What I did for beer today

[Deadalus]

I soldered on four new ports and electrified this kettle. No leaks and heating nicely.

Here's an inside look.

Still have to flip a valve handle before an outside pic and maybe a few small tweaks to the control stand.

 

[brewbama]

I brew in a series of three batches at a time because I don’t want to store a LHBS’ worth of ingredients. Today, I ordered the next three batches worth of yeast, hops, and grain. These batches will be brewed beginning mid Dec or so into Jan.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Just started the runoff on a Vienna that I was supposed to brew on Saturday. All the recent pictures of gorgeous Viennas on the "What are you drinking now?" thread inspired me to join the party.

Edit: Here’s how it turned out. A little darker than I was aiming for, but the flavor seems right. Hit my numbers and left the floor as clean as it was this morning. Not a bad day.

 

[day_trippr]

Brewing my 107 point beast of an imperial chocolate stout today. 46 pounds of grain...

...and a nearly submerged auto-sparge set the drama for the day

So far it's going great!

[edit] And now, something completely different: I was maybe 10 minutes from the end of the boil when one of my wife's best friends called to tell her she was having a huge asthma attack and couldn't get her new rescue inhaler to work. Wife comes hobbling downstairs (she of the hip replacement two weeks ago tomorrow!) to tell me I need to get my ass over there, stat!

Yikes! Killed the kettle burner, jumped in the truck and flew the half mile to her house. The woman was in rough shape and could barely talk but she gives me the inhaler and its instructions. Took a couple of minutes to figure out what happened and get the inhaler working, she takes it and bangs in a couple of hits. She starts to come around so I stayed with her until she was breathing comfortably again. Come back home and it takes almost 45 minutes to get the kettle back up to boiling and finish the job. Amazingly to me I still hit the expected 1.107 OG! It's all gassed up and in the FC...

Could have done without all that but it's all good in the end...

Cheers!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Brewed 21 litres of Sussex Best Bitter and bottled my West Indian Porter.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Brewing my 107 point beast of an imperial chocolate stout today. 46 pounds of grain and a nearly submerged auto-sparge set the drama for the day

View attachment 863121

View attachment 863122

So far it's going great!

Cheers!

I am in awe!

 

[Bramling Cross]

Brewed 21 litres of Sussex Best Bitter and bottled my West Indian Porter.

I've noted with curiosity your use of the term Sussex Best Bitter/Bitter. That prompted me to do some searching. When you use that term are you using it to refer to an inspired by/clone ale of Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter, or is there a more general Sussex style of bitter? Your beers look delicious and I'm interested to learn more.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Well, I’m planning to brew a Grodziskie before the Christmas holiday and I will definitely need to acquire some rice hulls because barley is staying pretty damp in the grainfather basket after a sparge. My recent hefe didn’t get “stuck” lucky me. So, making plans and getting organized. A trip to the LHBS, is in order for new tallnecks too.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I've noted with curiosity your use of the term Sussex Best Bitter/Bitter. That prompted me to do some searching. When you use that term are you using it to refer to an inspired by/clone ale of Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter, or is there a more general Sussex style of bitter? Your beers look delicious and I'm interested to learn more.

Yes it’s a clone of Harvey’s Sussex Best. The recipe is
3500g Maris Otter
200g Flaked Maize (Corn)
150g Medium Crystal malt
Hops
25g Progress at 60 m
25g Bramling Cross at 15 m
15g each of Fuggles and East Kent Golding at Whirlpool 80C for 15 m
Nottingham style yeast.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Yes it’s a clone of Harvey’s Sussex Best. The recipe is
3500g Maris Otter
200g Flaked Maize (Corn)
150g Medium Crystal malt
Hops
25g Progress at 60 m
25g Bramling Cross at 15 m
15g each of Fuggles and East Kent Golding at Whirlpool 80C for 15 m
Nottingham style yeast.

Thanks for taking the time, I appreciate it. Once I get the kettle cleaned up I'll plug that into Beersmith.

Extra points given for using the world's foremost hop.

 

[broot]

Kegged a German pilsner tonight. First time in a long time I have three kegs on tap!

 

[HM-2]

Checked on my West Coast DIPA 12 hours after yeast pitch. Two packs of WHC High Voltage pitched in 24°C wort and left with my heating blanked set to 28°C. Literally mm from blowing out of the airlock (can see some nice yeast speckling the inside of the airlock tube, but didn't make it to the sanitiser) and filled my garage with the smell of passion fruit and weed.

 

[brewbama]

I ferment in a stainless bucket placed inside a 30+ yr old fridge located in the basement. Therefore, to get Tilt data upstairs I need to have a repeater. I can’t remember the last time I recharged the 18650 battery so today I removed it and put it on the charger.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Today I bottled my Erdinger clone, 34 x 50cl at 5.6% ABV.

 

[lumpher]

I've been wondering about the Flash Brewing kits at Morebeer because my time is really tight right now. I just went to the site and saw they have them 25% off for Black Friday, and I had a code for an additional 10%. I got 3 kits: a Blonde, a Citra Session, and an SNPA clone for cheap, and I have more hops for dry-hopping already. I'll try to remember to comment and rate them here as I brew them.

 

[ba-brewer]

Yesterday I keg my Czech Amber, normally I would let it go a few more days but the airlock started to reverse during cooling cycles. Going to carb it for a few day in the garage which has been in the mid to low 60s lately to finish it's clean up.

Brewed a Munich Dunkel today, back in the swing of things and everything was pretty uneventful.

 

[Willy]

We decided to skip making a turkey this year because it doesn't go well with what I have on tap. So ... Braciole with either a Czech pilsner, stout, American Brown ale or an Irish Red ale. Works for me. Happy Thanksgiving HBT.

 

[Willy]

Busy busy beer day. Packaged up 2 corny kegs of English blonde ale and just finished cleaning the Spike CF-10. Dang it looks gorgeous and clean. Yes!

Also had to clean and sanitize a corny keg from a batch that kicked. Almost done. Thankfully I am enjoying an absolutely awesome Czech Pilsner, my best one yet. (It lagered for 6 weeks - which is impossible for me unless I make a 10 gal batch. )

And tomorrow ... Packaging up 10 gallon of a somewhat hearty Irish Stout. (~5.1 ABV).

 

[leedspointbrew]

Rearranged the Not-So-Great-Wall-of-Beer in the spare room. Dumped the shabby roadside-pick cabinet that I had been using to store my gear, repurposed one of my 13 yr old's Ikea toyboxes. A definite improvement. Whether this will improve the quality of my beer is questionable; maybe. Will my wife be happy about this is not questionable; definitely not.

 

[Willy]

Packaging up the 10 gal of stout for early 2025. Looking good, O2 free transfer and the blowoff jar has an amazing head on it.

 

[leedspointbrew]

Consulted Google Translate and ex-French-teacher-wife to submit a product request to Brasserie Lancelot, Bretagne. Hopefully I'll get a B+ for effort and some info about where their beer Tellen Du can be sourced.

 

[Willy]

@leedspointbrew - found this old article on telenn du.
https://box-elder.blogspot.com/2009/11/black-harp-black-wheat-black-beer-for.html?m=1

Thought it might interest you... Comments are good too.

Cheers

 

[Dog House Brew]

Brewing my 107 point beast of an imperial chocolate stout today. 46 pounds of grain...

View attachment 863121

...and a nearly submerged auto-sparge set the drama for the day

View attachment 863122

So far it's going great!

[edit] And now, something completely different: I was maybe 10 minutes from the end of the boil when one of my wife's best friends called to tell her she was having a huge asthma attack and couldn't get her new rescue inhaler to work. Wife comes hobbling downstairs (she of the hip replacement two weeks ago tomorrow!) to tell me I need to get my ass over there, stat!

Yikes! Killed the kettle burner, jumped in the truck and flew the half mile to her house. The woman was in rough shape and could barely talk but she gives me the inhaler and its instructions. Took a couple of minutes to figure out what happened and get the inhaler working, she takes it and bangs in a couple of hits. She starts to come around so I stayed with her until she was breathing comfortably again. Come back home and it takes almost 45 minutes to get the kettle back up to boiling and finish the job. Amazingly to me I still hit the expected 1.107 OG! It's all gassed up and in the FC...

View attachment 863150

Could have done without all that but it's all good in the end...

Cheers!

Might be the tweak for the best version yet. How to add that into the recipe, I’m not sure. Glad things worked out for all.

 

[HM-2]

No change in FG for 3 days on my West Coast DIPA so this morning I dry hopped it with:

50g Amarillo Cryo
50g Citra Cryo
75g Strata

WHC High Voltage never ceases to amaze me. 1.075 down to 1.013 in two and a half days at 30°C, like clockwork. Gotta be my favourite neutral yeast.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

No change in FG for 3 days on my West Coast DIPA so this morning I dry hopped it with:

50g Amarillo Cryo
50g Citra Cryo
75g Strata

WHC High Voltage never ceases to amaze me. 1.075 down to 1.013 in two and a half days at 30°C, like clockwork. Gotta be my favourite neutral yeast.

Is it a Kveik?

 

[Willy]

Today - brewing up a batch of red squirrel nut brown ale. (Has a spot of red x and melanoidin for a touch of red). Cold day... Had to unfreeze the hose but it is ready now, 35 min before whirlfloc and whirl pooling.

Also ... First time ever ... I preheated the mash water while I went to church so I was ready to mash in immediately after I got home. Amen! And sweet!

Probably will make just one more 10 gal batch (Czech pilsner) before year end. I have about 20+ gallons of beer in the on deck circle so I am good to go for the holidays. (30 + gal after this batch is done fermenting.)

 

[HM-2]

Is it a Kveik?

I believe it's a standard yeast strain that's been selectively bred for high temperature fermentation.

Almost lager clean at standard fermentation temperatures. And basically US-05/WLP001 after a hefty gym session above 25°C. Plus none of the weird kveik tartness or "kveikiness"

 

[Bramling Cross]

I’m making an ordinary bitter today. Here are the runnings being pumped into my kettle.

Edit: Here’s how it turned out. I've decided to forego using 1oz of Midnight Wheat in my bitters as a colorant and just let them be what they are color-wise. In spite of that, I'm giving some thought to making my own caramel coloring. I'm just not sure how to go about doing that yet. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Deadalus]

Today I changed out my sight glass and dial thermometer on my BK.

Hard to see the thermometer because it is facing right but it is in front of the sight glass. I have been wanting to replace the sight glass with a dual port (loop?) type for a while. And I am adding a t-probe to my BK.

The old site glass had a hole sized for 1/2" NPT, hole diameter was 13/16". The thermometer was sized for 1/4" NPT. The new sight glass uses 1/4" elbows, so would have needed to begin at the thermometer hole (too high) and it is designed specifically as weldless. So I went with a dang it plug on the 1/4" and drilled new holes for the elbows. I silver soldered in a half coupling for the Auber t-probe.

This is the outside. Will need to calibrate the sight glass another day!

I had also planned on putting the old BK thermometer on the exit port of my HERMS coil. Here it is on the HLT. It replaced the elbow that was there.

 

[jcav]

Today I cleaned 8 kegs in my home made keg washer with hot PBW, water rinse, and did a Star San spray inside. This will keep them until I need to fill them, but before filling of course I will put them through my keg washer again but this time with Sani Clean to sanitize them.


John

 

[Bramling Cross]

Today I cleaned 8 kegs in my home made keg washer with hot PBW, water rinse, and did a Star San spray inside. This will keep them until I need to fill them, but before filling of course I will put them through my keg washer again but this time with Sani Clean to sanitize them.


John

Polished keggles? That's off the chain! Between the buffing wheels and compound, that's a serious investment. My hat is off to you!

Beautiful work.

 

[Deadalus]

Polished keggles? That's off the chain! Between the buffing wheels and compound, that's a serious investment. My hat is off to you!

Beautiful work.

Thanks! It did take a lot of time. I didn't order from them originally but Empire Abrasives is a reasonably priced source for compounds and wheels. They could probably use another round, this is what they looked like 5.5 years ago.

 

[RumOnTheDocks]

Sadly I don't have any pictures, but I've bottled 7 gallons over the weekend.
3.5 gallons of pale ale and 3.5 gallons of brown ale, hopefully that should last me while I get the new apartment in shape and my new brewing set-up up and running.

 

[Willy]

Made a beer label for my American Brown Ale named Outlaw Josie Wells - named after my grandson who recently turned one. (His name is Wells)

Gonna stick it on a sippy cup for the little guy, maybe make a t-shirt of it. Ha.

 

[day_trippr]

Today I refilled one of my 5 pound CO2 cylinders from my 20 lb siphon tank, then spent a couple of hours fabricating a bracket to secure the rotameter I bought from Bobby_M at brewhardware.com. That meter provides a really long moment arm and it wouldn't take much to snap the top of the pump head off if I snagged the hose that connects to the top of the meter.

So, I took a piece of 1/8" aluminum panel and machined and bent it into shape to slide over the top of the meter and my brew rig's frame.

That ought to keep the pump and meter intact

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Slow day today, decided to see how well ^that rotameter's^ readings correlate to actual flow rates. Got the big scale out and tared a bucket, put a few gallons of water in the kettle and primed the March pump, set the stop watch for 60 seconds, and opened the valve to a one quart per minute reading.

After 60 seconds I was amazed at how accurate the meter is at the bottom end as I had collected 2.05 pounds of water (one quart at room temp should be ~2.08). Repeated a couple of times and it was very consistent. Moved to 1/2 gallon per minute and that was equally accurate with the first trial ending with 4.12 gallons (vs ~4.17) and another at 4.13. Repeated for 1 and 2 gallons just for grins and it still read very close.

I was also pleased to see the meter doesn't really restrict the max flow much if at all. Although the indicated max flow is ~2.75 gpm I think it actually flows higher with the indicator slammed against the top of the meter body.

In any case I'm pleased with this thing so far. I've always wondered how fast I was actually recirculating the mash and especially when running out to the kettle as I have found slower runout = higher SG, and now I'll have a much better understanding of both.

Cheers!

 

[Deadalus]

Slow day today, decided to see how well ^that rotameter's^ readings correlate to actual flow rates. Got the big scale out and tared a bucket, put a few gallons of water in the kettle and primed the March pump, set the stop watch for 60 seconds, and opened the valve to a one quart per minute reading.

View attachment 863737

After 60 seconds I was amazed at how accurate the meter is at the bottom end as I had collected 2.05 pounds of water (one quart at room temp should be ~2.08). Repeated a couple of times and it was very consistent. Moved to 1/2 gallon per minute and that was equally accurate with the first trial ending with 4.12 gallons (vs ~4.17) and another at 4.13. Repeated for 1 and 2 gallons just for grins and it still read very close.

I was also pleased to see the meter doesn't really restrict the max flow much if at all. Although the indicated max flow is ~2.75 gpm I think it actually flows higher with the indicator slammed against the top of the meter body.

In any case I'm pleased with this thing so far. I've always wondered how fast I was actually recirculating the mash and especially when running out to the kettle as I have found slower runout = higher SG, and now I'll have a much better understanding of both.

Cheers!

Your March pump should flow several gallons faster than the maximum on the meter if the pump is fully open (and without serious restriction from the indicator). I was wondering why the range was low but I understandd the intent is for a measured recirc flow in the mash tun and then out while sparging. I'm wondering though if you would be maxing out the meter on the recirc.

 

[day_trippr]

I'll have to do actual measurements but I really don't think the meter is restrictive at the top end much if at all. I was recirculating the kettle and at full flow it looked the same as always and appeared to revolve at the "usual rate". The testing I did at the 1 and 2 gpm levels had the control valve around the usual setting for recirculating the mash and it was way below the max flow setting. I've always believed the max recirculation rate I usually hit is in the 2 gpm range and not a whole lot higher without slamming the mash shut, but this is why I bought the meter because I'm not all that certain what the actual numbers are...

Cheer!

 

[tdf]

Today I brewed a batch of my west coast ipa. I've been making small tweaks to the recipe recently, after getting my hands on some Omega Daybreak V. The nice fruitiness of the Boddingtons yeast is great but I think it deserves some small hop changes. I tried Mackenzie to compliment the normal Chinook/Centennial in the last batch. This batch I'm trying Ahtanum in the boil, hop stand, and a small amount in the dry hop.

The photo is from a couple of days ago. 48 500ml cans of saison. It's sort of a 4 way split - half Lallemand Farmhouse, half BE-134 and then half of each can got dosed with the new BR-8 Brett along with the priming sugar.
That was a labour intensive process - now to wait a couple of months for the brett to do its thing.

 

[HM-2]

Cleaned out my spare Fermzilla and pulled my spare keg sanitiser into it so I've now got a CO2 filled, oxygen-purged keg this morning.
Bit later this afternoon, I'll be kegging up my WC DIPA and getting it on gas.