What I did for beer today

[BeerAndTele]

Brew day today - have off due to Veteran's Day (vets - THANK YOU for your service!)

A little under 3 gallons of Red IPA. Used Red X for the first time (approx. 35% of grist). Needed a little roasted barley late to get the color I was after.

Anxious to taste how it turns out.

Cheers.

 

[BikerMatt]

dumped TWO already bottled batches of beer into the sink and rinsed all the bottles as only AFTER I`ve brewed two nights in a row I found out there had been a water mainline burst around a mile from our house after which they always chlorinate the entire grid to be safe so I now had two batches of already drink ready beer that taste like cloth plaster frikken yaay! LITERALLY six weeks down the drain. New malts already ordered, hopefully brewing again next weekend if I have time from hauling firewood into the shed for the winter...

 

[Dog House Brew]

I was getting ready to brew a hazy tomorrow and while measuring out the malts I discovered my malted oat supply was riddled with friggin' weevils! Ugh!

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I keep all but my base malts in a rolling bin in their original plastic bags, which are then placed inside grocery bags by group (crystals and caramels in one, flaked grains in another, dextrin malts in yet another, etc). I had a 6 pound bag and a 4 pound bag of malted oats in their outer bag together, and they were both infested.

I took everything out of the bin and placed each bag on a table under strong lighting which tends to bring the weevils out where you can see them. I took the bin outside and washed it out and let it dry in the sun, and left the malt bags on that table all afternoon while I worked on other things. They're still sitting there with no more signs of wildlife but I'll keep checking until I go to bed tonight. If I only lose the oats I'll consider myself lucky.

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I had enough flaked oats to do tomorrow's brew so I just had to grind the base malts and some carapils...

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Got the brew rig filled with RO, salts measured out, and everything else positioned for the morning...

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On an unrelated note...this picture of a boisterous Ballantine IPA fermentation shows why I have an in-line "krausen catcher" on my keg purging line...

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Cheers!

I too have fought them. I now keep new purchases in a separate container. I check that before splitting and storing. Love your setup, that catcher saved the day!

 

[ba-brewer]

Two days ago had my first brew day in a while, brewed an old school IPA with centennial and cascade hops. My pace was off getting things done while heating mash water so I did not condition my grain and paid the price fighting a compacted stuck mash. I had to open my mills gap up a while back for some extra plump Best Malz grain and figure the not so plump golden promise and domestic grain would be OK. Rest of the brew day went OK.

Yesterday watched the old school IPA go from a slow bubble in the morning to cranking in the afternoon while working on recipes for a brew today. Rainy weather is back so went back and forth on what to brew and whether to do a double brew day. Checked RO water late in the day and not enough for a double brew day.

Today brewed a citra/equinox golden ale. Picked up the pace and got my grain conditioned and ready by the time the mash was to temp. Suppose to rain/sprinkle the rest of week so hopefully get to brew that other beer this weekend.

 

[ClaudiusB]

Today I deep-cleaned the brewing water supply tank, next week is the grain silos turn.
Currently, the automation is filling up the tank and keeping it full.

 

[jcav]

Today I kegged my pumpkin beer and I also made a yeast starter for a Belgian Christmas Ale that I am brewing this weekend.

John

 

[Bramling Cross]

This morning I was given another reminder of why I don't brew much above 1.050 anymore when I found this in my anti-suck back rig's first chamber. I even used a foam inhibitor in the fermenter, but the 1.065 American stout that I brewed on Monday had other ideas. I shouldn't complain, though. There are far worse outcomes than having to wash out a jar and swap a hose.

 

[Willy]

Well, about a year later after getting the Brewzilla Gen 4 - I blew out the display on the controller . Not sure if it is completely ruined or just has a bit of wort slog shorting out the display. Oh well as they say. Ordered a new controller unit and yes ... I will try and fix the old one so I have a backup .

This time I will either move it away from the unit or at least cover it with a baggie to keep liquid out.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Today I brewed 20 litres of an Erdinger clone
2600g Pilsner malt
2000g Wheat malt
200g Vienna malt
100g Acid malt
36g Hersbrucker at 60m
30g Saaz at 15m
Mangrove Jack M20 yeast at 24C

 

[brewskitom]

I thoroughly cleaned my Unitank.

After my last brew fermented out and it was closed transferred into a keg with a giant "tea strainer" full of French oak chips for conditioning, I just rinsed out the the Unitank and left it for another day. Today was that day. I removed all the accessories, cleaned them in hot PBW, rinsed and soaked them in Starsan. I also recirculated PBW solution at 165° through the Unitank with a CIP ball. Everything is shiny and clean! Now I have to decide what to brew next.

 

[broot]

Kegged a spruce tip beer today and made a starter for an ESB yesterday.

 

[mac_1103]

Cleaned a couple of kegs. And did kind of a half-assed job because I always do a much more serious cleaning right before I use a keg and couldn't stop myself from doing that no matter how thoroughly I had cleaned it when it kicked.

So basically, not much. But it is Sunday after all.

 

[leedspointbrew]

Bottled pumpkin ale with bourbon-vanilla tincture - 36 12 oz, 2 22 oz. Dosed 4 bottles with bourbon maple syrup before bottling to see how it affects carbing and flavor.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Bottled my Brickfields Brown Ale 36 50cl bottles.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Today I brewed 11 litres of West Indian Porter in my Powell Mash Tun. It was too cold in the garage for the AIO so brewed in the Utility Room. I added the dark malts at the end of the mash in a batch sparge for 20 minutes. The BHE was 64% but if the CML Five yeast attenuation is achieved it will be ABV 6.8%
1900g Maris Otter
700g Munich light
170g Naked Oats
130g Roasted Barley- late addition
70g Chocolate Malt- late addition
70g Dark Crystal- late addition
250g Dark brown sugar- last 10 minutes of the boil.
45 minutes boil
12g Admiral at 45m
18g Chinook at 10 minutes
1 pack of CML Five
OG 1.062

 

[brewbama]

Cleaned a keg to make room for tomorrow’s brewday.

 

[jwill911]

I have Voss Kviek spinning on the stir plate, weighed out the grains. Prepping for a, Passion fruit hazy IPA. The passion fruit I grew in my back yard. Plan to brew either Tuesday or Wednesday. Brewed it last year and it came out pretty good.

So the Passion Fruit Hazy came out real good. Voss Kviek is a beast, it really went through the fermentable sugars. I added two liters of passion fruit juice I harvested from my back yard. Final gravity 1.013 ABV 7.2. The passion fruit flavor and aroma really come through.

 

[day_trippr]

The Spousal Unit gave the order to free up a fridge for Turkey Day prep, so I kegged the 5th batch of my Ballantine IPA resurrection, then set the carboys up-side-down with a couple gallons of Oxyfree solution to break down the crusties...

Cheers!

 

[ClaudiusB]

I disassembled grain silos for their two year inspections today.
The automation couldn't find any silos and requested to finish the installation.

 

[day_trippr]

"Where the heck did I put those silos?"

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I disassembled grain silos for their two year inspections today.
The automation couldn't find any silos and requested to finish the installation.

On what days do you offer brewery tours?

 

[ba-brewer]

Yesterday was silo maintenance for me, I use old bucket fermentors so it is just some banging on the bottom and shaking to get out the last of the dust. Getting everything out of the ridge of gamma lid can be tricky though. Topped them up with sack of domestic 2row and a sack golden promise.

Today brewed a Czech amber lager and kegged my golden ale from a week ago.

 

[brewbama]

Entered the beer I am brewing right now (along with one kegged another I’ve yet to brew) into the Bluegrass Cup.

 

[Bramling Cross]

The Spousal Unit gave the order to free up a fridge for Turkey Day prep, so I kegged the 5th batch of my Ballantine IPA resurrection, then set the carboys up-side-down with a couple gallons of Oxyfree solution to break down the crusties...

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Cheers!

That's funny, I got three panicked emails from guys I've taught in the past about that very topic over the past few days. I told 'em to put their kegs in 5gal buckets with water and put their ice makers to work morning and night.

What else are you supposed to say? "Get a better wife," was my first thought, but I'm old enough to have learned that I should almost always disregard my first thought about any given topic.

 

[Bramling Cross]

With news that my local homebrew shop was packing it in and my work sorted for the day, I went on an adventure deep into the evil heart of Northern Virginia, specifically Manassas. I found a really spectacular shop named Jay's Brewing. Unfortunately, all I needed was a couple pounds of Vienna malt, but I grabbed another pitch of Pub because my current pitch is out to about nine pitches. At the register, the dude looked at the buy date on the pitch and said, "It's just inside of good enough," and looked to me for confirmation of the sale. I thought that was really cool, most shops would be relieved to simply make the sale. I told him not to worry about, it'll get a starter and an easy introduction to life in an ordinary bitter. Nice shop, nice dude, and three customers in the shop at 2pm on a Wednesday. Nice!

I also got impatient. I determined that it was crash day for that 1.065 American stout that I made last week, so I pulled a sample prior to crashing it. It's been a good long while since I've pulled a sample out of my fermenter, but it's been years since I've brewed an American stout, and a decade or more since I peeped above 1.060. Resigned to the idea that this beer will kill me, I figured I may as well get the entire experience.

I think this'll be okay. It's one of those, "Wow, I made that?" ales. Not so much because it's especially tastey, but because it's been so long since I've made a big beer, much less a big stout.

 

[Skeeter686]

What else are you supposed to say? "Get a better wife," was my first thought, but I'm old enough to have learned that I should almost always disregard my first thought about any given topic.

My wife still puts up with me. Not sure that there's actually an upgrade out there for me!

 

[brewbama]

Raised fermenter temp for D rest

 

[day_trippr]

Moved our frozen turkey from the freezer section of my #1 FC to the food compartment to start the slow thawing process, set my #2 FC to cold-crash my 18th batch of the HBT Julius clone so I can keg it on Sunday, swapped out the kicked keg of my all-Citra hazy from the keezer for its batch-mate, ran the kick through the venerable Mark II washer, recharged the rinser water supply keg in the keezer, then pulled all six faucets off the tower and gave them a full cleaning and replaced a couple of tired O-rings.

Good day so far!

Cheers!

 

[Willy]

Lowered the temp for an English Blonde IPA ... Beginning to crash. Kegging it on Monday.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Beerstone must die!!!!

I was setting up my filter and kettle to build my water for tomorrow's Vienna brewday when I peered into my kettle and decided it was time to wage war against the beerstone (yet again).

I figured I'd go after it with Barkeeper's Friend this time and save the expensive stuff for a free afternoon. Rather than enjoying the evening, I'm elbow deep in the kettle again. I kinda miss the carefree days when I didn't know what water salts were, had no clue what my pH was, and my kettle was always clean.

 

[jcav]

I took off the blow off tube off the fermenter on my Spiced Belgian Christmas beer and attached an air lock to finish up.

John

 

[Willy]

Another 5° lower today on the slow crash. This batch has been fermenting at 13 psi so it will be ready to drink in less than a week. Gotta finish off the OckoberFest batch to make room !

 

[RumOnTheDocks]

Today I set up my brewing equipment, prepared the water and recipe and went out to fetch some lunch. Meanwhile my SO went ahead and started brewing her first batch of beer, a best bitter. It was a smooth brew day for her and the efficiency ended up being higher than mine usually is.
All in all a good day for beer as far as I'm concerned.

 

[brewbama]

Closed xfer an Ord Bitter from fermenter to keg

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Transferred my Erdinger and West Indian Porter to bottling buckets.

 

[Deadalus]

Closed xfer an Ord Bitter from fermenter to keg

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Are you (or even anyone else) able to explain the reason for the return loop from the keg to the fermenter? I am interested in getting a mini bucket and saw this transfer sketched out. I think you have the keg sideways since it would be too tall for gravity. Is CO2 fed in to the fermenter to either equalize the pressure to allow gravity transfer and/or to get it started? I use a spunding valve to close transfer but I am trying to understand the purpose of the return loop.

 

[day_trippr]

Kegging my 18th Julius batch today...

...and getting the grist together for brewing my double imperial chocolate stout tomorrow....

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

Are you (or even anyone else) able to explain the reason for the return loop from the keg to the fermenter? I am interested in getting a mini bucket and saw this transfer sketched out. I think you have the keg sideways since it would be too tall for gravity. Is CO2 fed in to the fermenter to either equalize the pressure to allow gravity transfer and/or to get it started? I use a spunding valve to close transfer but I am trying to understand the purpose of the return loop.

I think you're understanding it correctly. The return loop lets you use CO2 from the purged keg to replace the beer drained from the fermenter. Gravity transfer will be (a lot) slower than pressure (unless you can really elevate the fermenter and use very long jumpers).

 

[brewbama]

+1. Just allowing the CO2 in the keg to go somewhere.it takes ~15 min to fill the keg

 

[Deadalus]

+1. Just allowing the CO2 in the keg to go somewhere.it takes ~15 min to fill the keg

It seems like you would save CO2 vs using a spunding valve and pushing the beer out of the vessel using CO2? About the volume of beer in the fermentation vessel.

I've always just used the spunding valve as that's how I first understood how to do it. Plus the stool I use to transfer keeps the FV a little lower than gravity would work for. So I never paid attention greatly when people demonstrate. If that's correct about the CO2 it would be worth it.