Might want to keep those bottles in closed boxes in case whatever that bug is keeps eating 
What I did for beer today
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Might be some good compost starter.
Sad deal though.
Sad deal though.
Not today, but yesterday… stopped at a HBS in Denver when I was there yesterday and bought some ingredients to replenish some of my inventory.
Tapped the Flash-Brewing Blonde today. I think it would do well with a BMC drinker, as it has no character. Of course, Blondes are designed to be easy-drinkers and nothing to offend, and this 1 fits the bill. If you want a beer for the general masses, it's a good choice. If you want a beer with a little character... not so much.
Today I cleaned and sanitized with
idophor the FV, and decided to hold on to the slurry, mixed up some DME and added it to see how it behaves and if any untoward things grow.
Yes, on the safety conditioning. While I was new to the hobby I used to do that with everything. Thanks for the reminder.
idophor the FV, and decided to hold on to the slurry, mixed up some DME and added it to see how it behaves and if any untoward things grow.
Yes, on the safety conditioning. While I was new to the hobby I used to do that with everything. Thanks for the reminder.
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Brewed a kolsch today, pretty much uneventful. Kegged my best bitter to make a space for the kolsch. Also dry hopped my American amber.
Racked a mead into secondary, that will eventually get a lot of smushed raspberries to make a melomel. Can't add those, however, until the House NEIPA that I stuck in the ferment fridge to start crashing gets kegged. Why, you ask? Because of the $5 dry hop gizmo that fits in the neck of all three of my fermonsters (two 7g and one cute little 3g) that is some of the best money I ever spent on my brewery. Keep forgetting to get another one at the LHBS when I'm there every couple of months. If you use fermonsters I highly recommend them. Sturdy as sh*t, easy to clean, and saves you from either dry hopping commando or fishing a soggy mesh or muslin bag from the yeast slurry.
Today I bottled my P5 Ale ( because Pear, Peach, Pineapple, Phantasm, Pale Ale didn't quite roll off the tongue). There are a few bottles with some residual fruit bits since I blended them up with a little Mezcal for both a sanitizing agent and perhaps a hint of smokey agave character to come through. Now, as punishment for some heinous sin I can't remember committing, God saw fit to give me a soar throat and loss of taste/smell which prevented me from learning anything about my brew. Wife seemed to like it though so we'll see in a few weeks.
Checked gravity on the stout, already down to 1.029 after just 3 days! My basement office smells fantastically chocolatey. It expect it to drop a few more points over the next 10 days, then I'll bottle, and let 'em age until next winter.
@ba-brewer sorry for the delay responding to your question.
I simply let the Star San solution sit in the kettle over night to work. My element is also held in with a tri clamp but I'm lazy. I only remove it about every third batch or so. After it has soaked I remove it brush it down with a kitchen brush and use a scrub sponge to finish the cleaning. I was surprised how well it works.
I simply let the Star San solution sit in the kettle over night to work. My element is also held in with a tri clamp but I'm lazy. I only remove it about every third batch or so. After it has soaked I remove it brush it down with a kitchen brush and use a scrub sponge to finish the cleaning. I was surprised how well it works.
Those elements are basically the same as HLT and BK elements. I simply use used Star San that was mixed at a ratio of 1 ounce to 5 gallons of water. I say used but I'm talking about slightly used.
My kegs are Sanke Sixtels. In my cleaning process with them is 1st a hot water rinse 2nd fresh PBW soak 3rd hot water rinse then 4th a fresh batch of Star San soak and rinse. So the Star San is still clean and viable. Hope this helps.
I caught up on this thread and checked on a couple of fermenters. My stout that brewed last Saturday is ready to be kegged. And I finally got my Marzen brewed yesterday and got it in the fermenter chamber.
I'll have to change the evaluation a little. After it got chilled and fully carbed, it's a decent blonde. Nothing to write home about, but has a little citrus twang in the front and a decent feel. The carbonic bite gives this 1 some character. It would go over well in a crowd, I think. Or I am, therefore I drink... or I drink, therefore I am... something like that.
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I began building my keezer, got the collar squared away and the shanks installed. Giving the adhesive some time to dry, going to run lines later tonight and hopefully be done soon. Waiting on an order for a couple parts that I need to finish it fully, but it'll serve the 3 taps I have just fine.
Checked gravity on my 1.101 imperial stout that I brewed just 5 days ago (and fermented on top of a full us-05 ipa yeast-cake)... I think it's done at 1.022, which means this should be either 10.37% abv or 11.48% abv, depending on which abv equation you trust more. Tasted a drop, and it's very nice! Gonna set it out in the garage to cold-crash for a few days, then bottle with some bourbon and ec-1118.
ordered 30 lbs of Briess Golden Light DME from RiteBrew.com, along with some bottle caps, hops, and a few miscellaneous items...
After a break of around 3 months I returned to the brewhouse aka the backroom of our garage. I dad a lot of cider available and no urge to go out in the cold to brew. It sould be fun.
A Munich Dunkel was on the brewing schedule. I pulled out a former recipe the evening before and adjusted the hop varieties and quantities to the current stock. This time I hopped with Tettnanger, Tradition and Lilly, as I didn't have any Select to hand and I was also expecting a great profile from this combination. And by the way, I sent the obligatory two-liner to the customs office for the annual registration as a home brewer for 2025 - since this year, the home brew quantity has increased from 2 hectoliters to 5 hectoliters in Germany.
First of all, I steam-heated the fermenter while I weighed and milled the malts.
The brew day went very well overall - the heat-up times were a little longer than usual due to the significantly cooler ambient temperature, but on the other hand I've rarely cooled to below 20°C so quickly.
Finally I added the 5 litres of dilution from the fridge in the cellar and I had a pitching temperature of 14°C.
Before diluting, I had an original gravity of 15.3°P at 25 litres, an obvious measuring error then certified 11.8°P at 30 litres, mathematically it should be 12.8°P. However, I didn't want to open the fermenter again, so I only re-measured the undiluted fermentation sample, which confirmed the 1.062 OG.
Here's the recipe:
As I already mentioned, I ended up with a bit more liquor: 30l, 12.8°P and 23 IBU
And here are some pics
Milling malts:
Steam-cleaning the fermenter:
Well earned brewers lunch:
Hydrating the yeast:
Siphoning the wort from the boiling kettle into the fermeter:
Fermenter in the fermeting chamber at 10°C
A Munich Dunkel was on the brewing schedule. I pulled out a former recipe the evening before and adjusted the hop varieties and quantities to the current stock. This time I hopped with Tettnanger, Tradition and Lilly, as I didn't have any Select to hand and I was also expecting a great profile from this combination. And by the way, I sent the obligatory two-liner to the customs office for the annual registration as a home brewer for 2025 - since this year, the home brew quantity has increased from 2 hectoliters to 5 hectoliters in Germany.
First of all, I steam-heated the fermenter while I weighed and milled the malts.
The brew day went very well overall - the heat-up times were a little longer than usual due to the significantly cooler ambient temperature, but on the other hand I've rarely cooled to below 20°C so quickly.
Finally I added the 5 litres of dilution from the fridge in the cellar and I had a pitching temperature of 14°C.
Before diluting, I had an original gravity of 15.3°P at 25 litres, an obvious measuring error then certified 11.8°P at 30 litres, mathematically it should be 12.8°P. However, I didn't want to open the fermenter again, so I only re-measured the undiluted fermentation sample, which confirmed the 1.062 OG.
Here's the recipe:
Code:
Munich Dunkel "Dünkl"
27l, 12.3°P, 25 IBU
5.0kg Munich I
0.2kg CaraAroma
0.2kg Melanoidin
14.0l + 5.5l mash water
14.0l sparge water
Mash in: 14.0l @ 57°C => 51°C for 10min
Infusion: 5.5l @ 98°C => 63°C for 30min
Decoct thick mash: 6.0l => heat to 72°C for 10min, then 10min to boiling temp => 72°C for 30min
Decoct thin mash: 5.0l => boil for 10 min => 77°C mash out
Boil for t-70min
15g Tettnanger (5.5a) + 15g Tradition (6.7a)+ 5g Lilly (7.5a) @ t-60min
10g Lilly (7.5a) @ t-0min / flameout whirlpool
2l chilled water for dilution (this time I used 5l)
20g MJ M-76 Bavarian Lager yeastAnd here are some pics
Milling malts:
Steam-cleaning the fermenter:
Well earned brewers lunch:
Hydrating the yeast:
Siphoning the wort from the boiling kettle into the fermeter:
Fermenter in the fermeting chamber at 10°C
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Short session in the brew space today. Pulverized pellets for dry hopping my first "session hazy" brew and poured them in to slowly drop...
...then I swapped out a kicked keg in the keezer for one from my latest batch of All Your Citra [Are Belong To Us] neipa and ran the kick through the ancient Mark II.
No big whoop...
Cheers!
...then I swapped out a kicked keg in the keezer for one from my latest batch of All Your Citra [Are Belong To Us] neipa and ran the kick through the ancient Mark II.
No big whoop...
Cheers!
A break in the recent rains today so I brewed a best bitter. Kegged my American amber while the boil was happening.
Setting up a keggle drain and recirc system for big batches complete with tri-clamps, pump, and hoses. Sparge arm is next. Clear hoses are temporary for a visual and planning until I can get silicone hoses, and I still need to use teflon tape on a couple connections, but it's a work in progress.
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Drank some tasty House NEIPA while having a long drawn out fight with my knitting machine, that now needs new parts. Fortunately those are available locally. Gonna order more hops tomorrow for the planned NEIPA for competition, also thinking about what I want to brew this weekend. Probably just something simple, fast, and easy. Kinda like me in my younger days. Now I'm complicated, slow as a turtle, and according to my husband more difficult than sudoku in the dark, with a pen.
Been elbow deep building a new computer for the Spousal Unit and migrating her digital life from her 13 year old system but came up for air long enough to swap out a kicked keg of my beloved ~12% chocolate stout, tap a fresh keg of the same beer, and run the kick through the venerable Mark II (even older than said computer) whose little bendy plastic tabs that used to hold it together have gone off to Plastic Heaven, leaving only gravity and inertia 
Cheers! (Still, got 'er done
)
but came up for air long enough to swap out a kicked keg of my beloved ~12% chocolate stout, tap a fresh keg of the same beer, and run the kick through the venerable Mark II (even older than said computer) whose little bendy plastic tabs that used to hold it together have gone off to Plastic Heaven, leaving only gravity and inertia Cheers! (Still, got 'er done
)
Okay, I gotta ask...what was the build???? did you sell your soul for one of the new Nvidia 50 series?Been elbow deep building a new computer for the Spousal Unit and migrating her digital life from her 13 year old system
Cheers! (Still, got 'er done
Lols! I'm not that big of a dummy 
They are basically Unobtanium right now, and what is out there is going for 2~3x MSRP.
On top of that the drivers are allegedly bricking 5090s. Oof.
So, no.
Not yet
But, yes, sooner than later I will have an RTX5090, probably an OC model, and the wife will get my RTX4090. Just a matter of Nvidia getting their drivers and production lines together - and beating that over-MSRP price down to earth with volume. Could be a year I reckon.
You can see the build details here. It's a super sweet machine. Should have it commissioned in a day or so, just finishing up copying a decade+ of stuff from her current system to the new build, then will run a full set of backups before she switches machines...
Cheers!
They are basically Unobtanium right now, and what is out there is going for 2~3x MSRP.
On top of that the drivers are allegedly bricking 5090s. Oof.
So, no.
Not yet
But, yes, sooner than later I will have an RTX5090, probably an OC model, and the wife will get my RTX4090. Just a matter of Nvidia getting their drivers and production lines together - and beating that over-MSRP price down to earth with volume. Could be a year I reckon.
You can see the build details here. It's a super sweet machine. Should have it commissioned in a day or so, just finishing up copying a decade+ of stuff from her current system to the new build, then will run a full set of backups before she switches machines...
Cheers!
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Hit up my LHBS for ingredients (yesterday) to brew a Piraat clone (today). Got a starter running (yesterday) and I'm summoning the courage and stamina to fire up the water in the garage since it's still just 29F outside right now.
Assistent Braumeister and I decided to call it Black Pearl's Revenge; hopefully we're a little closer to the intended ABV (10-ish) than last time (14-ish). But that was extract+, this is all grain.
Fortunately, the garage will be cold enough to ferment out there -- and of course, I chose to brew an ale with WLP-500, which prefers 65 - 72... so I'll be breaking out the heating pad and Inkbird controller on this batch.
@MaxStout (since you asked for an update) For what it's worth, the mash (16 lbs of grist) in a 44 quart pot was like a thin gruel instead of a free flowing liquid. And I didn't quite hit my mash temp -- the extra 6 pounds of grist took it down to 148F, but I didn't want to burn the BIABag, so I let it ride. Conversion was complete in 50 minutes, and squeezing the bag was like trying to get turnip juice out of a turnip.
Boil was standard except I only got about 6 gallons out of the bag, so after boil-off my final volume was closer to 5 gallons. SG before boiling was 1.077; afterwards was 1.100. The OG after adding a gallon of spring water to bring up the volume dropped to 1.089, so with a good run of the yeast (WLP500) I can see anywhere from 9.5 to 10.3% ABV. Flavor at this point is SWE-E-E-E-T! with good hints of hops at the back. I smell raisins and currants already; Assistent Braumeister smells caramel notes. We'll let it sit for at least 3 weeks in the fermenter and see how it goes.
Assistent Braumeister and I decided to call it Black Pearl's Revenge; hopefully we're a little closer to the intended ABV (10-ish) than last time (14-ish). But that was extract+, this is all grain.
Fortunately, the garage will be cold enough to ferment out there -- and of course, I chose to brew an ale with WLP-500, which prefers 65 - 72... so I'll be breaking out the heating pad and Inkbird controller on this batch.
@MaxStout (since you asked for an update) For what it's worth, the mash (16 lbs of grist) in a 44 quart pot was like a thin gruel instead of a free flowing liquid. And I didn't quite hit my mash temp -- the extra 6 pounds of grist took it down to 148F, but I didn't want to burn the BIABag, so I let it ride. Conversion was complete in 50 minutes, and squeezing the bag was like trying to get turnip juice out of a turnip.
Boil was standard except I only got about 6 gallons out of the bag, so after boil-off my final volume was closer to 5 gallons. SG before boiling was 1.077; afterwards was 1.100. The OG after adding a gallon of spring water to bring up the volume dropped to 1.089, so with a good run of the yeast (WLP500) I can see anywhere from 9.5 to 10.3% ABV. Flavor at this point is SWE-E-E-E-T! with good hints of hops at the back. I smell raisins and currants already; Assistent Braumeister smells caramel notes. We'll let it sit for at least 3 weeks in the fermenter and see how it goes.
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Busy morning - just finished kegging Kona The Beerbarian, from 2 SS brewbuckets into 2 ready for business cornies. Currently cleaning/soaking the buckets.
Next up - clean , PBW, starsan and carb the kicked keg so it's ready.
And then try and find/fix a slow leak in a corny lid. Probably the PRV or a stuck popit on the post. Or just put on a different lid and see if it holds pressure.
Next up - clean , PBW, starsan and carb the kicked keg so it's ready.
And then try and find/fix a slow leak in a corny lid. Probably the PRV or a stuck popit on the post. Or just put on a different lid and see if it holds pressure.
Kegged my first "session hazy" brew today and when cleaning up afterward I could smell how tasty this is gonna be
ABV came in higher than anticipated at 5.1 vs 4.6, likely due to increased efficiency vs my typical 8~8.5% DIPAs. I've never brewed a beer this small on my 3v2p 20g rig so used the same BHE set in BS3 as the big recipes as I had no idea what value to use. I have an idea now
Cheers!
ABV came in higher than anticipated at 5.1 vs 4.6, likely due to increased efficiency vs my typical 8~8.5% DIPAs. I've never brewed a beer this small on my 3v2p 20g rig so used the same BHE set in BS3 as the big recipes as I had no idea what value to use. I have an idea now
Cheers!
Kegged an IPL. Tastes surprisingly good since I struggle with IPAs.
Also cleaned and sanitized kegs. Left one with some star San and pressurized for whenever I need it next. Hopefully sooner rather than later
Also cleaned and sanitized kegs. Left one with some star San and pressurized for whenever I need it next. Hopefully sooner rather than later
Tapped my Extra Special Bitter. Got amazing effciency and made a more fermentable wort since I always make the same exact recipe, and this time it came out to 6.0% ABV. Tastes amazing and the English hops really pop in this one. Probably should call it an English Strong Ale since it is a little high in alcohol.
John
John
My siphon tank is down to its last few pounds and can use a bit of thermal assistance to do transfers now. Heating blanky applied for a few hours while the near-empty 5 pounder I use for racking sat in a freezer at -10° over the same time. Put them together quickly and I managed to push almost 2 whole pounds over
Cheers!
Cheers!
To keep the ferment inside the fermenter, I had to add a blow-off tube to the Black Pearl's Revenge this morning before I left the house. When I got back, kreusen was in the blow-off jar, so very timely indeed!
OMG, did you use Kona coffee for a beer ingredient?
I’m getting some entries ready and stocking some beer into the fridge for the game tonight.
Went to Hawaii last year - great time. But no Kona in the beer. A play on Conan the Barbarian... Oh my. Dad joke?
How in the hell do a couple of gaskets cost $41? Ugh..so..ugh.
I've managed to destroy the stupid white nylon gaskets in my Anvil Foundry ball valve twice now and after not being able to source them anywhere, I just decided to get an "Internal valve seal kit" directly from Anvil, and since I was on there went ahead and ordered 2 and ordered 2 of the oring kits as well.
Boooo!!
I've managed to destroy the stupid white nylon gaskets in my Anvil Foundry ball valve twice now and after not being able to source them anywhere, I just decided to get an "Internal valve seal kit" directly from Anvil, and since I was on there went ahead and ordered 2 and ordered 2 of the oring kits as well.
Boooo!!
Bumped the temp up on my Brut IPA as it looks to have finished fermenting.
I've got a bit of a cold right now so it could be the old sense of smell playing trucks on me, but I'm sure it's thrown loads of isoamyl acetate like a hefe yeast.
I really hope not. "Mango Madness", the flavour profile is right there in the name.
I've got a bit of a cold right now so it could be the old sense of smell playing trucks on me, but I'm sure it's thrown loads of isoamyl acetate like a hefe yeast.
I really hope not. "Mango Madness", the flavour profile is right there in the name.
Just dry hopped 1 1/4 OZ of Saaz into the conical. Still using the 1 1/2" triclamp for the drop, but before putting the hops in I chopped them up into small pieces so it wouldn't get hung up. Worked great. Still have another 4 days before I do the D rest for 3-4 days followed by a cold crash over 5-7 days. And then... Lager for 6 weeks.
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