Got a late start to a Raspberry Hibiscus Wheat brew today but at least it is going smoothly. Started the fly sparge awhile ago...
Cheers!
Cheers!
What I did for beer today
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Yesterday I stopped into a local Turkish market, for some dried fruit for baking, and scored some lavender and rosehips at a reasonable price. They also had hibiscus flowers… maybe another time for that.
Glad to see your back is better and able to brew again.
Having a beer while reading HBT.
Cherry Blonde Doppelbock.
Cherry Blonde Doppelbock.
For the styles that are more sensitive to oxidation, I've started purging the head space with CO2 bubbles, rather than the empty bottle. I only started recently, so I don't have lots a data, but it seems to be working.
I got a cheap air nozzle with a rubber tip and "straw-style" a coffee stirrer fits neatly through the nozzle. (This is the one I got: Blow Gun with Safety Tip and Rubber Tip)
I fill the bottle, then stick the straw intothe beer and shoot a little CO2 under the surface to throw up some CO2-filled foam to the top, and quickly cap.
This would probably work much better with something like an air stone, but as a proof of concept, this seems to work for me for now.
The little 2g porter I brewed on Monday has already dropped the krausen; used Lutra for it at about 74°, so no surprise there. Had the intentions of bottle conditioning this one, but decided to bottle off the mead that's in my 2.5g keg instead, and use that. Will give me a chance to practice purging bottles with co2, as has been suggested to me a couple of times so far by my most excellent friends here. It seems like every time I turn around there's something else I *should* be doing but haven't, for whatever reason; that usually improves my process/beer/attitude by leaps and bounds. Conversely, there are things I *could* be doing but don't, mainly because I'm lazy.
Good luck with it. I brewed a SMaSH Czech Pils yesterday. Now the hard part, waiting two months to enjoy it. Did you do a triple decoction mash?Brewed a Czech Pale Lager …
Brewed a Brut IPA, because it's my wife's favorite. Well, at least it's her favorite of anything I brew.
Wrote a recipe and ordered ingredients for a West Coast DIPA.
8%, target FG of 1.011, with Cryo Centennial/Cryo Mosaic hot side and Cryo Amarillo/Cryo Mosaic cold side. Copitch of Lallemand West Coast and Notty.
Going to experiment with using the BarthHaas Incognito and Spectrum extracts on a Westie, only ever used them on NEIPAs before.
Also ordered a Fermzilla All Rounder.
8%, target FG of 1.011, with Cryo Centennial/Cryo Mosaic hot side and Cryo Amarillo/Cryo Mosaic cold side. Copitch of Lallemand West Coast and Notty.
Going to experiment with using the BarthHaas Incognito and Spectrum extracts on a Westie, only ever used them on NEIPAs before.
Also ordered a Fermzilla All Rounder.
kadozen
Well-Known Member
Getting back to it after a 2 year break.
Set up my new Brewzilla Gen4, took about 1lb of Maris Otter and roasted it into what should be a close approximation of Biscuit and another pound into what should roughly be Brown Malt. Cleaned out and organized the new brew area and stripped/cleaned my grain mill.
Next step is to actually brew on the system, just have to wait for yeast followed by cleaning out my spare fridge in anticipation of finally getting a kegging system. Cant wait to create boogeymen in my head about that, HA
Set up my new Brewzilla Gen4, took about 1lb of Maris Otter and roasted it into what should be a close approximation of Biscuit and another pound into what should roughly be Brown Malt. Cleaned out and organized the new brew area and stripped/cleaned my grain mill.
Next step is to actually brew on the system, just have to wait for yeast followed by cleaning out my spare fridge in anticipation of finally getting a kegging system. Cant wait to create boogeymen in my head about that, HA
Kegged my best bitter today, did not have great attenuation so it is more like an ordinary bitter. The yeast was a little over 3weeks old and took off fast but then dropped clear after a couple days. Normally would have kegged it on day 7 or 8 but gave it a few extra days in hope it might keep working.
Got an email saying I have a 2nd place ribbon for my international pale lager in the mail(40points). My dark mild and strong bitter both scored well with 39s but did not place. I wish they would post the score of winning/placing beers so you could tell how close you were.
Got an email saying I have a 2nd place ribbon for my international pale lager in the mail(40points). My dark mild and strong bitter both scored well with 39s but did not place. I wish they would post the score of winning/placing beers so you could tell how close you were.
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Racked 10 gallons of chocolate imperial stout on top of a pound of dark rum marinated cocoa nibs...
Cheers!
Cheers!
2g porter batch doesn't taste great, thinking that the chocolate malt I have is just a bit too old, or I just didn't use enough grain; it's watery and none of the flavor I like in a porter. So planning another small batch today, doing a 2g batch of lager; but this time I'm going to use my 10qt Instant Pot to mash it. The mesh bags I use for the 5g batches are too big, so I dug in the fabric stash and found some tulle I bought years ago with the thought of making hop bags out of it; will use that for the 'mash' bag. Not going to boil in the IP, I have a 3g pot that will work just fine. Will report back on results.
Kegged my imperial stout a few days early but I'll make up for the aging time by cellaring the kegs. Then got the brewery set up to do a wcipa tomorrow. Pushing the bandwidth doing three brews in 14 days but I'm making up for 18 months of down-time 
Cheers!
Cheers!
Put a few labels on the Scottish ale. It turned out pretty good.
Bleach bombing a couple cases of bottles and some other equipment trying to be rid of whatever has infected my last couple cases.
Brewed up a batch of WCIPA to give last week's raspberry hibiscus wheat beer some company
Bit of a hiccup lautering the boil kettle sucked in a goodly pile of hop mush 'n' stuff. NBD...
Cheers!
Bit of a hiccup lautering the boil kettle sucked in a goodly pile of hop mush 'n' stuff. NBD...
Cheers!
S*** happens
It does indeed.
Weirdly, I appreciated a modest deviation from the norm for the humbling effect.
I was getting a bit cocky of late and needed a Reality Check
Cheers!
Weirdly, I appreciated a modest deviation from the norm for the humbling effect.
I was getting a bit cocky of late and needed a Reality Check
Cheers!
Made a valiant attempt at working some beer off. Took my dogs for a walk on their tandem leash, not very far because they need training but they did fine. Then I took my e-bike on a 4-mile ride around the neighborhood. Time to try to lose this extra 20-30lbs I'm carrying around. Yes, some may say that e-bikes are kind of a cheater-way to exercise; but I pedal more than I use the boost, only use it to get up inclines. Need to get back in riding shape, as I fully intend to drag the husband out this spring/summer on many of the trails we have that actually allow ebikes. Now back at home sipping on some refreshment in the form of the new IPA I tapped yesterday, it's yummy.
The company I currently work for was until recently the PNW distribution center for Rad Power Bikes (that's what we have), and I've gotten some fun free stuff from them. Also many of my coworkers also ride them, so I'm hoping we have some big joint rides this summer. Anything to get me off my fat butt.
The company I currently work for was until recently the PNW distribution center for Rad Power Bikes (that's what we have), and I've gotten some fun free stuff from them. Also many of my coworkers also ride them, so I'm hoping we have some big joint rides this summer. Anything to get me off my fat butt.
The Raspberry Hibiscus Wheat progresses with "The Fruiting" today.
This is a rather expensive beer considering 10 pounds of frozen raspberries but I dug up a 50% off sale a month ago and hit it like a Tee Ball
I dump 6 ounces of Hibiscus flowers in 1.5 quarts of boiled water then let it steep while thawing and pulverizing the berries.
Cuisinarting the berries into a puree...
Switched to a bigger pot (I think I did that the last batch, too). Slowly bringing the 6 quarts of berried hibiscus tea plus a cup of corn sugar and 1-1/2 teaspoons of powdered pectinase enzyme up to 140°F to both sanitize the berries plus let the enzymes do their thing.
Wrapped up for a few hours.
Fast forward...fruited and back in the fridge next to the wcipa bubbling away next door.
I'll give the 'BerryBiscus Wheat a few days then keg it up and get ready for another batch of something...
Cheers!
This is a rather expensive beer considering 10 pounds of frozen raspberries but I dug up a 50% off sale a month ago and hit it like a Tee Ball
I dump 6 ounces of Hibiscus flowers in 1.5 quarts of boiled water then let it steep while thawing and pulverizing the berries.
Cuisinarting the berries into a puree...
Switched to a bigger pot (I think I did that the last batch, too). Slowly bringing the 6 quarts of berried hibiscus tea plus a cup of corn sugar and 1-1/2 teaspoons of powdered pectinase enzyme up to 140°F to both sanitize the berries plus let the enzymes do their thing.
Wrapped up for a few hours.
Fast forward...fruited and back in the fridge next to the wcipa bubbling away next door.
I'll give the 'BerryBiscus Wheat a few days then keg it up and get ready for another batch of something...
Cheers!
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In my ongoing quest to brew smaller batches, and be cheap, I pulled down the old 5g pressure cooker from the rafters to see if the grain basket I just ordered from allmamoneyzgone will fit in it; will be tight but should work. Going to refill the grain bins this afternoon, and planning a small batch of Wit on Sunday; same recipe I just sent to a competition and scored 38 on, got dinged for 'not hazy enough' and 'little to no head retention'. Going to see if I can fix those issues. Also will be fun.
Cereal mash of rye for tomorrow's Red Rye IPA. 1st brew since last Spring. I'm really happy to finally make something.
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I like your slides. Great idea.
Bottle beer for another contest. Still had the mild and strong bitter that scored well in the last contest so going to see if they make it thru this time. Also entered a festbier, an Altbier and a Czech pale lager.
Red Rye IPA is underway!
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Went to the Little Beer Festival in Duluth, GA and tried to sample approximately 146 beers.
Properly stripped down and deep cleaned my Fermzilla. I lost the ratchet opener for it ages ago and had difficulty getting the bottom off so gave up and just used VWP, frankly it's a miracle every beer I've brewed in the last 6 months hasn't been infected given how grubby it was between the bottom seals. Not a great design, tbh.
All sparkling clean and full of ChemiSan now, ready for my double westie brew next weekend.
I've also been through the hop drawer in my freezer and discovered I have at least 2 packs of mixed hops that are unlabelled. I suspect these were intended for dry hops in English ales that tasted so good on sampling I decided not to bother, but I'm really regretting my decision not to label them now. Pretty sure one is EKG and First Gold, and the other Olicana/Jester T45, but I'll be damned if I know which is which
All sparkling clean and full of ChemiSan now, ready for my double westie brew next weekend.
I've also been through the hop drawer in my freezer and discovered I have at least 2 packs of mixed hops that are unlabelled. I suspect these were intended for dry hops in English ales that tasted so good on sampling I decided not to bother, but I'm really regretting my decision not to label them now. Pretty sure one is EKG and First Gold, and the other Olicana/Jester T45, but I'll be damned if I know which is which
Didn’t have enough cleaning supplies for another brew day today, probably safer to spend a week building the yeast back up again anyway (they’ve been in the fridge for a year). So I made this instead:
Shipped local beers to some non-local HBT members. Pitched yeast into the Merlot must. DH #1 into the Red Rye IPA at High Krausen. It has been a very good day indeed.
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