complicated. I had enough for this, and it's something I've been wanting to try.
20200627_160849.jpg
 
Just connected up to the chiller and pitched bell's harvested yeast into a Two Hearted Clone. Up'd the hop schedule a bit from the official recipe cause i had some lower than usual AA% Centennial hops.

Bought a 6'er of Two Hearted last month as hadn't had in awhile and forgot how good it was. Built up the yeast from the last 2 bottles and decided to brew it up myself.

Looking forward to getting this one kegged up and on tap soon. Wishing i'd done it last week to have on tap for 4th of July weekend, but oh well. (just hope my NEIPA keg hangs on thru the holiday weekend:oops:)
 
Looking to do a brown ale. Won a bronze last time I did it. Made some tweaks to the recipe accordingly, not that it'll be entered in any competitions.
 
Woke up to rain, decided to scramble a batch of my imperial chocolate stout with its 42 pound grain bill. Gonna run late but wth...


Cheers!

how big is your mash pot?
my BIAB pot is 15 gallons and 10 gallon batches of session ales are putting me at max if I want to do a full mash.
I want to make 10 gallons of milk chocolate stout for the winter next month and I don't see that happening in my little pot.
 
Ambitious brewday planned this weekend... My brother and I are combining our breweries and our inaugural recipe is a double batch (10 gallons) of Westvleteren 12 clone! Then, to add another degree of difficulty we will partigyle a third batch.

Yay, beer!
 
Got 'er done and everything cleaned up and put away just in time for dinner. What a beast! Picked up a bonus OG point as well :ban:
This will be my first run of a CO2 collection and keg purging system I put together. Gas lines merged and run out the back...

stout7_30jun2020_2.jpg



...and connects to the Out port on the first keg, which is daisy chained In port to Out port on the second keg, In Port exhaust line to a bubbler bottle. If I can keep this beast of a stout under control it should get interesting soon :)

stout7_30jun2020_3.jpg


Cheers!
 
Got 'er done and everything cleaned up and put away just in time for dinner. What a beast! Picked up a bonus OG point as well :ban:
This will be my first run of a CO2 collection and keg purging system I put together. Gas lines merged and run out the back...

View attachment 687413


...and connects to the Out port on the first keg, which is daisy chained In port to Out port on the second keg, In Port exhaust line to a bubbler bottle. If I can keep this beast of a stout under control it should get interesting soon :)

View attachment 687414

Cheers!

You’re gonna need a bigger bottle. :cool:
 
I'm certainly hoping that thing bubbles like mad over the next few days :)
My concern is 1.108 beer with two packs of S04 per carboy getting out of control and plugging up the skinny (5mm ID) tubing with krausen.
But I have a fallback already put together: a half gallon PET jug with a pair of 1/2" ID blow-offs and a PTC fitting for the output...

keg_purge_system_11.jpg


If I have to I'll use this through the throes of early fermentation then switch back to the original connections. I figure the bottle will "katch the krausen" and let the CO2 move along to the kegs...

Cheers!
 
how big is your mash pot?
my BIAB pot is 15 gallons and 10 gallon batches of session ales are putting me at max if I want to do a full mash.
I want to make 10 gallons of milk chocolate stout for the winter next month and I don't see that happening in my little pot.

Those are all 20 gallon kettles, and there was just 2 inches of free board in the mlt while recirculating. Pre-boil volume is 14 gallons so there's plenty of room in the boil kettle, but yeah, your mash tun isn't going to get there.

That said, I brew one of these for like 10 batches of pales/ipas/neipas/wheats. At 11% abv (minimum - I've had it finish at 1.018 which puts it close to 12%) I have just a short pour every evening to knock my @ss into bed. You might consider doing a smaller batch to enjoy rather than not doing a batch at all :)

Cheers!
 
Brewery is all set up and ready for tomorrow's brew day. All the water salts are set and my pre mash ph has been adjusted and ready to go. Going to brew a German Hefeweizen and take my time and do a decoction. This is a recipe that I have tweaked to a point that the last time I brewed it the beer was truly outstanding, and some people that tried it thought it was just like the Hef's they had in Germany. So I hope I can replicate it again!

John
 
Those are all 20 gallon kettles, and there was just 2 inches of free board in the mlt while recirculating. Pre-boil volume is 14 gallons so there's plenty of room in the boil kettle, but yeah, your mash tun isn't going to get there.

That said, I brew one of these for like 10 batches of pales/ipas/neipas/wheats. At 11% abv (minimum - I've had it finish at 1.018 which puts it close to 12%) I have just a short pour every evening to knock my @ss into bed. You might consider doing a smaller batch to enjoy rather than not doing a batch at all :)

Cheers!

you do make a good point.
why make a bunch of one beer that needs time in the keg for winter when I can make a bunch of different beers that need time in the keg for the winter.

I made 10% saison with Ariana hops that you honestly couldn't tell was that high an ABV. until halfway through the glass. so I know what you mean.
 
fwiw, the capture/keg purge system is alive! :ban:
Bottle is bubbling away merrily while I'm keeping the S04 under control at 65°F wort temp.
Plenty of history with this brew says if I were to let it get to 66°F all hell will break loose, so a tight rein it is :)

I had not considered how elastic the system would be, but given the two fermenters' head space at one end, and two empty kegs at the other end, if I submerge the vent line more than a few millimetres the bubbling changes from constant to short bursts separated by minutes of compression.

When I got up this morning that line was fully submerged under around 8" of water and there was zero bubbling going on, while the fermenters were starting to do their thing. Freaked me out, so I did a quick end-to-end leak-down test using my .4 psi reg, and with the exhaust line plugged everything was tight. Then I just stuck the merged line in the ferm chamber directly in the water bottle and immediately realized I could change the bubble pattern readily right there. Put that end back together, went to the other end, stuck the line to the first keg directly in the bottle, and saw the same behavior.

So put everything back together but left the exhaust just barely submerged and by the time I pulled a cup of coffee the bubbling was off and running. I have a nano camera on it so I can watch it from my office just in case but I feel pretty confident if I don't lose control of the wort this thing is gonna work...

Cheers!
 
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