So who's brewing this weekend?

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Brewed a Cherry Chocolate Imperial Stout this weekend. Should come in around 10% ABV. Still iffy on how much cherry concentrate I'm going to add. I'm considering adding a small dose to the fermenter and then gauging how things taste at kegging time, then add more accordingly. Kind of sneak up on it.
 
Jeez camonick, you may be the busiest brewer on this site. Oh, and all your beers look fantastic.
Thank you.
Only busy because of 2 reasons...
1- I’m a poor manager of my pipeline and it seems like they all run out at the same time.
2- I also tend to be a bit of a perfectionist when I’m trying to nail a clone recipe (or any recipe for that matter) and have dumped a few unsatisfactory batches lately. I’ve abandoned my quest to clone Guinness for a while and the stout I brewed yesterday is a published recipe that’s supposed to be a respectable substitute for Murphy’s... hopefully I’ll have a batch I actually enjoy drinking. Most of the recent HB stout pics in what are you drinking look nice but I haven’t enjoyed drinking them. Doing a little reset of sorts for that style.
 
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Drinking a HB Brown, brewing a Cali Common.
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Could you share your Bohemian Black Lager recipe?

This is totally experimental... this is the only recipe that pops up in a google search for “Shiner 97 clone”.
I don’t think it’s an authentic Czech dark lager but I was willing to give it a try.
Here’s a LINK to the recipe I used.
I’ll know in about a month if it’s any good.
 
I’ve abandoned my quest to clone Guinness for a while
One of the keys to Gunness is to sour some actual Guinness or some of your homebrew stout and add it to the boil. Guinness supposedly adds a percentage of soured Guinness from a previous batch to each batch. Leave some out in a pitcher or other large container covered in cheesecloth for a few days before you brew. That’s the method I heard many years ago. Or this says they use lactic acid.

https://www.fivebladesbrewing.com/guinness-secrets-revealed/
 
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One of the keys to Gunness is to sour some actual Guinness or some of your homebrew stout and add it to the boil. Guinness supposedly adds a percentage of soured Guinness from a previous batch to each batch. Leave some out in a pitcher or other large container covered in cheesecloth for a few days before you brew. That’s the method I heard many years ago. Or this says they use lactic acid.

https://www.fivebladesbrewing.com/guinness-secrets-revealed/
I’ve tried both of those methods and unless I’m doing something wrong, neither gives me the flavor I’m after. I’ve tried hard water, soft water, mash roasted grains, cold steep roasted grains, liquid Irish ale yeast, Nottingham yeast, S-04 yeast, different types and brands of grains, carbonate, serve with nitro but have never made a batch when I take a drink I say “This is it!” I’m 100% convinced that the water they use has a unique flavor we can’t reproduce, their house yeast is something special, they have a proprietary ingredient that we don’t know about and/or a combination of any or all 3 of those things. I can taste the same flavor in Smithwick’s too. I emailed Guinness to ask for advice and they told me to pound sand.
 
I’ve tried both of those methods and unless I’m doing something wrong, neither gives me the flavor I’m after. I’ve tried hard water, soft water, mash roasted grains, cold steep roasted grains, liquid Irish ale yeast, Nottingham yeast, different types and brands of grains, carbonate, serve with nitro but have never made a batch when I take a drink I say “This is it!” I’m 100% convinced that the water they use has a unique flavor we can’t reproduce, their house yeast is something special, they have a proprietary ingredient that we don’t know about and/or a combination of any or all 3 of those things. I can taste the same flavor in Smithwick’s too. I emailed Guinness to ask for advice and they told me to pound sand.
Wow - some breweries are more homebrew friendly. I hope they weren’t too rude.

Its also served on nitro from a special tap. Do you you have a nitro tank and a nitro faucet?
 
Wow - some breweries are more homebrew friendly. I hope they weren’t too rude.
They weren’t rude... just not willing to offer ANY advice. Their reply was something to the effect of thanks for asking, but our recipe and ingredients are proprietary secrets that we don’t share.
 
They weren’t rude... just not willing to offer ANY advice. Their reply was something to the effect of thanks for asking, but our recipe and ingredients are proprietary secrets that we don’t share.
It might be a longshot, but you could fire off a email to Sullivan's brewery. Its run by the family that sold smirhwick to Guinness,if it's got the same taste maybe they could point you in the right direction

CHEERS!!
 
Tomorrow I'm brewing a SA Olde Fezziwig Ale clone, since it is not being offered in the Holiday pack. Also, if I feel up to it. a 100 % pilsner fermented with whatever I have on hand. :mug:
 
Well I was planning on brewing a Kolsch on Saturday but now with this storm Eta just about to hit us this evening I might have to wait and see if I loose power and if there is any clean up that I have to take care of. Might just wait til next weekend but I will know by tomorrow.

John
 
Giving the new improved mash tun its test run this weekend, starting today (yes it is 3am, couldn't sleep) with a light WF lager; tomorrow I'll do my current House IPA with Citra and Sabro. Probably gonna have some hiccups with the tun since I didn't get the right fitting for the hose to the new false bottom, but I'm prepared for it; if I have to I'll heft up the bag (I MIAB) to get all the wort out. We shall see.
 
Brewing up my imperial stout this weekend. I've brewed it for years without any changes, but I really want to take it to the next level, so last year I was super critical and came up with 3 changes. Assuming that NHC still happens, this will be my submission for that, so going to be extra careful every step of the way.
 
Would you like to give us a sneak peek at your Guinness clone recipe? Water chemistry addictions?
I am going to brew a Guinness clone soon and pressure ferment in a Fermzilla. Anyone have any advice on what pressure to maintain or how long it took to get to complete fermentation?
 
@Abrayton, that looks a LOT like my fridge right now!

About 1/3 of the way through the boil of my House Strong; garage smells deliciously of baking graham cracker crust, it's warm as toast out here with the boiling wort and dad's old space heater, good tunes, and got two beers kegged; needed one done so I could rack onto the yeast cake. Preboil on the Strong was 1.053, about 10 points higher than the last one (woohoo new false bottom did the job right!) and expecting higher than 1.070 when it's all done since I started with just under 9 gallons, and try to get close to 6 in the fermonster. Good day!
 
I was brewing, until my just boiling barley wine flipped over due to a sink-hole under the slab I brew on (turns out I have a vole problem).

I think I'll go get a bottle of whiskey to try to wash away the image of 7 gallons of wort flying through the frosty morning air... I may also have a memorial service for the 23lbs of maris otter that never got to grow up into a tasty beer.

One thing for certain, this means war against all voles!!! They know not the fury they have unleashed!!!
 
I was brewing, until my just boiling barley wine flipped over due to a sink-hole under the slab I brew on (turns out I have a vole problem).

I think I'll go get a bottle of whiskey to try to wash away the image of 7 gallons of wort flying through the frosty morning air... I may also have a memorial service for the 23lbs of maris otter that never got to grow up into a tasty beer.

One thing for certain, this means war against all voles!!! They know not the fury they have unleashed!!!
I tried to put the “care:we’re all in this together emoji on that”.
 
I've just brewed my 3rd in a row Weizenbock as I'm liking the complexity that goes on with different grains and hefe yeast as Ron Barchet says in this recipe. Didn't use his exact ingredients but used it as a guide. This use of various grains he says works for me. I used a lot of different grains, including home roasting to various colors. I also did 2 with honey added to primary and one with rye. Very happy. Last one will come out around 11% ABV.
Triple decoction if your pro or con, takes longer, but I'm thinking it's making a more intense brew after tasting first batch.

https://beerandbrewing.com/classic-weizenbock-recipe/
 
Brewed on Friday, had small amounts of grain from previous brews. Dumped it all in, best guess is I'll get some kind of beer lol. Maybe I'll call it potluck or leftovers.
I'll stop by in a couple of weeks. That sounds interesting.. lol
 
Chocolate coffee stout today. Will be the starter for my second annual Christmas RIS. Just kegged last years version and I’m very happy with how it turned out. Will make for nice Christmas gifts.
 
Got a long weekend coming up and it's supposed to be cold so I might brew up a lager. Thinking about doing a schwarzbier, oktoberfest, or pils. Chyeah!
 
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