What I did for beer today

[T Murph]

Yesterday I brewed an 8 gal batch of porter to split with my brew buddy. Fermenting it in a Fermzilla so 8 gallons is all I was comfortable putting in it. Over night it is fermenting well using Chico 1056 yeast that has been repitched multiple times.

 

[VikeMan]

Yesterday I brewed an 8 gal batch of porter to split with my brew buddy. Fermenting it in a Fermzilla so 8 gallons is all I was comfortable putting in it. Over night it is fermenting well using Chico 1056 yeast that has been repitched multiple times.

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Is that a spunding valve in your blowoff line? Are you not concerned about the possibility of spooge running through it?

 

[T Murph]

Is that a spunding valve in your blowoff line? Are you not concerned about the possibility of spooge running through it?

Yeah it's a spunding valve and no I'm not worried about any back flow. Once fermentation gets to full blown activity I start increasing pressure in the fermenter. That helps prevent back flow plus a sufficient amount of CO2 escapes around the hose going through the bung.

 

[VikeMan]

Yeah it's a spunding valve and no I'm not worried about any back flow. Once fermentation gets to full blown activity I start increasing pressure in the fermenter. That helps prevent back flow plus a sufficient amount of CO2 escapes around the hose going through the bung.

By "spooge" I meant blowoff, i.e. stuff on its way to the blowoff vessel.

 

[HM-2]

Brewed my cruo BRU-1 Hazy.

Aside from a bit of a slow sparge, a super easy brew day. Hit my numbers with little effort.

1.071 OG, should finish around 7%

Token 10g of cryo BRU-1 at 30 for bittering.
Big fat 160g (5.6oz) whirlpool, seen below.

Pack each of WHC Saturated and Lallemand Köln.

Another 230g of Cryo BRU-1 for dry hopping split between high krausen and post fermentation.

Should be fun.

 

[T Murph]

@VikeMan oh, I'm keeping an eye on it. This batch is primarily a test to see how far I can push a Fermzilla. I like them and now have two. I like being able to ferment, crash, carb and serve in a single vessel. I understand they advertise that you can do it all in a SS conical but they are simply too clumsy and cumbersome IME.

 

[BrewZer]

Shipped entries to two competitions and a care package to my SIL and brother.

G'luck!

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Thanks @BrewZer !

 

[ba-brewer]

Yesterday was the first brew day in a while and wanted to try something different. I brewed 3gal of stronger wort (citra & el dorado IPA) that I top upped with some water to get to 5gal. Messed up and forgot to connect the false bottom again and really crammed the pump, RIMS and kettle return. Once that got clear things went OK but got pretty lousy efficiency, planned on 70% got 62%.

Today was a double brew day, 2gal English IPA and I gave the top-up thing another try on a golden ale. Both went well, the golden too well even, planned 62% efficiency and got 72% this time. Remembered to connect the false bottom even.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Got my Tilt Pi up and running!

 

[HM-2]

Day 3 of fermentation for my Cryo BRU-1 NEIPA. Checked on it this morning and it's blowing out of the airlock so quickly set up a blow-off tube into a spare jug if distilled water with a bit of Chemisan in it.

I'll do my first dry hop later today when my wife is back from her appointments and I'm not juggling two kids. 100g BRU-1 at high krausen.

 

[seatazzz]

Today being the first day I've actually felt well enough to do something, brewing up another batch of IPA. Just tapped the last one last Friday, but it's been such a great hydration drink this week while I was sick that it's going fast. Had some horrible news on Wednesday; a dear friend, my husband's BFF, was vacationing in Nashville with his wife when he went into renal failure. Passed a little over two hours after they finally had to intubate him. Today's brew is in honor of his memory. Life moves pretty fast, my friends; blink and you'll miss it.

 

[T Murph]

It's keg cleaning day at Murphbrau Haus got three kegs to clean in preparation for brews in the works.

 

[seatazzz]

In keeping with the general theme of how this week is going (awful), just tasted the Wit I brewed last Saturday. Apparently something was wrong with the yeast, and I just inadvertently created a sour. Not acetaldehyde, I know what that tastes like; more like sour patch kids but not as strong. Still has a good orange/spicy flavor to it, might just keg it and see if I can stomach it. Or send it to a competition. Or see if my friends will drink it. Anything. This was supposed to augment the slightly weird lager which is all I have left in the kegerator right now, gosh darn it.

 

[HM-2]

In keeping with the general theme of how this week is going (awful), just tasted the Wit I brewed last Saturday. Apparently something was wrong with the yeast, and I just inadvertently created a sour. Not acetaldehyde, I know what that tastes like; more like sour patch kids but not as strong. Still has a good orange/spicy flavor to it, might just keg it and see if I can stomach it. Or send it to a competition. Or see if my friends will drink it. Anything. This was supposed to augment the slightly weird lager which is all I have left in the kegerator right now, gosh darn it.

Stick it in a keg, top it up with some malt extract or light Candi sugar, dose it with Brett and leave it for 6 months. I don't know what you'll get, but it'll be interesting for sure!

 

[bike2brew]

Bottled my Hungry Brown Dog Am Brown Ale. I believe this is the final dialed in recipe, finished @ 1.015 w/ 4.99% abv. Has the color and flavor I have been looking for since starting this effort. The recipe is posted on Brewer's Friend @ Hungry Brown Dog if anyone is interested.

 

[flipster]

The last days I had in my mind to resurrect my "utility muffin beer research kitchen". That gives me the opportunity to do 5l batches instead of 30l.
With the things I learned from reading the HBT over the last few weeks, I had the urge to pull this setup out of the archives and worked a bit on that. So I came up with a simple idea for an insualtion (just glued some stryrofoam pieces together and cut/burned a hole into it in the shape of my bucket, and created a lautering-drainage/BIAB-hybrid-vat for mashing.

To keep things from getting boring, I used the setup for a traditional Münchener Hell (Ha'Psch-Clone) recipe with infusion and decoction (two mash process).
Surprisingly I hit the OG to the point, and now the fermenter went into my fridge. This really allowed a few shortcuts, so that the entire brewing day was not very long in comparison, despite the (relatively) complex mashing process.

And now: only the result has to be right in a few weeks - but I'm already planning a comparative recipe without decoction, just because I can.

 

[BikerMatt]

Dug this thing out of hibernation. My neighbor gave me this roughly shaped mash ladle years ago for me to finish back when I was brewing the last time round. It's sat ever since but suddenly remembered it the other day and got half a mind to actually finish it. It's made from the same mahogany plank as the guitar I built so it'd be kind of form fitting to finally put it to use.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Today I brewed 22.5 litres of Summer Lightning clone. OG 1048 giving a BHE of 76%. IBU 39, SRM 4.7
Recipe
4500g Crisp Maris Otter
60 minutes Mash and boil.
35g Challenger @ 60 m
20g EKG @ 15 m
25g EKG 20 m whirlpool
CML Midland (Nottingham style yeast)

 

[HM-2]

Second DH on my NEIPA. Another 180g of Cryo BRU-1.

 

[lumpher]

Doing my first closed transfer keg to keg now. I found a leaky keg filled with Dunkelweizen I need to fix, and I have several good clean kegs sitting around.

 

[BeerAndTele]

Bottled my split batch American IPA this evening. It's a dank-off: Columbus dryhop vs. Nugget dryhop.

 

[MaxStout]

Bottled my Baltic Porter this morning, yielded 44 12oz long necks.

 

[flipster]

Cleaning day: 20 bottles at once at 75°C with my selfmade dishwasher insert. The closures for the swing top bottles are in the cuttlery drawer, also top clean. Never had issues with infections (knock on wood).
And there was also some space for my breakfast porridge bowl.

With recently emptied bottles I have no additional work. If I collect them over time, I have rinse them after drinking. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 weeks till i get a full tray .. the pressure isn't that strong to clean that long dried remnants.

 

[day_trippr]

To make a very long story shorter, I had major surgery on my right leg 5 weeks ago and this morning my surgical team finally said I can start "doing stuff" as long as it didn't stress my leg. I had planned on the surgery and recovery and had brewed six 10 gallon batches of beers to get me through. Five of those kegs kicked over the last few days with the Ballantine IPA kicking last night...

The stout had kicked on Friday, and my youngest son came over to swap in its fresh mate. But I was on my own now for the rest. I decided to go all-in and take the opportunity to clean the keezer lines.

First, I pulled out the four kegs that needed replacing and hooked up the manifold to the six beer QDs.

Then I hooked the drain manifold to the faucets...

Pump on one bucket, drain lines in the other, to pre-rinse the lines...

And away we go!

Rinsed out the cleaning gear and put it away, then loaded the keezer with four fresh kegs!

Taplist looks much better now

With that done I brought out the trusty Mark II and cleaned the five kicked kegs...

Leg is a bit throbby and I nearly filled the vacuum drain I still have connected to it, but it seems to have held up ok.
Totally worth it though!

Cheers!

 

[BrewZer]

Tasted the now-1-week in the bottle Summer 24 amber ale. It's one of the best I've made, and I attribute that to (drum roll please) Controlling the Fermentation Temperature!

No off flavors, no acetaldehyde, no Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde, no weird floaters... just good beer flavor. Needs another week or two before puttin' in the 'fridge.

 

[HM-2]

Kegged up my BRU-1 NEIPA before we go on holiday for a couple of days. It looks to have fermented a bit dryer than I'd hoped so I'll have to see how it's looking when we get back to see if it warrants a maltodextrin addition to bring the FG up a bit.

Down from 1.072 to 1.014 for 80% apparently attenuation, which is significantly more than I would have expected from either part of my co-pitch. Lallemand claim up to 83% with Köln but I've never actually got close to that, usually more like 77%.

 

[VikeMan]

Down from 1.072 to 1.014 for 80% apparently attenuation, which is significantly more than I would have expected from either part of my co-pitch. Lallemand claim up to 83% with Köln but I've never actually got close to that, usually more like 77%.

The problem with yeast manufacturer published attenuation ranges is that yeast strain is not the only factor. Grain bill and mash parameters are also big drivers.

 

[T Murph]

Today it's finally time to transfer the troubled porter into a keg. I transfered 1.5 gallons yesterday into a torpedo keg. It finished at 1.008 after a 1.054 OG. It taste great and now the torpedo is cold crashing and settling down.

 

[HM-2]

The problem with yeast manufacturer published attenuation ranges is that yeast strain is not the only factor. Grain bill and mash parameters are also big drivers.

A 70°C mash with 15% unmalted grains should have pushed FG up to the high teens. Hence the confusion. This is a pretty typical grist for me and Köln is my house NEIPA yeast so I usually have a pretty good feeling for where it lands attenuation wise.

Perhaps my brewing system thermometer needs calibrating.