What I did for beer today

[seanjwalker1]

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Yes these 3. Labels are home made. The Santa and the Big Kahuna are pictures of my best friend who passed away 10 years ago. We called him the big Kahuna and he dressed up and initiated people into our camping group. He was also the local Santa at stores and for Company Christmas parties. He was a lot of fun! The Sugar Cookie turned out great! Tastes, smells and looks good. It’s just fun stuff great group of brewers. We meet outside at a fire pit at our home brewery.

All those look fantastic!

 

[seanjwalker1]

Tapped the Citra/Sabro IPA that I kegged yesterday; and must say, glad I went back to Imperial Loki for this beer. Huge pineapple and some coconut, no grassiness, just a tasty juicy beer. Did some more research on grain mills, but that purchase is now on hold since oldest (12) dog has to go to the vet on Monday; she's been coughing a bit and her belly is a bit distended (water retention more than likely), which points to a possible heart issue. She's fine other than the cough, plays with the younger dog like a young feist; then they both take long naps. Tonight get to open the 2nd can of the Costco Beer Advent Calendar; last night was a German lagerbier that was quite tasty.

I'm sooooo jealous!!!! I keep asking my wife to get me one of those every year !!! She always says I have too many beers already

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Tapped the Citra/Sabro IPA that I kegged yesterday; and must say, glad I went back to Imperial Loki for this beer. Huge pineapple and some coconut, no grassiness, just a tasty juicy beer. Did some more research on grain mills, but that purchase is now on hold since oldest (12) dog has to go to the vet on Monday; she's been coughing a bit and her belly is a bit distended (water retention more than likely), which points to a possible heart issue. She's fine other than the cough, plays with the younger dog like a young feist; then they both take long naps. Tonight get to open the 2nd can of the Costco Beer Advent Calendar; last night was a German lagerbier that was quite tasty.

I hope things go as well as can be expected with the vet visit.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Had a good pull of the Honey Brown to celebrate my Maize and Blue ! BIG 10 champs ! Go Blue !

 

[South Arm Brew]

Had a good pull of the Honey Brown to celebrate my Maize and Blue ! BIG 10 champs ! Go Blue !

Go Blue!

 

[bike2brew]

Prepared batch of Belgian Tripel yesterday. Will be in fermenter through New Year day. Aggressive fermentation activity overnight w/ 10 point drop.

 

[wetmk]

Made 3 spur of the moment extract brews. My pipeline is dry. Death Valley dry. Sahara desert dry. Empty. With these in the fermenters I can think about what's next.

 

[Bill9000]

Bottled red ale for Christmas

 

[Beerstein]

I gave a random brew-neighbor four ten pound bags of grain. All specialty I got in bulk from a closing shop. Merry xmas!!!!

 

[KeizerBrewr]

Appears my BGS is going to finishing far higher in SG than I had planned. Conducting a forced ferment with a sample on the stir plate as I type this. Should be at 1.007, currently 1.017...might toss it into a glass carboy and forget about it until the first of the year, let the diastaticus do it's thing to get it the last ten or so points. Besides, I want to get my hefeweizen started.

 

[seanjwalker1]

My bulkhead fitting for the mash tun didn't show up last night and I'm running out of time for my Xmas brews. Fiddled with it and managed to get it to an extremely slow leak like 1 drop every min or so so went with it ..curses to Amazon ! Brewed 3.5 gallons experimental sugar cookie ale, hoping it comes out ok. Used 2 actual packets of sugar cookie mix in the boil ..I know I know ! Hoping for the best though ! Taste awesome.

 

[South Arm Brew]

My bulkhead fitting for the mash tun didn't show up last night and I'm running out of time for my Xmas brews. Fiddled with it and managed to get it to an extremely slow leak like 1 drop every min or so so went with it ..curses to Amazon ! Brewed 3.5 gallons experimental sugar cookie ale, hoping it comes out ok. Used 2 actual packets of sugar cookie mix in the boil ..I know I know ! Hoping for the best though ! Taste awesome.

Sorry for Amazon experience, but the sugar cookie ale sounds excellent!

 

[seanjwalker1]

Sorry for Amazon experience, but the sugar cookie ale sounds excellent!

It's gonna crash or burn. Learning experience !

 

[seanjwalker1]

Sorry for Amazon experience, but the sugar cookie ale sounds excellent!

It was the weirdest brew I've ever attempted. Mixed up the sugar cookie mix with water. Took more water than I planned on to keep it thin enough and not lump up. About a gallon per package. Then added the concoction to the wort. Added vanilla extract, almond extract and Butter Vanilla emulsion. Just used 1 oz cascade, I wanted this simply Americana tasting. All the grains were American except for a bit of biscuit. I did also go with Saf WB06 instead of O5, since it is technically a wheat beer. Hoping it comes out ok but I may get Scrooged!! . In 10-14 days either it's the fat dude in the red suit smiling or the ghost of Christmas future.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Whoa !!!! Only 4 hours later and the sugar cookie is off and running !!!! First hurdle is down. Was worried if there would be too much preservative in the cookie mix that might inhibit the yeasty beasties from kick starting.

 

[Brewsmith]

Cleaned up after the airlock filled up with yeasty blowoff. I was expecting it to happen with a big IPA and a good pitch of healthy active yeast. I came home with the airlock partially full and some yeasty mess that had squeezed out. Not the biggest mess ever and it looks like the worst is over.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Brewed up 4 gallons of White spiced Xmas ale. Was supposed to be 5 but boiled off more than I should have . I think I got distracted when I was pouring some pre boiled hot water into the sparge pot and forgot to close the spigot ! Gave a whole new meaning to hot foot ! Yikes. Rest went pretty smoothly except for boiling off too much wort. 4 gallons it is.

 

[hout17]

Upgraded to a pixel 6a phone which has android 13. I found out after the change that the tilt app is not supported currently after Android 12 so I couldn't check my Tilt hydrometer in my Irish Red.

So I broke out a Raspberry PI 3 B I had lying around that was installed with a 7 inch lcd. I downloaded the tilt raspberry pi image and we are once again off to the races. Kind of a pain but at least the tilt is not dead in the beer! Pretty much at final gravity at this point so not to big of a deal.

 

[seatazzz]

Received, assembled, and played with new grain mill. Drank a fair bit of homebrew. And sent a resume to a colleague, as we were told yesterday that our location (division of a rather large California-based company) will be closing at the end of the year. I'm not worried, at all; I've got 15 years experience in the freight industry, which is quite saleable. Scuttlebutt around the industry says that container freight on the west coast won't start to pick up again until at least April, mostly due to the lack of a contract with the ill-woo folks, and their reluctance to negotiate because of ONE tiny little terminal in Seattle that is having knicker fits about an outside union handling some of the maintenance. If you're interested, google something that rhymes with Berminal Wive and you'll see what I'm talking about. Change the B & W to T & F. I can't get any more vague than that. If I do get hired on at my colleague's company, I'm going to ask to start after the new year; somebody needs a vacation. Oh darn, all this grain, a new mill, and no work? What WILL I do????

 

[Brewsmith]

I tore apart half of my draft system, disassembled two faucets and lines, and put one of them back together with brand new beer line. I now have my first homebrew in a year on tap. The second faucet and parts are soaking in cleaner and will go back together in time to get put back together with more beer line and get the beer that is in the fermenter on tap in a few days.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Started a starter for my brewday this weekend. WLP838 for a Vienna lager. Can't wait.

 

[Ren06]

Made a 4gallon apple cran cider for my wife naturally carbonating with spunding valve, and made 5.5 gallons of blueberry melomel .

 

[Ren06]

Bottled my banana melomel finally

 

[jwill911]

Fiddled with my Nukatap counter-pressure bottle filler. I think I've got it figured out now, last time I wasted a bunch of beer and made a mess. So I was reluctant to do it again until I thought I knew what I was doing. Bottled 3 six packs, two Hopnosis Cold IPA, one Savion Blanc IPA.

 

[balrog]

Kegged (pseudo closed transfer) my 30th batch of @Yooper 's Haus Pale Ale. Having a Gennee Cream of course, with a nod to her Dad,

 

[grampamark]

Brewed a Scottish Export (Cold Smoke clone). A spur of the moment brewday. I had an empty 5 gallon fermenter and a jar of fresh yeast slurry so I decided “why not”. Did a 4 gallon BIAB batch. It was one of those days when the process seemed to be on automatic pilot. I hit every volume and gravity number predicted by Beersmith. Well, the OG was .01 higher. I can live with that.

 

[WestMichiganSteelheader]

Decided to see how my barley wine is progressing. Needs more time in the fermenter before bottling.

 

[BeerAndTele]

Yesterday I took the day off so I decided to whip up a starter for the mason jar of wlp090 San Diego Super Yeast that had been in the fridge since early April. I wanted to wake it up so I could use it again this winter. It was from an overbuilt starter, so I thought I'd be alright despite the 8 month hibernation. I was wrong. It smelled funky but I pitched it anyway ... what else was I gonna do with the starter I'd just made?

I looked at it today, 24 hours post-pitch, and it is dead as a stone. I'll mourn for an appropriate length of time, then pick up the pieces and move on with my life. So long, old friends.

 

[seatazzz]

Yesterday I learned that the new mill does NOT like conditioned grain, at least not with the drill I have. Next batch I should have a charger for my 19.2v cordless with torque adjustments, I'll try that instead. Grain got milled eventually but I almost burned out my corded drill; a nut vibrated off the hopper and stopped the mill dramatically. Fortunately no bent/broken shaft but it scared the crap out of me. Today I'm brewing up the house Citra/Sabro IPA; the current keg is going down fast, and some new Sabro hops arrived from YVH the other day. Dragged my old IC down from the rafters to use as a heat exchanger, it's cold out here.

 

[seatazzz]

You know how sometimes you're racking your brain for a solution to a problem? Can't find part of a tool you REALLY need? Things like that? And the solution is literally staring you in the face the whole time? Well it happened to me just now. The corded drill I have doesn't work for the new mill; runs way to fast with not enough torque. I have an old Kawasaki cordless 19v but cannot find the charger to save my life. Sitting here cruising Harbor Freight and HD looking for a replacement. HD has a nice Ridgid 18v that would work, and uses the same batteries as the one we already have.....YES, the 18v cordless drill that has been sitting on my tool box forever that the husband uses to drive screws, and I myself have used for the same purpose. He bought it, so I never thought it was anything more than a bit driver. Nope, exact same model I was just looking at on HD website. Just used it set on the low speed/high torque setting to mill a pound of two-row; prettiest crush I've ever produced. Now please excuse me so I can change into my sh*tkicking boots, to aim at my a**.