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What I did for beer today

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Brewed a WCIPA. Inspired by Ballast Point Sculpin. Manual whirlpool and let settle for a while is not an adequate plan for dealing with for 6 1/2 ounces of hops in the kettle. Transferring to the fermenter was not a whole lot of fun. Probably lost close to a gallon, but it's in there.
Dont know if this is any help, but I always put my hops in fine-mesh, oversize bags about a foot square. Each addition goes in a separate bag. When chilled remove and squeeze the bags. I then let all the trub and fine hop debris settle before running off the clear wort into the fermenter and pitch yeast. Everything else goes into a sanitised plastic jug holding about a gallon and covered with foil to settle overnight. In the morning I can pour half the contents of the jug into my fermenter and the rest is thick gloop which goes down the toilet.
It works for me and I only lose a couple of pints or so from the final volume.
 
Dont know if this is any help, but I always put my hops in fine-mesh, oversize bags about a foot square. Each addition goes in a separate bag.
It probably would have, but I only have one of those bags. Considering my options. Don't have another heavily hopped brew planned for a while.
 
Brewed a WCIPA. Inspired by Ballast Point Sculpin. Manual whirlpool and let settle for a while is not an adequate plan for dealing with for 6 1/2 ounces of hops in the kettle. Transferring to the fermenter was not a whole lot of fun. Probably lost close to a gallon, but it's in there.
I miss Sculpin. I can't find that by me anymore.
 
I'm surprised you ever could. Daughter will be visiting from SD later this month, and driving to boot. Many people are expecting many cases.
I was wondering why you would think the Chicago area couldn't get it when South Dakota can. But then I put my brain into gear. 🤣
 
Mucho work today... Czech pilsner finished ferment at 57°F ... +/4 day 63° F temp bump, cold crash over 4 days... Into a keg . LODO. Carbing up, ready in a few weeks.

Cleaned SS brew bucket that had the pilsner - PBW, star San.

Moved a conditioned keg of Mocha stout into the keezer cuz the stout tap is gonna kick soon. Very soon.

Planning next 2 batches ... Need more beer. Oy.

Sighed heavily when the Outlaw Josie Wells kicked. Tap #4 - no more. Delicious batch of 5.75g in a torpedo.
(That gets cleaned/sanitized tomorrow).
 
The raw rye juniper ale from Big Brew Day is packaged these 2 and an Oxebar keg. I decided to prime the keg with sugar as my transfer was a bit sloppy- trusting the yeast will use up the oxygen.
 

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Not beer, but since I don't see a "What I did for booze today" thread...

Filtered and back-sweetened my first batch of limoncello. I had soaked zest from 24 lemons in 2.5L of 100 proof vodka for a month.

I filtered it through a fine mesh colander to catch the zest, then again through coffee filters, which seemed to take forever. I ended up with a jug of crystal clear, amber liquid. Until I added the 1300ml of sugar water, which turned it milky. The louche effect, I think.

Don't care, sample tasted great. I'll let it age a few weeks, then bottle. I'll have about a gallon to split with a friend and enjoy this summer!

By my math, it'll be about 33% ABV.

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Thanks to @Rish and @pshankstar for their advice!
 
The raw rye juniper ale from Big Brew Day is packaged these 2 and an Oxebar keg. I decided to prime the keg with sugar as my transfer was a bit sloppy- trusting the yeast will use up the oxygen.
That sounds like a discontinued Dogfish beer that I'd really like to try brewing. Would you be willing to share the recipe?
 
@leedspointbrew sure, I’ll share the recipe. Note the app requires a boil time even for just a minute, but this was not boiled at all. Hops and crushed juniper berries went into the mash. The pre-boil gravity is the one that counts the ABV naturally will be lower than calculated. On brew day I took no gravity measurements. My goal was to haul as little as I could to the event. Tasted a sip of the wort, it was sweet and hoppy before pitching. Farmhouse!
The Finnish Sahti is made with a “baker’s yeast” that produces banana esters, so you can use a different yeast and hop to be more authentic. Of the hops that were available, I thought the Idaho 7 would be the most compatible with the juniper.
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Not beer, but since I don't see a "What I did for booze today" thread...

Filtered and back-sweetened my first batch of limoncello. I had soaked zest from 24 lemons in 2.5L of 100 proof vodka for a month.

I filtered it through a fine mesh colander to catch the zest, then again through coffee filters, which seemed to take forever. I ended up with a jug of crystal clear, amber liquid. Until I added the 1300ml of sugar water, which turned it milky. The louche effect, I think.

Don't care, sample tasted great. I'll let it age a few weeks, then bottle. I'll have about a gallon to split with a friend and enjoy this summer!

By my math, it'll be about 33% ABV.

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Thanks to @Rish and @pshankstar for their advice!
Did you try a sample prior to back sweetening it? I could imagine that being rather nice with some club soda during the summer.
 
Are those pellets larger than usual? They look huge from here!

Finally got the last keg to kick last night so I swapped in a fresh keg of the raspberry hibiscus and now all six faucets have recently tapped kegs behind them.

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This morning I kegged 10 gallons of my all-Citra session hazy...

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...then spent a couple of hours cleaning the accumulated four kegs and two carboys.

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Next up: plan and provision for another batch of my double imperial triple chocolate honey stout. I think all I need is the four pounds of honey...

Cheers!
 
A week ago I brewed an oatmeal stout and decided to live on the edge and pitch Windsor. I had perused several threads, and the reviews are mixed. I knew of its low attenuation and wanted more body in the beer. Still, I mashed low (around 149). I racked 5.75 gal of 1.053 wort into a Brew Bucket.

I drew a sample and measured the SG. The hydro reading was 1.018, giving a 66% attenuation. Just in the mfr's stated range of 65-72. I'll give fermentation a couple more weeks. I've heard Windsor fermentations can be a little squirrely, and some brewers have seen it start up again.

The sample tasted and smelled good, though it was murky, as expected from Windsor. I might add some Biofine clear a couple days before I bottle.

BTW, this is the first time I didn't use a hop spider. I just threw the pellets in the kettle. Previously, the hop flavor/aroma of some of my beers has been muted. I'll see if this helps.
 
Bottled 2.7 gallons of Imperial Stout (1105 -> 1026), tasted fantastic!

Also bottled 2.6 gallons of a belgian dark strong (1090 -> 1010) that I used "real-deal" D-90 and some turbinado in (oh, and like 3% pale chocolate malt, 1% chocolate malt, 1% flaked wheat). Taste was over-the-top boozy, but the chocolate flavor coming thru should be really nice. Looking forward to trying it in a few months.
 
Busy. Packaged up 10 gal of fermented pale ale into two cornies, carbed and began the cold crash in the inkbirded freezer cool chamber. Set to 63° F, and dropping 4° F every day for 5 days until I reach the low 40's.

Cleaning 3 spent corny kegs now. PBW followed by a starsan soak.

Wiped out the condensation cleaned the inside of the the keezer. Getting real low on Beer gas tank and will probably swap it out even though it is only "almost finished".

Scaled a recipe up to an 11 gal batch and next up ... Measure the grains for a brew day tomorrow. Also get the water additions all weighed out and ready.

Finally - I am going to need more grain and will do an inventory and make a shopping list. Yee haw.
 
Another busy day of brewing. Finally knocked out the 11 g batch of American Brown Ale dedicated to James Brown called live at the Apollo. All mashed, brewed, hit OG targets with pH looking spot on. Dropping a pack of Nottingham in each 5 g fermenter shortly as it finishes cooling.

Finished crashing the Pale Ale and put one corny in the keezer (about 60% carbed... Needs a few more days) and the other cornie into the "on deck circle " for future use when it gets crazy hot and I am thankful to have another keg on hand ready to go.

Tracking order... Getting about 150 lbs of assorted base Malts - currently in WV and expected tomorrow. Yeah... I will have enough pilsner to pull out another big batch of Czech Pilsner for the summer swelter.

A good day for beer. My taster glass (about 4 oz) of Pale Ale was awesome, even under carbed. Oh yeah. Yum. I used Cascade, centennial and a late Acazza hop additions. I like it. Complex and tasty without being overpowering. Smooth and quietly potent. Added with 14 min left in the boil.
 
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Started getting my 3d printing skills back going. Been away for a while so upgraded my printer and started making tap handles. Here are some pictures of a design I found. But my next ones will be ones I have designed.
 

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