So who's brewing this weekend?

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I've got family from France coming this weekend and they want to brew something they can drink before they leave in a couple of weeks. So we'll brew something light and simple, something similar to a Kolsch or mild ale with a quick turnaround. I've brewed kettle to mug hefeweizens in a week so it's doable.
 
Mashing the Cali-style Spaceballs Schwarz now. Looks like it's going to be a relaxed, mellow brewday until my son decides that the inevitable chaos needs to erupt.
 

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Out of my usual hops for IPA, so just came up with a recipe for a Strata Pale to brew tomorrow; copied the hop schedule from Brulosophy, going with a base of 10lbs two-row and 2lbs Munich. I've done two previously, that were good but kinda skimpy on hops; going to dump a lot into this one.
 
Love to get an accurate clone recipe of that! ^

John
I've read the forums and reddits and brought back a case from a recent bike trip. To quote Innigo Montoya, there is too much, let me sum up: the BrewNinja1 recipe appears to be the accepted best clone recipe, the yeast to use is purported to be WY2565 fermented at 68F, Briess ingredients to stay with the Wisconsin thing. PM me if you want all my notes. I'm not brewing until starter is ready.

[Edit: added link to recipe, and wanted to note that the HBT thread has several slight variation recipes and several recommendations that the NB Speckled Heifer kit is really close in taste]
 
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Strata Pale brewday went very well. Right now boiling some sugar wash to make another batch of hard seltzer, busy gal this Saturday. Ran out of coffee this morning so it's kind of a drinking brewday, sipping on new lager that is quite tasty and light enough to sip on all day.
 
Strata Pale brewday went very well. Right now boiling some sugar wash to make another batch of hard seltzer, busy gal this Saturday. Ran out of coffee this morning so it's kind of a drinking brewday, sipping on new lager that is quite tasty and light enough to sip on all day.
"Sip"
Hm. I think I've heard of that.
Not sure.
"Sip"
It really sounds familiar in a way, but, no, I really don't know it.
 
Experimental brew day today. I am trying to make a Session Brute IPA (4%) so IPA really seems like the wrong name. This is my first go at using glucoamylase. My experience is documented here if anyone wants to look. The gluco made my brewhouse efficiency go way up and I over shot the pre-boil gravity quite a bit but I think it will all be good.
 
Finally boiling at 10pm. I'm a late nite brewer it seems. Usually finish around 3am. Neighbors hear me clanking around & I always try to be quiet.....
Making a 12 gal batch of wheat beer. 3 different yeasts. 4 gals Hefe, 8 gals of my house Cherry beer that everybody asks for. I think its too late in the season but whatever.
 
I’ll be brewing a dark mild tomorrow, finalizing recipe and water minerals today. Wyeast 1335 British Ale II, a strain I have not been overly fond of, but I haven’t used it in years and I want to try it again.

After this mild, I’m thinking about a British strong ale, maybe something in the 7% range to age on wood.

Then I want to re-use it one more time for this year’s barleywine, which will be an English style. This is the beer I originally had in mind when I bought this yeast. I have American style barleywines from 2019, 2020, and 2021 so I want to do something different this year.

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My weekend starts tomorrow when Wife goes out of town for a few days (she doesn't like the smell when I brew, anybody else have that problem?) I have the grain measured out for a Lithuanian-style raw ale. It should be a pretty quick brew day because of the no-boil thing.
And I might brew a Weisenbock on Friday or Saturday if the yeast (and Vienna malt, which I won't be using in this one) I ordered yesterday get here in time. I'm way behind on my brewing this year. If not, I'll be inventorying and organizing my malts and hops, and bottling some wine.
 
I brewed a raw ale Thursday afternoon. I overshot the temperature and accidentally mashed-in at 158°F instead of 150. Instead of adding ice I just went with it and let it mash a little longer. At the end of an hour and 20 minute mash, I checked it with a refractometer, and the conversion must have been terrible because it was only about 9 Brix (1.035) I had a pound of petrified DME in my brewing junk draw, so I dissolved that in a quart of boiling water (it took a while) and added it to the fermenter. I probably should have just left it alone.

When it was cool enough to pitch the yeast, I put in my Tilt hydrometer and it said 1.061! The yeast I'm using is a diastaticus variety, so this beer is going to be really strong and probably not hoppy enough. I'm guessing I denatured most of the alpha-amylase and converted everything with beta, and the dextrin and long-chain sugars don't really show up with the refractometer but do with the hydrometer. And the diastatic yeast will chomp those just fine, it'll just take a while. I better use all plastic bottles for this one so I don't have bottle bombs.
 
Today is kegging day for the Strata Pale and the hard seltzer; tomorrow going to brew another batch of the House WF Lager, have just enough base malt left. Not feeling the brew vibe today, possibly due to lots of boxes that got thrown out to the garage to be broken down this week, in my way. Sigh, guess I gotta do that too.

*edit Forgot that there's the Puyallup Oktoberfest going on this weekend, guess we're heading there later today as husband is working tomorrow.
 
My weekend starts tomorrow when Wife goes out of town for a few days (she doesn't like the smell when I brew, anybody else have that problem?) I have the grain measured out for a Lithuanian-style raw ale. It should be a pretty quick brew day because of the no-boil thing.
And I might brew a Weisenbock on Friday or Saturday if the yeast (and Vienna malt, which I won't be using in this one) I ordered yesterday get here in time. I'm way behind on my brewing this year. If not, I'll be inventorying and organizing my malts and hops, and bottling some wine.

I have a teen who now associates brewery smells with a specific video game 🤣
 
Props for everyone on this forum for their input - thanks to HBT, I think that I'll have another properly-executed brew - pumpkin ale - completed shortly. Roasted pumpkin (butternut squash) in BIAB bag in boil seems to be working well.
 

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Props for everyone on this forum for their input - thanks to HBT, I think that I'll have another properly-executed brew - pumpkin ale - completed shortly. Roasted pumpkin (butternut squash) in BIAB bag in boil seems to be working well.
Sparging both the grain and squash was a pain though.
 
Sparging both the grain and squash was a pain though.
Yes its worth it though. I am making mine next week in time for Thanksgiving and its the most labor intensive beer I make. Between baking the pumpkin meat (16 pounds) sparging through the mesh bag and then I add the bag in the kettle just before it comes to a boil. Then all the light molasses, other additions, and spice additions near the end of the boil etc. etc. Turns out great every year and is requested, so I brew it to make everyone happy. Good luck with the rest of your brew day!

John
 
Yes its worth it though. I am making mine next week in time for Thanksgiving and its the most labor intensive beer I make. Between baking the pumpkin meat (16 pounds) sparging through the mesh bag and then I add the bag in the kettle just before it comes to a boil. Then all the light molasses, other additions, and spice additions near the end of the boil etc. etc. Turns out great every year and is requested, so I brew it to make everyone happy. Good luck with the rest of your brew day!

John
Thanks. My first attempt. It's out in the shed percolating - I'm hoping for the best.
 
Yes its worth it though. I am making mine next week in time for Thanksgiving and its the most labor intensive beer I make. Between baking the pumpkin meat (16 pounds) sparging through the mesh bag and then I add the bag in the kettle just before it comes to a boil. Then all the light molasses, other additions, and spice additions near the end of the boil etc. etc. Turns out great every year and is requested, so I brew it to make everyone happy. Good luck with the rest of your brew day!

John
Does the pumpkin really add anything other than a little color? Theoretically it should, but maybe not much. I wonder if you could accomplish the same thing with a little 40°L malt and let the spices do all the heavy lifting. OTOH, what else are you gonna do with all that pumpkin? 😂 (I say that because I have about 50 pounds of winter squash which is about the same thing as pumpkin and I don't know what to do with it)
 
@BrewMan13 and I are brewing 13.5 gallons of a massive 1.140ish imperial stout today. Fg is 1.055-1.060 and we are barrel aging it in a fresh American oak 10 gallon barrel. Needed to double mash to handle the 55lb+ Grainbill View attachment 783261View attachment 783262View attachment 783263View attachment 783264
Update: The pH, efficiency, volume, and OG were all spot on their respective targets and the carboys are ripping already. Not bad considering we had 2 boil-overs, lautering was slow as hell, and we kind of guestimated the boil time based on how much we needed to get it down.
 
I just brewed my fourth one gallon all grain BIAB single hop (cascade) pale ale beer. It would have been a SMaSH but I used mostly pale ale malt with a little bit of Munich malt left over from another brew. This is my first time using Irish Moss in an all grain brew.
 
Mashed in a quick BIAB WF Lager about 30 minutes ago, aiming to be done in time to watch football at 10am. And thanking my lucky stars I don't have to bounce between football and baseball today, since my beloved Mariners came back in the 8th yesterday to squash Toronto's hopes and dreams (yes sounds mean but I DON'T CARE) after being down 8-1, causing my fickle husband to mourn several times 'this game is over' 'they suck', and other gems. On to Houston!!!!
 
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