What I did for beer today

[leedspointbrew]

Once again, overcame massive lack of motivation and bottled the 5-gal Lusitania Shipwreck Stout. Hoping for the best, as usual, after not shooting but torpedoing myself in both feet during the brew.

 

[ClaudiusB]

I fixed a CO2 leak that an overpaid family member created yesterday.

 

[day_trippr]

Holy crap - that was a pretty big leak if it actually moved your flow meter

 

[Brewsmith]

I’ve begun cleaning and rebuilding my kegerator. It’s an old GE fridge from at least the 70’s if not older that used to be in my grandparents house. I aquired it in 2006 and turned it into a kegerator.

With my recent move it has sat unplugged for a month. Besides needing cleaning, it was getting gross just sitting in the garage. It’s time for a redo.

I cleaned it out top to bottom, and it’s now ready to get some sanding, rust removal, and then new paint. I’ll replace all the beer lines and get it all back to working condition.

They don’t make them like they used to. That fridge was old when I was a kid, and now I’ve had it as a kegerator for the last 19 years!

 

[ClaudiusB]

Holy crap - that was a pretty big leak if it actually moved your flow meter

The CO2 loss lasts only a few seconds, and the CO2 monitoring part of the program shuts off its own supply.

 

[PCABrewing]

Today I finished reconciling my fermentables inventory in beersmith.

Not necessarily for beer, more for brewers.
I'm going to submit a change request that they add a "Fermentables.Loc" (freeform text) column to the database table so I can identify the bin or location the item is in. Also I will suggest they add "Inventory.Count" to the inventory report to simplify reconciliation.
Probably won't get them but it's worth a try.

 

[HM-2]

Similarly, I sorted my Brewfather inventory (that I've been very lax at keeping up to date).

I've also boiled up, oven dried and recharred my smaller oak staves that had come out of my imperial red rye ale. These will be going into some Bulleit bourbon tomorrow in preparation for a tropical stout hopped with Sabro and Amarillo I have planned.

Did some recipe prep and tweaking m, including finalising the recipe for a single hop Nectaron hazy IPA using 1/3 of a kg of 2024 harvest stuff from Charles Faram I've split with a couple of brewing buddies.

 

[MaxStout]

I bottled 5 gallons of Skibsol, a Danish "ship's beer." The hydrometer sample had a nice, smoky aroma and flavor from the Weyermann Rauchmalz. Filled 51 12oz longnecks. About 4.6% ABV.

 

[Jonakr]

Defrosted an ice bridge in my kegerator.

 

[OddNotion]

Dry hopped my Rye IPA.

Finalized the recipe for my next beer, which will be an Italian Pilsner.

A few other random homebrewery related tasks.

 

[BrewZer]

I agitated and inverted the Black Pearl's Revenge to ensure the carbonation drops had completely dissolved. 48 12oz and 3 16oz bottles, all resting peacefully in protected, room-temperature habitats, dreaming of drunk brewers and dark sewers.

 

[BrewMan13]

I bottled 5 gallons of Skibsol, a Danish "ship's beer." The hydrometer sample had a nice, smoky aroma and flavor from the Weyermann Rauchmalz. Filled 51 12oz longnecks. About 4.6% ABV.

I just finished my first crack at this style. Having no idea what it was supposed to taste, I just followed a recipe I found online. I enjoyed it well enough, most in my brewclub thought it was too smoky, and the judges at the competition I entered it in said it had virtually no smoke lol.

 

[MaxStout]

I just finished my first crack at this style. Having no idea what it was supposed to taste, I just followed a recipe I found online. I enjoyed it well enough, most in my brewclub thought it was too smoky, and the judges at the competition I entered it in said it had virtually no smoke lol.

The few recipes I found online were, at best, a guess as to the authentic style. I just went along with one of them, made a few minor tweaks, and shot for a session smoke beer.

I've encountered variances in smokiness from beers I've brewed. This latest had 73% Weyermann beech-smoked malt, but the sample I tasted was not in-your-face smoky. I still like it so far, will see how it turns out after conditioning.

 

[BrewMan13]

The few recipes I found online were, at best, a guess as to the authentic style. I just went along with one of them, made a few minor tweaks, and shot for a session smoke beer.

I've encountered variances in smokiness from beers I've brewed. This latest had 73% Weyermann beech-smoked malt, but the sample I tasted was not in-your-face smoky. I still like it so far, will see how it turns out after conditioning.

Yeah, I have a high threshhold for smoke and mine wasn't overpowering to me; I used beechwood and cherrywood smoked malts in it. Basically followed this: https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-right-proper-skibsol/

 

[MaxStout]

Yeah, I have a high threshhold for smoke and mine wasn't overpowering to me; I used beechwood and cherrywood smoked malts in it. Basically followed this: https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-right-proper-skibsol/

I remember seeing that one. Their "trad" version uses close to 100% smoke malt. Mine was kind of in between the two for smoke. 73% smoke malt, 10% Munich I, 8% rye, 6% Carapils, 3% Carafa III.

 

[jcav]

Kegged my Irish Red today!

John

 

[Brewsmith]

Continuing my moving in and unpacking all of my stuff, today I got to organizing some of the beer things. My garage was built in 1950 and my grandparents lived here since ‘51. My grandfather built these shelves that are not adjustable and are kinda impractical for most things. He kept paint cans, thinner and chemicals on them. They are now my growler and beer glasses storage.

I’ve collected dozens of growlers over the years and unfortunately, several of them are from breweries that no longer exist. Most of them date to my beer explorations in the mid 2000’s. I live in Los Angeles, and it was a beer wasteland back then. I had to travel to San Diego, the SF Bay Area, and up the West Coast to get good beer. I have one from just about every local brewery, and many from the surrounding area including several beer destination spots in the 2000s-2010s.

Lots of glasses that I’ve collected from just about everywhere, including the original HBT glasses from 2008.

And as a bonus, some brewing awards from 2008 and 2009. Between 2007 and 2009 I was heavy into competition brewing and racked up a few awards. The ones pictured are just from the LA County Fair in 2008 and 2009. My wife framed them many years ago. The recipe that took the 2nd best of show is here.

 

[day_trippr]

Off and running on my first "cold IPA" brew. Underlet the strike at 9 and the wort is already running clear...

Onwards!

[edit] Recirculation...

...and the boil...

...and finally whirlpooling.

Bit of an adventure: my last 1/2 pound of rice hulls was pretty close to sawdust and wreaked havoc with my FB. Ploughed through with a back-flush and a couple of stop-and-stir deals. Still managed to hit the design OG so it's gonna be OK...

Pitched rehydrated 34/70, gassed up with straight O2,and parked in Chamber 2. By the time I was done cleaning up it was already burping...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

I love a strong fermentation with like minimal lag time.
This is yesterday's "cold IPA" brew rocking along this morning.
34/70 seems quite happy running at 65°F instead of those chilly lager temperatures

Cheers!

 

[HM-2]

Mashing in on a 6.2% single hop DDH hazy using 1/3kg of 2024 harvest Nectaron. Out of my usual Golden Naked Oats so shifted up the gain bill a bit with some torrified wheat and CaraHell.

Massively overshot my OG though. 1.064 target, 1.078 achieved (!!!).

 

[firerat]

Started setting up my garage brewery again for a Saturday double header!!

 

[T Murph]

I cleaned another Sanke keg and transferred a Czech Pilsner into it then placed it in the kegerator to lager for about 6 weeks. Then I enjoyed, I mean tested a new pale ale brewed 3 weeks ago and simply enjoyed a couple of IPAs brewed back in January.

 

[HM-2]

Ordered another 19L corny.

Since I converted one to be a solera keg for bretted beer I've been forced to keg up only once I've kicked one and that's resulted in some...overindulgence to get kegs clear, especially with my hoppier beers where I very much don't want them sitting on the green matter.

Also recharred and vacuum sealed my smaller oak staves up in about a third of a bottle of Bulleit bourbon.

 

[Willy]

Packaged up two corny kegs with a traditional Irish Stout. Tastes wonderful and the FG came in as expected, for a nice 4.1% ABV. Purged and put on about 10psi of CO2 before storage in the music studio closet for several months. That should be just about perfect to speed up serving when the time comes.

Then... The fun part. Cleaned the 2 NB buckets the stout fermented in and was thrilled to have another PBW jar on hand since the old one just kicked.

Finally ... I need to clean corny keg #2, which is my English Ale tap. I regret I am without a nice English Ale for a few weeks due to going hog wild on making Czech pilsner batches. (Now at about 15 gallons of backlog lager). Busy day for not brewing up something new.

 

[flipster]

Somehow there was always some brew more urgent than this, then the fridge was full-full (a lot of cider had to be made in autumn 2024) and finally it was time to use the Galaxy hops.
But other than planned last year, I switched from lager to ale - still not enough room in the fridges for the fermenter.
I aimed quite a bit lower, OG-wise but today was an efficient day (you know, I can't deny I'm German... )

Galaxy Ale
OG 1,041, 24 IBU

grist: 2,7kg Pale Ale, 0,4g CaraAmber, 0,4g Acid, 1,5kg flaked corn

water: 17l mashing, 17l sparging, 6l spring water for chilling and diluting
10 min @ 57°C (134F) => 45 min @ 62°C (143F) => 30 min @ 72° (162F) => lautering at 78°C (172F)

boil: 80min
16g Galaxy hops - t-80';
44g Galaxy hops dry hopping t+5d:

yeast: MJ M44 WestCoast, harvested from a previous batch (this one was hangry!!)

I also could take 1,5l wort aside to boil down and use it later for yeast propagation - and still got over the expected OG.

I finished my day with 31l 10,2°P in the fermenter plus 2,5l for the yeast (diluted it also a bit). It was a good day.

Last step: cleaning .... aaaaaand fooling around while flushing the hop-filter (and flooding the kitchen...)

 

[day_trippr]

Checking the SG on my first "cold IPA" 34/70 fermentation which raged through the first 5 days and the curve has yet to flatten. Think I might want to go a bit less aggressive with the mash temperature profile next time as the current trajectory seems headed towards a "Cold Brut IPA"

Cheers!

 

[Brewsmith]

I cleaned lots of draft parts. Faucets, shanks, quick connects. Everything to go back in the kegerator when the paint is done.

 

[Brewsmith]

And painting the kegerator…
Still needs another coat

 

[firerat]

Bought 25’ of silicone tubing to replace the cracking tubes on my recirculating rig and a free other things. I’m lucky one didn’t give way yesterday!!

 

[ClaudiusB]

I installed a replacement cap for the optical DO probe. It needs to be replaced every two years. Each cap is supplied with a unique calibration code on an SD card.
Compared to my amperometric DO sensor, no other consumables or calibration are required.