What I did for beer today

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Drinking a sample from the mostly carbonated 2g batch I brewed last week, fermented on Omega Lutra. Recipe is closest to a Helles Bock, it's just something I threw together based on what I had; two-row/pilsner/munich, about 80/10/10 was the ratio. Yes I know it's not a true Helles Bock since the yeast isn't really lager yeast. Hops were Perle for bittering, and Fuggles as 15 and 5 minute late additions. Noting that this was mashed in my 10qt instant pot, because it was fun. ABV wound up about 7.2%. This is by far the maltiest-tasting beer I've ever made, and has a nice grainy aroma as well. It's young and tastes it, but I think if I let it sit another week or two it will be something spectacular. Or oxidized as heck, I've been having that issue a bit lately. First installment in my series of 'small' batches.
 
Kegged for the first time today. Went pretty well. Was kind of a practice run for my next brew a NEIPA
IMG_2927.jpeg
 
T Murph said:
I raised the temp for a D rest for my Czech Pilsner up to 60 degrees. It has finished primary fermentation so I pulled a yeast dump for a later brew. And pulled off a sample that I put in the fridge to cold crash for a few hours while I mow the lawn.

16820002705266732257010971233098.jpg
Click to expand...

Beermeister32 said:
Perfect sized refrigerator, great job!
Click to expand...
Yeah. Almost looks purpose-built.
 
Brewing up a cream ale today, and decided that it was time to start using that pH meter I've had for a while. Some of the latest beers have turned out dry to the point of puckering; so today I made some adjustments to the water, and got a mash pH of about 5.6. Still not perfect but it's getting there.
 
Not today, but last night I cleaned kegs then sanitized them. Also had a few glasses of my latest, tart cherry wheat.

Today will be putting the kegs away, cleaning up the brewery, clearing off the bar and having a couple more of that cherry wheat.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20230421_125008049_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20230421_125008049_HDR.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 0
Revised the Smoked Porter and Blonde Ale recipes to utilize some hops that I have in the freezer. Whole Leaf Cascade for the pale and Meridian for the porter. Should be a fun weekend next.

Decided to blow off some other work and transfer the wild-fermented passionfruit cider from barrel to keg; after this the hibiscus-guava saison goes into the barrel.
1A2A56C7-E020-40CE-9B06-621FB439FCA9.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Worked the hop garden. Got it ready for this year's growth and added 5 more varieties. I now have 11 varieties out at the farm and 3 at home. Hopefully after this year's harvest I won't have to buy pellets going forward. I like using cones way more than pellets. Makes for much clearer wort and finished beer.

IMG_20230423_123820301_HDR.jpg
 
Kegged the maibock and shoved it in the back where it will lager for a bit. Better AA than last time I made it, so that's nice.
Most likely will keg the dry stout tonight. On a slightly accelerated schedule due to needing it for this coming weekend.
 
Had a 50 mile round trip trek this morning to swap my emptied 20 pound CO2 siphon tank for a freshie, took it home and topped up my three 5 pound cylinders, then used one to keg my latest west coast ipa.

wcipa5_kegging.jpg


Tomorrow I'll set up to brew a batch of my Juicy Bits neipa clone on Wednesday, Thursday I'll get ready for another brew on Friday, exactly what tbd. Have to keep up the pace as I have an ortho surgeon eyeing one of my knees and swearing he's gonna cut me up in May :oops: . That will leave me pretty much immobile for a couple of weeks followed by rehab. Not going to be picking up carboys nor kegs for awhile if it happens...

Cheers! (never a dull moment around here ;))
 
Had a productive weekend.

2nd dry hop for a pale ale. Dropped down to 55 for a day and then threw in 2oz of Trident and 1oz of El Dorado. Threw in a sprinkling of ascorbic acid, not really sure what I’m doing with that stuff, and not all of it ended up in the keg anyways so…??

Ran the Foundry through another cleaning cycle. Evidently I covered it up with the malt basket and everything and it was still a little damp. Had some funkiness, so didn’t want that whatever it was making its way into the next batch.

Spent MORE time trying to get rid of the damn pork smell out of my kegerator. A couple months back I needed to defrost something and figured I had room. And..the seal evidently had a small hole somewhere cuzz it leaked. The smell is almost gone, but still faintly lingering after multiple wipe downs, bleaching, kitty litter, baking soda, airing out….ugh. I just tuned it back on tonight and am letting it vent out via a small port hole in the back. Kinda hoping with enough airflow out it might help get rid of it..

Put 13 bags of green tea into 1L of 170 degree RO water, added enough clean RO water to make a full gallon into a LBMB with 2 cups of white sugar, some DAP and Champagne yeast. Because…why not. If it turns out, I’ll add some frozen fruit to a keg before transferring, lightly carbonate and see what the result ends up being.
 
Got the brew rig loaded with RO water and everything else measured out and set up for brew day tomorrow. I'll grind the grist in the AM while the brewing liquor heats up. Then I measured out the grains for another brew day on Thursday (I have to get a pre-op EKG on Friday). Then did some "shake 'n' bake" fast carb'ing on one keg of the wcipa I kegged yesterday so I can get it in the keezer within the next couple of days (I'm not going to be hefting any kegs into the keezer soon :confused:).

Finally, treated myself to the first pour off a fast-carb'd keg of the raspberry hibiscus wheat beer. Carbonation is a little short of the mark but getting there. It will clarify over time but it's already super tasty and wonderfully tart :)

biscusberrywheat.jpg


Cheers!
 
day_trippr said:
Got the brew rig loaded with RO water and everything else measured out and set up for brew day tomorrow. I'll grind the grist in the AM while the brewing liquor heats up. Then I measured out the grains for another brew day on Thursday (I have to get a pre-op EKG on Friday). Then did some "shake 'n' bake" fast carb'ing on one keg of the wcipa I kegged yesterday so I can get it in the keezer within the next couple of days (I'm not going to be hefting any kegs into the keezer soon :confused:).

Finally, treated myself to the first pour off a fast-carb'd keg of the raspberry hibiscus wheat beer. Carbonation is a little short of the mark but getting there. It will clarify over time but it's already super tasty and wonderfully tart :)

View attachment 818540

Cheers!
Click to expand...
Looks great @day_trippr
 
Finally, today, after 14 years of screwing around with bottles and inventing sweat words that would make a seasoned 12 year old on Xbox Live blush, I kegged my first batch.

Went to the LHBS, picked up the tank, went over all the steps, brought it home and followed Clawhammer Supplies video.

The beer is meh: not offensive or anything, but it was my first go around on a new system and I also took a 2 year hiatus, so it's exactly what I wanted. Drinkable and ugly looking lawnmower pale ale. Bottling a full batch sucks, only the apocalypse will make me go back.
 
Thanks, I appreciate the kind comments. It was closer to 18 months - it took 4 months to get cut and 14 months before my neuro doc would sign off on unrestricted status.

And, yes, it sucked to have brewery ops virtually full stopped all that time as all but one keg of 16 went empty. I managed to milk the two kegs of my chocolate stout supply over that entire period - and still have life left in the last one as my next two kegs are almost ready to tap.

Everything is much better now, thanks, aside from the knee thing. Shouldn't be down more than a few weeks from that though...

Cheers!
 
Wrapping this up...Had an unscheduled neighbor visit right in the middle of lautering the kettle (arrgh!) which pushed kettle lautering and everything following that out by an hour and a half. Fortunately it didn't mess things up beyond the delay.

Filling carboys...

galaxy7_03.jpg


Gassed up and ready for fridge #2. Hooked the carboys to my keg purge system while yesterday's batch is bubbling away and managed to puke up a bit of krausen - which is why the PET jugs exist :)

galaxy7_04.jpg


Two pairs of kegs being purged.

galaxy7_05.jpg


It's going to be interesting to see how this pair of brews progresses given my knee is getting sliced up next Thursday morning and I most likely won't be able to get down the stairs for a couple of weeks. Fortunately I can let these cruise unopened for 2 or 3 weeks, but if things drag out I may have to conscript my nearest son for brewery chores :p

Cheers!
 

Similar threads

Clint Yeastwood
Asymptomatic Covid and Beer Taste
Replies
21
Views
780
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
N
Underrated Beer List
Replies
28
Views
973
mashdar
mashdar
?
Advice on how to enjoy homebrewing over the years without becoming an alcoholic.
2 3
Replies
89
Views
3K
corkybstewart
corkybstewart
YaleH
Accidentally watered down my wort!!!
Replies
4
Views
324
YaleH
YaleH
F
i dont brew to style
2
Replies
52
Views
2K
Danny Wallace
Danny Wallace

Latest posts

Back
Top