What I did for beer today

[OakIslandBrewery]

I decided that it's okay to get mad at MoreBeer's Cellar Science house label. I brewed a 1.047 APA on Saturday and pitched a single satchet of Cellar Science CALI. Monday rolls around and nothing is going on. No biggie, it's a Chico yeast, they're a little slow on the first pitch. Tuesday rolls around and still nothing, so I pitched another sachet. On Wednesday night nothing was still happening, so I tossed in a third sachet. When I got home tonight, I was greeted by no movement on the gravity and zero activity, so I pitched a sachet of Verdant in an effort to rescue this fiasco.

In Cellar Science's defense, all three sachets were one year past their expiration date, but when is that ever an issue with dried yeast? Their Baja yeast ruins beer and their CALI yeast can't chill in the fridge for five years. They won't be earning any further sales from me. Why use CALI when you can get BRY-97 for almost a buck cheaper at Label Peelers?

Are you blaming MoreBeer or just Cellar Science?

I wouldn't spend a cent at MoreBeer, but I have a different reason.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Are you blaming MoreBeer or just Cellar Science?

I wouldn't spend a cent at MoreBeer, but I have a different reason.

In this case, Cellar Science directly. As their house brand, MoreBeer indirectly. After a trial batch, I went in big on CALI when it first released because it was dirt cheap. I used the last of my CALI on this batch.

Toward your wider point, I'm in the same boat as you--my business with them has plummeted to one order per year for a couple of items that I can't source elsewhere. MoreBeer murdered their competitors, killing jobs as as they did so. Then, when they had emerged victorious, they murdered their own employees' jobs, bunked off to Kansas (where the labor is cheap and exploitable thanks to Tea Party politics) and raised their prices.

They're on my **** list.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

In this case, Cellar Science directly. As their house brand, MoreBeer indirectly. After a trial batch, I went in big on CALI when it first released because it was dirt cheap. I used the last of my CALI on this batch.

Toward your wider point, I'm in the same boat as you--my business with them has plummeted to one order per year for a couple of items that I can't source elsewhere. MoreBeer murdered their competitors, killing jobs as as they did so. Then, when they had emerged victorious, they murdered their own employees' jobs, bunked off to Kansas (where the labor is cheap and exploitable thanks to Tea Party politics) and raised their prices.

They're on my **** list.

I used Cali yeast for on long time then my local spot quit selling it. I liked it.

I can agree with your frustration, I 'd feel the same. I used to spend money at MoreBeer but since their screwing me over I quit, that was 2018. My money is better spent elsewhere.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Packaged a light lager and mead for competition. Beer is a low fill, but I capped on foam. The mead in the mason jar went into proper tall necks of course. Fortunately the other two entries are bottle conditioned, so no fussing with those.

 

[Bramling Cross]

View attachment 874514View attachment 874515
Packaged a light lager and mead for competition. Beer is a low fill, but I capped on foam. The mead in the mason jar went into proper tall necks of course. Fortunately the other two entries are bottle conditioned, so no fussing with those.

The lager looks beautiful!

I can't provide any feedback about mead because I've never sipped any, much less brewed any. It is pretty, though!

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

The lager looks beautiful!

I can't provide any feedback about mead because I've never sipped any, much less brewed any. It is pretty, though!

Thank you, that mean a lot coming from the panther piss expert! The lager was a hazy disappointment in appearance, though I did walk the keg into the house to bottle a few last time. Tonight I walked all the stuff to the garage and barely moved the keg. Judges identified chill haze, but more chill time and gelatin really improved it.

As for the mead this one is a bochet- the honey is caramelized imparting those flavors. Most meads aren’t “cooked”, so easier/less time consuming. I’m going to play with adding flavors for bananas Foster with part of it. I made a fresh banana tincture with dark rum cinnamon and vanilla.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Thank you, that mean a lot coming from the panther piss expert! The lager was a hazy disappointment in appearance, though I did walk the keg into the house to bottle a few last time. Tonight I walked all the stuff to the garage and barely moved the keg. Judges identified chill haze, but more chill time and gelatin really improved it.

As for the mead this one is a bochet- the honey is caramelized imparting those flavors. Most meads aren’t “cooked”, so easier/less time consuming. I’m going to play with adding flavors for bananas Foster with part of it. I made a fresh banana tincture with dark rum cinnamon and vanilla.

I'm hardly an expert, Hoppy. I merely learned how to make fizzy yellow swill quickly. I still have a lot to learn.

But I do appreciate your kind remarks and your assistance during the Panther Piss Project.

Thank you!

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Made 3 gallons of Belgian Dark Strong wort, per the usual CandiSyrup recipe, using authentic* D-90 (instead of D-180), some flaked wheat (2.8% of grist) for better foam, pale chocolate malt (2.8%), and 0.7% chocolate malt. OG 1.090, bittered to 34 ibu with Magnum @60, the wort tasted amazing, with a really nice chocolate flavor. Pitched a full pack of (rehydrated) Lallemand Abbaye dry yeast, and like the last one I made, intend to keep ferm temperatures under 68F for at least a few days.

*Not the corn-syrup knockoff from JD Carlson

 

[lumpher]

Kegged an 8.5% DIPA with Mosaic, Citra, and Simcoe hops, and Cali yeast. Sample was pretty tasty.

 

[day_trippr]

Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe are the Holy Hazy Trinity of hops, as featured in Tree House Brewing's famous Julius and its clones. I love that combination bittered with Chinook...

Cheers!

 

[lumpher]

Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe are the Holy Hazy Trinity of hops, as featured in Tree House Brewing's famous Julius and its clones. I love that combination bittered with Chinook...

Cheers!

I'll have to remember the Chinook next time.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I put together a quick recipe to make a “raw” farmhouse ale tomorrow for big brew day with my HBC. The brewery provides hot water at mash temp, and an assortment of grains and hops, so why not bring a few things and see what happens? Buckets, bag, spoon, grain mill and some juniper berries are packed up for the morning.

Also got my entries labeled and hubby delivered them, as I was busy. He also got to enjoy a beer at happy hour prices.

 

[day_trippr]

Started a two day 50°F soft-crash for the first "session" version of my all-Citra DIPA, then swapped out a kicked keg of my chocolate honey stout for its full twin (and put "Brew More Stout" on my to-do list). Been kicking kegs over the last week+ and there will be a couple more kegs kicking soon (tonight, even) so I put the empty in one of my fridges to keep cool and I'll clean two or more in one shot in a day or two...

Cheers!

 

[leedspointbrew]

Helped the guy I brew with stage his beer at Garden State Beerco Absecon's 1st Annual Homebrew Contest. A very respectable 73 min IPA.

 

[Bramling Cross]

I picked up a new sack of Barke Pils and broke down and bought some Mosaic. Now to write the IPL recipe I've been contemplating for several years.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

With all the money I'm saving brewing my own beer, I bought a new mower.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Big brew day happened, great weather awesome company.
Fingers crossed that I only have “good contamination” better yet my pitch takes off and wins the fermentation contest with whatever else is in there. I had lots of fun that’s what counts the most.

My “raw” Sahti “like” ale.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Big brew day happened, great weather awesome company.
Fingers crossed that I only have “good contamination” better yet my pitch takes off and wins the fermentation contest with whatever else is in there. I had lots of fun that’s what counts the most.

My “raw” Sahti “like” ale.

View attachment 874632View attachment 874633View attachment 874634

Congratulations, can't beat having fun brewing with like minded folks. Beautiful weather is a bonus too!

 

[MaxStout]

Brewed an oatmeal stout. Kinda sorta like Yooper's, but added some malted rye, bittered with Bramling Cross, pitched Windsor. I did mash low in anticipation of the yeast's low attenuation.

 

[seatazzz]

Went to Odd Otter Brewing in Tacoma for the Pacific Women's Brewer's Cup awards ceremony. Thought my porter had the best chance, but nope; my house NEIPA (entered as an American IPA because it's a little too bitter for the Hazy class) got the gold. Scoresheets aren't available yet so I don't know where the porter went wrong, or where the IPA went right; I didn't think it had a chance. Nice to have another medal to add to the rack.

 

[day_trippr]

Kicked another keg last night, this time the Julius clone, swapped it out today for its mate from that batch.
Two more kegs to go in this cycle!

Cheers!

 

[Bramling Cross]

Went to Odd Otter Brewing in Tacoma for the Pacific Women's Brewer's Cup awards ceremony. Thought my porter had the best chance, but nope; my house NEIPA (entered as an American IPA because it's a little too bitter for the Hazy class) got the gold. Scoresheets aren't available yet so I don't know where the porter went wrong, or where the IPA went right; I didn't think it had a chance. Nice to have another medal to add to the rack. View attachment 874700

Hell, yeah!!!!!

 

[Bramling Cross]

I broke out the Barkeeper's Friend and the blue Scotch Brite pad and gave my kettle a four-inning beerstone removal while watching the Giants game today. I've tried all of the correct methods for dealing with beerstone and I've gotta say nothing is as effective as Barkeeper's Friend and some elbow grease.

For the laughs, I thought I'd include the fermentation curve for my APA with the bum Cellar Science sachets. The Verdant seems to have started rolling within 24hrs of pitching. After an entire week of being pissed off at its failure to start, now I'm pleading with it to stop soon! If it plows through 1.008 and keeps going, I'll know my goose is good and cooked.

 

[JohnDBrewer]

Busy weekend. Friday was a local beer festival.set up for that served 3 beers, (imperial red, citra ipa and a galaxy only aussie ale), blew two kegs. Came home that night, unloaded the car, reloaded the car for the big brew day. Local brewery here does the wort for the club and we all brew what ever we feel. Got up early, brewed in the pouring rain all morning (some kind of session apa/ipa). Packed up, came home in the afternoon, put some stuff away, but not much. We had a bunch of excess wort. The brewery's system can only do a minimum of 150 gallons of wort, so everyone also bring home a bunch of wort. Sunday afternoon, set up and boiled the wort I bought home (barley wine). Cleaned all that and kind of put it away. Now I got a bunch of stuff the clean and put away, jockeybox, kegs, canopy which might be dry by now and all the crap used to take the shows on the road, but no hurry.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Yesterday I poured a nice cider, at a fundraiser with the 3 area HB clubs and participating breweries, and had many tastes during the day. Today I took a gravity reading on the “raw farmhouse” ale I made on big brew day, aaaaaand it’s done. Dry Voss past it’s best by date ripped through it. Perhaps before the end of the year I’ll make Sahti the proper ingredients and the traditional process accept for juniper branch and straw for filtering. It smells like beer, though to my surprise it is a little hoppy- should have weighed the pellets. LOL

 

[jcav]

Yesterday I kegged my Kolsch. It now has to carb and meld for about a month and then I will tap it!

John

 

[Bramling Cross]

I came home this evening and found to my relief that my long-lagged APA seems to have parked at 1.008. There's hope, so I started the crash.

 

[day_trippr]

Kicked the Ballantine IPA last night, swapped it out this morning for its batch partner. Just the Raspberry Hibiscus wheat to go.

I also dry hopped my all-Citra session hazy before heading north for a couple of days. And on the way I stopped in to Jaspers and picked up a box full of specialty grains and some rice hulls...

Cheers!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I brewed 19 litres of an Erdinger clone and bottled my Sierra Nevada into 32 bottles.

 

[flipster]

My brother is celebrating in a few weeks his church wedding ceremony, 6 years after the real wedding.
Therefore I came up with the idea to brew a special brew for the celebration day.

So far the brew is done, it's going to be a hazy pale ale with fruity Mandarina Bavaria hops.

Florian's Wedding Ale (aka 'Married with kids Ale')
34l, 10,3°P, 21 IBU, ~4.2 ABV

4,3kg pale ale malt, 0,3kg cara red malt, 0,4kg flaked oats, 0,2kg acid malt

mash water 18l, sparge water 17l, dilution water after chilling 6l

mash in @ 43°C, 60min @ 66°C, mash out at 78°C

boiling: 70'

hops: Mandarina Bavaria 8,4a: 20g @ first wort, 10g @ t-70', 40g dry hopping after 8 days for 5 days

yeast: MJ M36 Liberty Bell

The brew day went well and I dry hopped it now.

The special thing (beside I love my brother and I hope this will improve the party), I planned for the first time to fill it into a barrel.

I got a 30l barrel with Bavarian Tapping from the very helpful local brewery (Bader Bräu in Schnaitsee, Germany) cleaned and pre flushed with CO2.

After cooking, before diluting I separated 3l hot wort and stored it in sterile preserving jars for the carbonisation after fermentation.

To be honest, I'm pretty excited and nervous about the whole barrel thing - although it's just a giant bottle...
Even the brewer, who lent me the barrel is very curious how this will turn out.

At this point: any suggestions from you guys?

After brewing and just a liiiiiitle bit of totally escalating within the last few weeks (while online shopping for possible ingredients for the brew) I took stock: I may have enough grain, hops and yeast for the whole brewing season...
It's the first time I bought a whole 25kg bag of malt.

In addition I got a 5l brewing kit refill from a friend, who found this in the basement of his dad - expired 2019 .. I'm not sure, whether I should even try to get something out of it. Maybe the yeast, maybe the citra hops is still working...