What I did for beer today

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Sanitized the 3 gal Anvil fermenter to transfer 3 gal of the 5 gal batch so I can cold crash a few days before kegging, sanitized 14 bottles for the other 2 gal. Will have some British Honey Brown on hand for Thanksgiving. Time to get cracking on a Xmas ale. Every year it's Xmas stout or porter. Maybe a white Xmas ale with spices ??? Seems kinda weird though...👀
 

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Transferred 3 gallons of honey Brown ale off the yeast to secondary so I can cold crash for 2 or 3 days, bottled 2 gallons. Looks and taste, smells great ! Thanksgiving football is gonna be good ! I can still smell the sweet malt in the air !
 

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Milled grain for next weekends brew, gonne be a 1.065 late Victorian era inspired London Single Stout.
Lots of Amber, Brown and Black malt, about 1g/L of boiled oak chips in the fermenter and a hefty dry hop at pitch time.
Will likely require at least 4 months in the keg to smooth out...
 
South Arm Brew said:
I made it up myself. My wife makes sugar cookies for Christmas and suggested I make one. So here goes.

12 lbs 2-row
2 lbs c-20
3-11 oz boxes of Crav’n vanilla wafers in the mash
158 degree mash 1 hour.
2 oz Styrian Cardinale hops 60 min.
1-11 oz box Crav’n vanilla wafer in boil 10 min.

I plan on vanilla bean in secondary and addition 4oz almond extract in secondary. Not sure about that but will taste it first.

We will see
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Yeast?

Meanwhile, back in the fermenter, sampled and measured the Amberspice Ale. Looks like my higher-than-normal mash temp (158) left me with a less fermentable wort, but that's OK 'cause my beers tend to run a bit heavy for a 22 oz bottle.

Still very spicy up-front, malty in the middle, with a nice bit of bitterness at the back. You can drink it now -- I imagine it will be even better once carbonated.
 
BrewZer said:
Yeast?

Meanwhile, back in the fermenter, sampled and measured the Amberspice Ale. Looks like my higher-than-normal mash temp (158) left me with a less fermentable wort, but that's OK 'cause my beers tend to run a bit heavy for a 22 oz bottle.

Still very spicy up-front, malty in the middle, with a nice bit of bitterness at the back. You can drink it now -- I imagine it will be even better once carbonated.
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Sorry, 04 used 2 packets bubbling away beautifully as we speak!
 
Tried repriming two bottles each of my last two batches with additional sugar - got some excellent advice on a thread that I posed a few days ago. We'll see how it goes. If these four are successful, will endure the tedium of uncapping / repriming / recapping. At least two decent-tasting batches won't be wasted.
 
Brewed my English IPA today. Wasn't as smooth as I'd have liked. Our little one was really ill, throwing up last night so didn't get anywhere near as much sleep as I needed. I've had my brewing gear in our old outbuilding which we're clearing for demolition and part of the roof has developed a leak, that plus clearly not drying it properly after last time mean I had to run bleach solution through it for half an hour before I actually prepped for my brew day.

Hit all my numbers no problem (and then some) with the mash (90% Chevallier, 5% Wheat, 3% Heritage Crystal and 2% English Caramalt), but had to suspend thing before mash out to take my little one for an hour long drive because she was refusing to sleep in her bed, and it was pissing it down by the time I got home so I had to move everything into the garage to finish off.

Hopping went fine (UK Target for bittering, First Gold as a 15 minute addition and then First Gold and Harlequin in the whirlpool), chilling went fine, yeast (50/50 blend of Lallemand Nottingham and Verdant) is pitched. It looks a fair bit darker in the fermenter than I was expecting (recipe is supposed to be 18 EBC). I've got most stuff cleaned up and ready to be packed away now. Let's see how it goes...

I also moved over my rapid racking from the outbuilding into my new(er) workshop finally. Base malts on the bottom shelf, Brewzilla and Fermzilla fit in the middle, speciality malts on the top and anything that doesn't have a home yet piled on top.

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Yesterday I clocked a solid two hours on brewing related shenanigans.

First I added my final CO2 line to my three way manifold- actually have enough beer brewed and the kegs are almost ready. Glad to finally require all three gas lines and a triple tap tower to boot!

I also dry hopped 3 gallons of a low ABV (3.4~3.7%) IPA which I pressure fermented in a corny. I did this by pressure transferring to another purged corny which had the hops in a big screen tube waiting inside.

After that I cleaned and sanitized the keg i fermented in and did another pressure transfer. This time I was kegging my “Dort Muncher” export lager from my Fermzilla to the keg.

After doing all those pressure transfers yesterday, I finally decided today to find and add my old two way manifold right at the tank’s regulator. I did this because I was tired of leaving the kegerator door open during the slow process of pressure transferring. This way I can now get a CO2 hookup without having to swing open the kegerator and trade cold air for condensation. Oh! And I remembered to clean the fermzilla from yesterday- I was too tired and it was too late in the night- I figured it would be fine because it was never exposed to air. I got lucky- it wasn't gross and it cleaned up easily.
 
Today I tapped the IPA I dry hopped with Mosaic Incognito™ (also Citra pellets). Holy sh*tballs Batman, this thing is DANK. Usually I get a lot of sweet citrusy/tropical with a big Mosaic dry hop; this one is more pine/dank/grapefruit pith (not fruit). I'm thinking the next time I use Incognito (going to get Citra next time) I'll drop it in about two days before kegging; this one went in six days prior. It's not grassy but a bit harsh, almost a hop burn. To the point that it will NOT be going to competition this weekend; the base beer is one I've done many times, and it was done well this time, but all I taste is hops. Not looking forward to snarky comments I might get. I also didn't crash it because I wanted it hazy (it's not very much). Hoping it will settle out in a few days then may change my mind, I've got until Saturday.
 
Decided it was time for a very deep clean so I removed all my weldless fittings in the past few evenings. A little bit of buildup on the wort side where many of the fittings are subject to CIP. It's been 12 brews I think since last time I took all the valves off. There was a really funky elbow on my MT that does not get CIP. I'm pretty sure it was that on my very last brew I was wiped out and didn't clean up until the next day. It was a weeknight and very late and I never leave it overnight like that. I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to passivate everything since it has been a couple years since I built the system. I got some new gaskets too so I am hoping to get it all back together without any leaks!
1667490068978.jpeg

A bit shinier!
 
Clean a keg and kegged my bitters from a week back.

Cold crashed the Danish lager starter and put the new slants of it in the fridge too for next time. Spent a little time looking at my Dortmunder recipe, hopefully will get that brewed in a day or so with the Danish lager yeast.

Did a new batch of slants before the old ones run out, definitely not one of favorite things to do for beer. Starts with the tedious task to clean the vials and get them ready for filling. Filling is not much fun either as I have to hurry and get the molten jello into the vials before it sets. Watching the pressure canner for a half hour is not bad but can't get out of ear shot. Last hurried task is getting the hot vials set on a slant before they start to set again.

Also purged the beer fridge of old save yeast slurry jars as long as I was in a cleaning mood.
 
Deadalus said:
Decided it was time for a very deep clean so I removed all my weldless fittings in the past few evenings.
Click to expand...
If you go through all the trouble to disassemble everything I'd like to suggest that an ozone generator makes a wonderful sterilization process. Put everything into a plastic bag and hook it up to the front of an ozone generator outside then run it for a couple of hours to overnight. It'll even kill Brett!
 
jerrylotto said:
If you go through all the trouble to disassemble everything I'd like to suggest that an ozone generator makes a wonderful sterilization process. Put everything into a plastic bag and hook it up to the front of an ozone generator outside then run it for a couple of hours to overnight. It'll even kill Brett!
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Interesting, I didn't know these were available in smaller units. We had a house fire some years ago and they brought a big one in for the house. Might be something to look into purchasing, we have a woodstove and a multiple pets!

I was looking at the different ways to passivate stainless steel at home and was originally going to use citric acid but then I saw a brewing article that suggested concentrated Starsan (1 oz/1 gallon @30 minutes). That seemed slightly cheaper than using up most of my canning citric acid so I went with that. I wasn't having a specific infection problem but good to know about the potential ozone use plus increased awareness of possible problems. I'm not sure how potent the Starsan might be but potentially it was useful. Breaking it down reminded me just how many parts are involved and it really struck home how beneficial a TC system would be. I was only able to get 2/3 rebuilt, still have the BK to do!
 
jerrylotto said:
You can also rent them. And because it's a gas treatment you don't have to disassemble quite as much. Gas can get in anywhere liquid can leak :)
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I will say there was some buildup on the bulkheads but I can't say for certain it was in places I couldn't have gotten to with just the bulkheads on. I didn't have any leaks except I previously had a tiny weep from a high up port on my HLT that was already fixed. I wanted to replace some of the gaskets however because I didn't have any real idea about installing the bulkheads when I built the system I picked up some tips from BobbyM while I was having my keggles welded for TC heating element ports plus from reading some of the bulkhead descriptions at his site. Honestly I think most of the bulkheads were backwards with excessive gaskets as compared to the way he recommends installation.
 
Couple of mishaps today. Tried to tap the Lutra Blonde I brewed for competition and nothing out of the tap. Put 30psi on the out-side to blow it out, no go. So as much as I hated to do it, had to remove the post and the diptube, which was absolutely jam-packed with yeast gunk and gelatin. Had a spare to install, now it's pouring fine, carbonated well, and tastes great; just worried about possible oxidation from my goof. A long skinny brush and some super-hot water got the tube cleaned out. Then proceeded to bottle from the keg aforesaid blond, also my american strong I brewed back in May that's been aging on bourbon-soaked oak cubes, for a competition that is due today. Also during all this, brewing up my take on a Festbier; yes a bit late, but it's a style I like to have on tap this time of year. Say what you will, but Crystal hop pellets are always super cheap at YVH, and do a great job pretending to be Mittelfruh (since that's technically what they are anyway, just the American version). Going to ferment it warm on some proven 34/70 slurry that will be retired after this batch, mainly because I want to brew another WF lager tomorrow and don't have enough slurry, but DO have three fresh packets of it. Project for this week will be keg maintenance, something I have obviously been neglecting.

*edit because I forgot. American Strong on Bourbon Oak was the ONLY beer that I got a blue ribbon for at the Fair this year; can't wait to see what these judges say. It's also in another competition that gets judged today.
 
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leedspointbrew said:
Reprimed and recapped last batch of Insidious Pumpkin - rescuing it from total failure / depressing flatness now seems likely.
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Can be saved if you have a co2 tank and a carbonation cap. Though I don't bottle as much as I used too, still comes in handy. I even recarb some 2L sodas that go flat. I've saved a bottled beer or 2 that way.
 
Cooked up 5gal of summer bitter wort Thursday to have as a session batch for early Winter. (Even though, in Arizona, the weather is more like early Summer.) . Could have slept through that cook. Too easy.

Been doing LHBS kits since moving to new home 18months ago. Now that my Library has been rediscovered, I'll hafta work up a more interesting &
more serious batch in a 4-6wks.
 
seatazzz said:
*edit because I forgot. American Strong on Bourbon Oak was the ONLY beer that I got a blue ribbon for at the Fair this year; can't wait to see what these judges say. It's also in another competition that gets judged today.
Click to expand...
Good Luck!

De-labeling 24-36 bottles today, probably head over to LHBS to look at the recipe book.
 
Decided to do a smoked pepper beer with 88% pilsner malt 12% weyermann beech smoke malt. Mandarina Bavaria at 30 min and whirlpool, and I plan to do Azacca for a dry hop. I grew all the chilies. 4 Korean red chili, 2 habanero, and a poblano in the whirlpool for 30 min. Hornindal kveik. It smelled good!
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Set up the freezer to function as our "cellar" for aging our big beers in kegs. (Nevermind that our brewery is actually sitting in a sort of cellar.)

Also gave the electric system a good cleaning cycle with the pump and CIP ball. My wife surprised us with a bowl of tater tots and some spicy mayo.
 

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