What I did for beer today

[Immocles]

Yeah, I'm with you regarding the TILTs, the only thing you can really rely on them for is determining when you've flat-lined at TG. In that respect, they're not much better than bubble counting.

I must confess that I do not recall our discussion regarding pitching onto fresh cakes. Please tell me that you're pitching a large beer onto a much smaller beer's cake? I may owe you an apology, but I'm pretty good at telling Otter's Brewing Story #361 "How I learned that there is no 'Rule of 10'" whenever I talk about pitching onto cakes.

Gulp!

Fingers crossed.

Hahaha no worries. That part of my message wasn't meant for quoting towards you. It was just an update to a cake pitching post I had made earlier in the week. But in a nutshell, I pitched a 1.065 rye IPA over a 1.042 cream ale and have been severely shocked by the fermentation! I'm a staunch smaller batch, dry yeast/no starter type brewer. I'm not used to that type of take off.

 

[wetmk]

I “built” a keezer.
View attachment 771415View attachment 771416
Five cu. ft. chest freezer from the orange box and an Inkbird. Add keg, C02 bottle and regulator, and-Shazam!-a keezer. Room for a keg and a 12-pack. In theory, just barely enough room for a second keg (minus the 12-pack. As quick and dirty as a serving appliance can get. Total cost, for the freezer and the Inkbird, was $202. I already had the rest.

Wait...I'm confused (doesn't take much).
You already have one.

 

[wetmk]

Wait...I'm confused (doesn't take much).
You already have one.

This one must be for the city house.

 

[grampamark]

This one must be for the city house.

That’s right. I should have made that clear. Sometimes I assume too much.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I build event decor for weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc. Today, I built a beer wall. They'll add the taps and jockey boxes onsite.

 

[leedspointbrew]

1). Brewing an NEIPA (here's hoping!) with all the usual suspects.
2). Checked on Ozzy - hoping for a blizzard of Cascade later this summer.

 

[BoitAHL]

Abysmal Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout (BYO.com)

 

[grampamark]

Went to the LHBS for a repair kit for the Taprite regulator in my quick’n’dirty keezer. Sign on the wall.

In other news, the reg. is still leaking. More slowly, but still leaking. I have to take a keg to a wedding a week from today, so I bit the bullet and ordered a Kegco reg. from Amazon. That’s what I have on my kegerator at the farm and have never had any problems with it.

 

[bwible]

I “built” a keezer.
View attachment 771415View attachment 771416
Five cu. ft. chest freezer from the orange box and an Inkbird. Add keg, C02 bottle and regulator, and-Shazam!-a keezer. Room for a keg and a 12-pack. In theory, just barely enough room for a second keg (minus the 12-pack. As quick and dirty as a serving appliance can get. Total cost, for the freezer and the Inkbird, was $202. I already had the rest.

Will make a nice fermentation chamber with that Inkbird when you want to do a lager, too

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Helped a good friend keg his first beer and brew another.

 

[aharri1]

Wee heavy done. Czech pils and double IPA canned. American lager transferred to the keg. Already carbed from the spunding valve!

 

[wetmk]

"Went to the LHBS for a repair kit..."

You live in God's country. How is it possible that you have a viable LHBS nearby, and I, living in the NYC suburbs, have only one?

 

[grampamark]

You live in God's country. How is it possible that you have a viable LHBS nearby, and I, living in the NYC suburbs, have only one?

I’m at our city house, in a metro area of about 200K (that’s about 15% of the entire pop. of the state). There is a really good HBS here, Billings Homebrew Supply. Been in business 30 years and carry a good selection of ingredients, equipment, wine and cider making supplies, pretty much one stop shopping. The owner is a great guy, too. I usually spend 20 minutes getting what I came in for and an hour visiting with him.

 

[seatazzz]

Yesterday dropped 4lbs of peaches in my hefeweizen from last week; now we wait. Today supposed to get 10 sous vide magnets from Amazon; was intrigued when I saw CH on HBFL using them for a completely o2-free dry hop. I also tend to forget to dry hop, so having them all ready to go might help that. And made an order at YVH; next weekend going to attempt a Fresh Squeezed clone, and I was almost out of Citra and Mosaic. Fiddled with the pressure lid some more; got it to hold 3psi for over an hour, so I think I might have it dialled in.

 

[ba-brewer]

Yesterday added my dry hops to my smash IPA. Also brewed a 10gal batch of golden ale, half is fermenting with wlp007 and the other half with dry Voss kveik. The Voss half I used half the yeast package and it was already starting to slowly bubble in 2hr.

Today watching bubble, Voss was bubbling constantly first thing in the morning and 18hr post pitch WLP007 is barely bubbling once a minute.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Yesterday, I kegged ten gallons of Hefe and ten gallons of wit

 

[grampamark]

I’ve been tracking down small leaks in the quick ‘n’ dirty keezer for the last couple days. As of now, nothing is leaking.

In other news the wedding, which the beer in the keezer was destined for, may be washed out. The venue is a few miles west of West Yellowstone and that entire region is experiencing flooding due to heavy rain rapidly melting the snow at the higher elevations. All of Y. Stone park is closed and many highways in the area are flooded; some bridges have been washed out. We may not be able to get there from here.

 

[JAReeves]

This was my failed attempt at a catty beer, not even a hint of cat box.
Panther piss IPA

Amt​	Name​	Type​	#​	%/IBU​	Volume​
6 lbs​	Pale Malt, cali2row,US (2.0 SRM)​	Grain​	1​	57.1 %​	0.47 gal​
4 lbs​	Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM)​	Grain​	2​	38.1 %​	0.31 gal​
8.0 oz​	Corn Sugar (Dextrose) [Boil] (0.0 SRM)​	Sugar​	3​	4.8 %​	0.04 gal​
14.00 g​	Columbus (Tomahawk) [16.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min​	Hop​	4​	26.4 IBUs​	-​
28.00 g​	Summit [16.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min​	Hop​	5​	19.8 IBUs​	-​
14.00 g​	Chinook [11.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min​	Hop​	6​	6.9 IBUs​	-​
14.00 g​	Simcoe [13.30 %] - Boil 10.0 min​	Hop​	7​	7.9 IBUs​	-​
112.00 g​	Simcoe [13.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min​	Hop​	8​	0.0 IBUs​	-​
42.00 g​	Chinook [11.60 %] - Boil 0.0 min​	Hop​	9​	0.0 IBUs​	-​
42.00 g​	Simcoe [13.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min​	Hop​	10​	0.0 IBUs​	-​
14.00 g​	Summit [16.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min​	Hop​	11​	0.0 IBUs​	-​
1.0 pkg​	Hansen Ale Blend (White Labs #WLP075) [35.49 ml]​	Yeast​	12​	-​	-​
84.00 g​	Chinook [11.60 %] - 3.0 Days Before Bottling for 0.0 Days​	Hop​	13​	0.0 IBUs​	-​

​

If you really want Catty/Dank/Weedy, up the CTZ.

Like, to 11.

 

[JAReeves]

Checked gravity on the 3 fermenters.
#1, Pilsner with wort from Smog City-still at 1.014, after two weeks and a diacetyl rest for week #2.

#2, this year’s Barley Wine, using the same base wort as #1, but with a lot of extract and simple sugars and hops to boost it, still at 1.054 after two weeks, but somehow not offensively sweet. Suggestions for dropping gravity?

#3, Hibiscus Saison, after 1 month, finally getting tart, color leaning toward light pink, 1.004 and doners.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I build event decor for weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc. Today, I built a beer wall. They'll add the taps and jockey boxes onsite.

View attachment 771445

 

[JAReeves]

View attachment 771806

So much better than a doughnut wall.

 

[DBhomebrew]

So much better than a doughnut wall.

Not sure if I'm going to Google that.

Edit: Seriously?!

 

[ba-brewer]

#2, this year’s Barley Wine, using the same base wort as #1, but with a lot of extract and simple sugars and hops to boost it, still at 1.054 after two weeks, but somehow not offensively sweet. Suggestions for dropping gravity?View attachment 771707

What was your starting gravity and what yeast did you use to get it down to 1054?
I don't have any experience with high gravity beers but I do see a lot of yeast have alcohol limits around 10% so whatever you use make sure it has a high alcohol tolerance.

 

[JAReeves]

What was your starting gravity and what yeast did you use to get it down to 1054?
I don't have any experience with high gravity beers but I do see a lot of yeast have alcohol limits around 10% so whatever you use make sure it has a high alcohol tolerance.

The numbers I punched into Brewers Friend show 1.121 OG to 1.023 FG, 12.87%. I am going to let it sit another week and see if anything drops out. I may make a starter with some S-05 if it isn't showing movement next weekend.

Edit: I used WLP-007 Dry English Ale in a starter originally.

 

[ba-brewer]

Started the process of building up a slant into a viable yeast pitch, this time wlp059 Melbourne ale. Will mostly like be a bitter maybe I will turn into a Australian sparkling ale.

Checked gravity on my split batch golden ale, wlp007 was about 50% done after 36hr and the Voss half was close to 95% at 36hrs. The Voss half is in a keg so I pulled the blowoff tube and put a spunding valve on it. It did not take long maybe 6 hours to get up to 15psi.

 

[BrewMan13]

Kicked the schwarzbier, so cleaned the line and put the grodziskie on.
The other day I did more keg troubleshooting, and of the 3 I thought had issues, I think 2 are fine. Unfortunately the one I still think has an issue is one that's on right now...

 

[Rish]

Bottled my cantaloupe wheat, poured 3 gallons of apple juice on the trub because ... why not (still had a nice cantaloupe aroma)? Labeled my salted caramel cider bottles.

 

[ba-brewer]

The numbers I punched into Brewers Friend show 1.121 OG to 1.023 FG, 12.87%. I am going to let it sit another week and see if anything drops out. I may make a starter with some S-05 if it isn't showing movement next weekend.

Edit: I used WLP-007 Dry English Ale in a starter originally.

Beersmith uses the alcohol tolerance to help set the final gravity, default is 10% for WLP007 which would only be a little lower than the 1054 gravity your beer stopped at. White labs says 8 to 12% for wlp007 1054 is a little over the lower 8% value. They also says you can get 80% attenuation and 10% alcohol, maybe they are assuming a very fermentable wort.

If you do a starter maybe don't crash it so it does not have to wake back up in the relatively high alcohol wort. Or add some actively fermenting beer so it can hit the ground running.

 

[JAReeves]

Beersmith uses the alcohol tolerance to help set the final gravity, default is 10% for WLP007 which would only be a little lower than the 1054 gravity your beer stopped at. White labs says 8 to 12% for wlp007 1054 is a little over the lower 8% value. They also says you can get 80% attenuation and 10% alcohol, maybe they are assuming a very fermentable wort.

If you do a starter maybe don't crash it so it does not have to wake back up in the relatively high alcohol wort. Or add some actively fermenting beer so it can hit the ground running.

The starter was very active when poured in, I am going to check gravity again this weekend and see if there's any change. I have let it sit at room temp after the first week, in the hopes of lower FG.

 

[grampamark]

Built an insulated keg carrier. Not exactly a work of art but should transport a keg to a wedding this weekend.