What I did for beer today

[MaxStout]

Yeah does anyone know why so many LHBS's are biting the dust ? Seems to me more people than ever are into home brewing wether beer, wine , Kombucha ect . 10 years ago there were at least 5 or 6 in my general area, my fave closed after the owner passed away now there is 1 lhbs standing, at least in my area...crying shame.

What @day_trippr said.

We kicked that around in another thread, and yet another thread talking about declining AHA membership, which is one more indicator that the fad days of homebrewing are behind us.

No doubt, the pandemic drove nails into a few LHBSs as well.

I don't know how membership here at HBT stacks up to what it was a dozen years ago, but whatever it is, we're it. The True Believers in the Brew.

 

[day_trippr]

whatever it is, we're it. The True Believers in the Brew.

Right - out with the riff-raff!

For sure the posts-per-day rate here has plummeted from its peak.
There are sites out there that track traffic that might help with numbers, though they may want $$ to look back more than months...

Cheers!

 

[seanjwalker1]

We've decided the peak of home brewing beer happened around 2011-2012 and since then a large portion of people brewing back then have bailed. Massachusetts had dozens of LHBS when I started almost 20 years ago, now we're down to maybe a half dozen with only a couple of large-ish retailers left.

It is what it is - and that ain't great....

Jesus I hope this doesn't mean that soon Ama Zon Almighty will corner the home brewing market ! Unless of course they keep prices reasonable

 

[jcav]

I kegged my Irish Red today for my St. Patrick's Day Party! Tastes pretty darn good right now even though it's flat, young, and yeasty! Hi hopes for this one!

John

 

[day_trippr]

Started the two day post-soft-crash dry hopping on my latest Fantastic Haze neipa clone, using my "pulverized pellet" method to prolong contact so I can avoid agitating the crashed yeast resting on the bottom. This picture was taken three hours after depositing the hop powder and it's still very slowly dropping into the 50°F beer.

Experience has shown had I simply dropped raw pellets in they would have gone straight to the bottom in mere minutes and depending on density could sit there largely intact. So there's an incremental increase in O2 exposure in trade for a massive increase in hop character gained...

Cheers!

 

[monkelikesbeer]

Sampled some endeavour hops for a brew day in a couple days, on the nose it felt slightly herbal, fruity, mango an mandarin mainly but then I made a hop tea for 15 minutes and it tasted like chewing grass

So maybe it's not worth adding them, at least not at the 15 minutes mark, maybe at whirlpool it can work, I need to test it

Sorry for bringing this up after two years, but I tried my first homebrewed beer this week, which had endeavour hops, and it was absolutely lovely.
It was a SMASH pale ale, with the following recipe:
1kg of CRISP clear choice pale malt
6l of water for mashing at 63ºC for 60 min. Brew in a bag.
14g of endeavour 60 min
7g of endeavour 15 min
7g of endeavour whirlpool addition
Post-boil volume of 3.5l (yeah still figuring out the volume math thing)
IBU of 127? I've read somewhere that it doesn't go much higher than 100, but dunno. Big IBU by accident
2.5g of S-04 for yeast. 11 days before priming and bottling at 2.5 vol of CO2.
The result was very tasty. Bitterness is strong, but it's actually not oppressing? I didn't feel like it was unpleasant at all. My brother, which doesn't like very bitter beers, tried it and liked it. The hop taste and aroma reminds me of orange zest. I consider it a success despite all the newbie errors commited! If anything it is indeed a tasty beer.

 

[Rish]

Welcome to HBT and congrats on your first homebrew!

 

[JAReeves]

Went through the fridge and keezer. Threw out some old stuff and inventoried the yeast & hops for what I hope will be a brewday or two at the end of the month. Wrote out the list of all the things that need doing as well, like bottling and cleaning and replacing old gaskets.

 

[grampamark]

Kegged the Amber Ale I brewed in January to replace the Bullwinkle Brown keg that kicked yesterday.

 

[T Murph]

I cleaned and sanitized 2 kegs one to transfer an APA into that I brewed last Tuesday and the other for a red ale I will brew this coming Tuesday. I also moved all the plants back outside that I had kept in the brewery over winter.

 

[Graham H]

Cleaned and sanitized a keg that I had finally emptied on Saturday, then transferred my Little Red Riding Ale, fermenting since late January. Dropped it into the keezer and then went back to cleaning and sanitizing the fermenting keg.

 

[BikerMatt]

Yesterday but:
-Bottled a batch of Coopers English Bitter
-Started a new batch of Coopers Lager
-Bought a 45L Brewmonk Magnus

 

[Wigglebutts Brewery]

Used a special purpose gas hose to transfer CO2 from an inverted 20# to an almost empty 5#. It worked!!
Now I need to setup a heavy duty bracket to accomplish this process in the future.

 

[ClaudiusB]

I cleaned the 35-foot-long milled grain delivery line by blowing aluminum balls through the line a few times.
The red ball is the last ball through the system, if missing, it indicates some balls are stuck.

 

[HM-2]

Dry hopped my English IPA with 50 grams each of T45 Jester and Harlequin at high Krausen. There's some pretty aggressive apricot coming out of the airlock...

 

[day_trippr]

Kegged my latest neipa - this one the 4th batch of Fantastic Haze clone. Put a couple gallons of cold water with a tablespoon of OxyFree in each carboy, stuck bungs in them, and stood them up-side-down for an hour or two to soak off their krausen rings.

Had intended to rack my chocolate stout into them today on top of rum-soaked cocoa nibs and vanilla beans, but the stout FG is still dropping so that got put off, likely for a month...

Cheers!

 

[T Murph]

I brewed a rich red ale today. I decided to try a different recipe that I found online that included 2 oz of black malt. Judging from the looks of it I'm not sure it's gonna turn out red. But I'm sure it will be tasty as it has 2 lbs of caramel 60. I can't wait to taste this one.

 

[T Murph]

I learned something new today. After brewing yesterday, it started raining before I finished cleaning my electric boil kettle. So I rinsed it out and ran about a gallon of water in it. Later I had about 4 gallons of Star San solution that was used and I decided it was time to replace it. So I poured the used solution into my BK and left outside over night. To my surprise when I went to clean it this morning, I noticed the cooked on residue on the heating element was flaking loose. I rubbed it a little and discovered the residue was coming right off. I removed the element took it to the kitchen sink and it cleaned up nicely with very little effort using a kitchen sponge. I had tried several times to wash that thing clean with only minimal results. Even PBW failed to do what the Star San solution did. I will remember this experience. It looks like new.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

After many life obstacles, I'm brewing today. It's the doppelbock I brewed in November but with a couple of tweaks. I'm down to a couple pints left of my November batch so it makes sense to brew it again so it can age a little. I'll brew a wheat next and that'll be on tap sooner and about ready for Wisconsin spring. For the Midwest folks it seems like spring now but I expect a winter dump yet.

 

[ClaudiusB]

I supervised the keg washer with a homebrew wheat beer.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Well my brew day went well, just cleanup now.

Plus, a big one of what I did for beer, I bought a beer cooler! Space for eight corny kegs. I'll modify it to serve my existing three beer taps on the other side of the wall where the cooler will sit.

 

[BrewZer]

Yesterday, actually, for tomorrow -- picked up three pounds of specialty grains for an AmAm (American Amber) lawnmower ale.

 

[BikerMatt]

Thought I`d order just a little bit of grains since all websites currently say 2-4 days lead time if crushed due to high demand and I don`t have a mill anymore so went to place an order, wow these are cheap gimme a kilo of this and a kilo of that, oh I need those too and of course a new bottle tree for drying, oh and an automatic siphon etc whööps 77eur

 

[Immocles]

Brewing a bock and kegging a helles. Bock will go over the fresh yeast cake.

 

[BrewZer]

So I'm 45 minutes into the mash, and the 30 minute sample showed conversion was just about done. I'll check it here in a minute to confirm.

Fermenter soaking in sanitizing solution; hops and additives standing by, boiling commences in just about half-an-hour. Mash pH about 5.5, SG 1.055 (target 1.054), noticeably sweet and aromatic of the grains.

 

[Knightshade]

Opened up the chamber, inhaled...checked the mason jar full of star san and saw it is still bubbling ever so slightly (day 7) and closed it.

*sigh*

 

[BrewZer]

Opened up the chamber, inhaled...checked the mason jar full of star san and saw it is still bubbling ever so slightly (day 7) and closed it.

*sigh*

 

[ClaudiusB]

I replaced a leaking regulator today after 10 years of great service helping me to move the grain around.

 

[MaxStout]

Checked the Baltic porter that's been in the ferm chamber 11 days. I had pitched W-34/70 at 56 and held that until active ferm started slowing, then bumped up to 63 for a d-rest. It's been at that temp for 5 days and I'll hold at that for a while longer. Don't want to hurry a big lager.

Anyway, I drew a sample today and it's 1.020, from OG of 1.088. That's 8.9% ABV, and 77% attn. Would like it to drop a few more gravity points and allow more time for the yeast to clean up before I cold crash. I'll give it another week at 63.

BTW, the hydro sample tasted good.

 

[T Murph]

Pulled my Dirty Pale Ale from the conditioning fridge, it is fully crashed and carbed. Moved it to a kegerator ready to be tapped next week. And began carbonation on my Marzen that has been lagering since late January. Carbonating slowly to be ready to tap St Patty's Day. Checked on a batch of Coffee Liqueur that I made yesterday, it's will be ready by the time I get back from Florida late next week.