What I did for beer today

[Jnco_hippie]

Bottled a farmhouse graff to get access to my house yeast cake (WLP670 w/ additional cultures of brett brux & brett lambicus)



Then brewed an all grain saison indoors (brew stand blocked by snow and motorcycle)








And finally, drink one of our 100% brett beers!

All in all... a good day!

 

[NickTheGreat]

Kegged my two last batches yesterday. Had a gas post stick onto the keg when I was cleaning it out. Thought I had done the ol' gas post on liquid poppet trick, but that wasn't the case. It's almost like it knew I was trying to get done by 5:00 and it didn't be be a ***** about it

 

[slbradley01]

Checked the progress of the Rye Saison we brewed Sunday. Bubbling away nicely in the fermentation chamber at 80F Oo...oo that smell!!

 

[Dmlsys23]

Racking my 60 Minute clone to secondary. Been homebrewing for a year and it's my first secondary so it should be interesting.

 

[Hello]

Racking my 60 Minute clone to secondary. Been homebrewing for a year and it's my first secondary so it should be interesting.

In truth, I was oddly paranoid about my first racking to secondary and it went okay. In the end there were no infections and only a small amount of lost beer, so that was good.

Hopefully yours goes the same.

Me, I am trying to decide if I want to put my christmas ale into secondary or just bottle among all the trub/orange peel. Probably won't bother with secondary but I may cold crash so long as I can still bottle carb.

 

[bleme]

Probably won't bother with secondary but I may cold crash so long as I can still bottle carb.

I have only cold crashed my last 3 batches but I am sold. They have all carb'ed just fine, with barely any bottle sediment so I get an extra ounce from every pour. It also makes the trub in my fermentor so firm that siphoning to the bottling bucket is a breeze.

My method is a bit unconventional. My fermentor is in a rope tub full of water to stabilize fermentation temps. One or two days before I bottle, I take out some water and replace it with frozen water bottles and ice cubes. Then I wrap it up in sleeping bags until bottling time.

 

[Oceantendency]

Cleaned my keg that had my first run of T&C's Sweet Amber Ale, it's replacement of second batch of T&C's Sweet Amber Ale with minor enhancement tweaks has been cold crashing in the secondary and is ready to Keg/Bottle tonight, can't wait ! Might have to pop open a bottle of my Aigi Dubbley for QC purposes to aid the work tonight.

 

[unionrdr]

Just gotta box up some bottles I washed yesterday from the bottle tree. Gunna do a 2 week FG test on my robust porter tomorrow. Hope it turns out to be done on the 2nd test Friday so I can add the vanilla & bottle it for Christmas.

 

[winvarin]

Filled dad's 1.75 gal mini keg with an amber I had ready. Also filled a couple of growlers with Yooper's FYB and some more amber to take to mom and dad's for Thanksgiving. Also pulled a bottle of 3 year old Red Zin from one of my better attempts at winemaking for my family members who (gasp) don't drink beer.

 

[Yellowirenut]

Tossed some bottles in the fridge for thanksgiving.
My niece saw a local news piece on Craft Brewing. She FB me and asked if I would bring along my "craft Beer" to Thanksgiving. First I don't think of what I make along the lines of craft brew more like home brew. Second I am 50/50 of will they like it or be confused its not a real beer like Miller lite.
I plan on educating but not be a condescending ass. Just explain Miller and the like are fairly new recipes with corn compared to Stouts and the like that are 100's of years old.

What I am taking-
Honey Orange wheat
German Altbier
Andes Mint Stout

I am also cooking the bird tomorrow morning...my first ever.

Link to the video http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/nbc33/news/The-Growing-Popularity-of-Craft-Beer-231989331.html

 

[winvarin]

Tossed some bottles in the fridge for thanksgiving. My niece saw a local news piece on Craft Brewing. She FB me and asked if I would bring along my "craft Beer" to Thanksgiving. First I don't think of what I make along the lines of craft brew more like home brew. Second I am 50/50 of will they like it or be confused its not a real beer like Miller lite. I plan on educating but not be a condescending ass. Just explain Miller and the like are fairly new recipes with corn compared to Stouts and the like that are 100's of years old. What I am taking- Honey Orange wheat German Altbier Andes Mint Stout I am also cooking the bird tomorrow morning...my first ever. Link to the video http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/nbc33/news/The-Growing-Popularity-of-Craft-Beer-231989331.html

The honey wheat should go over well. I usually brew Yooper's fizzy yellow beer around this time of year to take to mom and dad's for Thanksgiving. I'm bringing a growler of that for my aunts and cousin (BMC drinkers) and a growler of amber for me, my dad and his Navy buddy in case he shows. I already sent dad home with a 5L mini keg of my best bitter a couple of weeks ago so it could settle out before we tapped it. Hope to break into that when I get there tonight.

 

[Bulls Beers]

Bought a new Spike brewing kettle. I can't wait to get it...

 

[The10mmKid]

Picked up my 2 bags of grain from the neighborhood HBS bulk buy.

1) GW 2-row, $36.50
1) Franco-Belges Pilsen, $57

'da Kid

 

[1fast636]

Pasteurized a case and a half of regular root beer for Christmas presents. Only lost 2 bottles out of the batch a leaky cap and one actually broke out the bottom no mess or shrapnel so it was all good

 

[midwestbiker]

Brewing 5 gal of Traveling Man's Pale Ale so it will be ready for Christmas. Have two other 5 gal batches (an IPA and a Brown Ale) in their second fermentation - one will be kegged this weekend and the second next weekend. This batch should be ready in 15 to 20 days. Guess I'll have to bottle or drink quick!

Happy Thanksgiving All.

 

[unionrdr]

I fridged a bunch of my Maori & Cougar Country IPA's a couple weeks ago for today. good carbonation & clear amber orange from subbing the 3.2ozs of chocolate malt for 1/2lb of Weyerman's melanoiden malt. Can't wait to see which goes better with herbed turkey & southern stuffing. Just got the giblets goin,sans liver for better flavor.

 

[ianw58]

I fridged a bunch of my Maori & Cougar Country IPA's a couple weeks ago...

Wow! Had to read that twice! LOL

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[nukebrewer]

Got all my grains crushed and hops weighed out for brewing tomorrow. Also, since I realized the only fermenter I have available was dirty as hell, I did a cursory cleaning with hot water and then put some Oxyclean and hot water in there and letting it sit until I'm ready to use it tomorrow.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Checked on my Alt in the swamp cooler. It's been holding at a perfect 58°, right where I want it, with no ice bottles needed.

 

[JonM]

A whole bunch of post-Thanksgiving brew stuff: Kegged my latest batch of Yooper's Hoppy American Amber, discovered I had a leaky poppet, so - drats - I had to drain the last three pints of my oatmeal stout so I could steal a poppet from that keg. Then cleaned and organized the brew closet which had gotten a little disorganized over the last two or three brewdays. All while watching a couple recorded episodes of Brew Dogs.

 

[unionrdr]

Got somenewly emptied bottles to clean today after a couple naps this morning. Turkey day is good,but takes some work. All home made & home brewed takes some work & planning. 4 days & my order from Midwest is still "processing". Odered a new 7.9G fermenter with lid & grommet & a temp strip to replace the one I tossed out. Got an Italian spigot for this one,no more barrel taps. So I decided to try one of my Whiskely stouts outta the box @ 3weeks & 2 days. got a nice one finger head after a lil foam came outta the bottle. gunna have good carb & head after a week in the fridge. Had a couple shots of vodka left before boy's make a run in a lil while. Then I'll try my Cougar country IPA with the turkey & all. The Maori IPA went rather well with it's NZ hop flavors. Interesting how it melded with herb & spice flavors. Actually went pretty good with the southern style candied yams wife makes. Huh...Whiskely stout is holding a nice 3/32" veneer head. Cool.

 

[wilson42203]

SWMBO did a little Black Friday shopping late last night, so I had a bargaining tool this morning and ordered AHS's "our special holiday ale". Unfortunately, it likely won't be ready for Christmas, but that just means I won't have to share it when the family comes over.

 

[nukebrewer]

Brewed a beer for the wife today, an American brown that I brewed for this past nhs that she completely fell in love with. For the first time in quite some time, all seven of my fermenters are full. Five batches of beer, two batches of cider.

 

[finsfan]

Brewed up my pumpkin buffalo sweat clone today and racked Yoopers hoppy amber into secondary

 

[rowan57]

I dropped a bottle of Duvel Bottle didn't break (but won't be reusing, just in case) but did make a very foamy fountain. My FAVOURITE beer

 

[bleme]

Brewed a Baltic Porter. No hops in the boil. A total of 5oz of Cascade/centennial/Belma in a 20 min whirlpool at 195F. Can't wait!

 

[Qhrumphf]

Bought a new grain mill on a black friday deal. My LHBS usually has stuff at the same prices as the online guys, and often cheaper, and with the added sale it was a bargain.

 

[BGBC]

Delabeled a case of bottles.

 

[govner1]

Picked up two recipes @ my LHBS- Foothills Hoppyum & Mystic Fox Red Ale

 

[K5MOW]

Showed some new brewers to be how to make a batch.

Roger

 

[Qhrumphf]

Gave my old Corona mill to a clubmate since I don't need it any more, and was given a couple bottles of his medal winning Berliner Weisse, and a few ounces of leaf Willamette. Probably going to do a MO/Willamette SMaSH Bitter with em.

 

[NTXBrauer]

Put a buff and shine on 5 ball-lock corny kegs that I picked up on CL for a song. Best of all, they were clean inside and hold pressure

 

[tjmac5071]

Yesterday I racked a black IPA with a stuck fermentation into a new bottle and added an actively fermenting starter...fingers crossed.

Brewed my hoppy amber ale today.

Tomorrow I'm bottling a winter warmer to give out as gifts to some family at Christmas and building so carrying cases to go with them

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Bottled a Christmas Ale just in time to allow for 4 weeks in the bottle before chilling to drink. This one should be good.

Soldiers ready to go to war!!

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Not as much as I wanted to.
Was given a free fridge so had to transport it. Then found out GFCI outlets and fridges aren't good. I had to change out the GFCI for a standard outlet. I had to clean the crap out of the fridge. It was wiped down but the amount of gunk and dog hair inside was too much for me to ignore. Before all of this I had to build a table for my miter saw because the cabinet it was on won't let me store my lawn mower under it. I'm starting to be limited on space. I still have more garage organizing to do.

Glad to see im not the only one that has to do this lol!!

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

2/3 of the way through the boil of my first Dusseldorf Altbier. Off to a good start so far.

Id be interested in hearing how this comes out for you and the process you used (recipe/mash/yeast/water/ ferm sched etc)
Im planning to brew an Alt in Jan to be ready in April.

 

[Trippel-A]

Took a gravity reading and confirmed that fermentation is stuck on a bourbon barrel porter. SG is 1.021-1.022. If it were an all-grain batch, I'd just chock it up to an inefficient mash and move on, but this was an extract batch and I fear eventual bottle bombs.

If you're good at these things, check out this other thread and drop me a hint. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/lost-some-yeast-fermentation-very-slow-any-advice-437699/

 

[Qhrumphf]

Id be interested in hearing how this comes out for you and the process you used (recipe/mash/yeast/water/ ferm sched etc)
Im planning to brew an Alt in Jan to be ready in April.

I'll update, but recipe was:

5 lbs Munich I (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM) Grain 1 58.0 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner (Weyermann) (1.7 SRM) Grain 2 29.0 %
8.0 oz Caramunich III (Weyermann) (71.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.8 %
8.0 oz Special Roast (Briess) (50.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.8 %
2.0 oz Carafa Special I (Weyermann) (320.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.4 %
1.75 oz Hallertauer [4.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 30.5 IBUs
0.75 oz Hallertauer [4.10 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 7 7.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 1.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg German Ale (Wyeast Labs #1007) [124.21 ml] Yeast 9 -

Appropriately sized starter (I got abnormally fresh yeast from my LHBS, so it was about 1.3 L on the stir plate), and with my gear after 90 min boil I ended up just over 5 gallons into the fermenter at 1.050 OG. I've been fermenting it at a good and steady 58°F, which is where I've done all my hybrids in the past. It's my first ever Altbier, but the recipe is loosely based off of the recipe in BCS, so I don't think it could be all that bad.

I thought about doing a 3 step decoction mash (protein rest/conversion rest/mash out), but ended up settling on a boring 60 minute single infusion at 154 and doing my usual "sparge mash out" (where I drain the grain bed, add hot enough sparge water to bring the grain bed to 168-169° and let that rest for 10-15 before draining again). Active fermentation just stopped, and haven't checked FG yet, so I don't know where it ended up.

I'm planning on 3-4 weeks in primary at 58° followed by another 4 weeks in secondary "lagering" at 40° and getting hit with gelatin before I bottle it.

As far as water, I targeted the Bru'n Water "Dusseldorf (Boiled)" profile. Final water actually used was:

Ca 50
Mg 6
Na 32
SO4 83
Cl 41
HCO3 60

That was without needing any distilled/RO water, just some gypsum additions, (I love my water for that reason), and doesn't include the minute additions of neutralizing ~3ppm of chloramine w/ campden tabs. Mash pH of 5.3

 

[unionrdr]

Got a ton of HB bottles to clean & hope my robust porter is ready to bottle. Vodka & vanilla beans lookin nice & dark.

 

[celticdevildog]

In the spirit of Black Friday/Cyber Monday I have been shopping for great deals. I've been looking for anything that just "catches my eye" for brewing. So far, its a set of various beer glasses so I can try and match beer style with the proper glass. I've also got some bar towels and coasters on order to help get my bar set up.