What I did for beer today

[Oceantendency]

So I saved a bit of some Belgian Abbey yeast WLP 530 from my last batch of Belgian that I made a few weeks back and decided it was time to let it multiply. I made a small yeast starter and added the lil bit left of the vial and let it sit spinning all night, tucked her away in the dark to let it go and looking like it was working so far, I'll put back on the stirplate this evening and let it go all night before placing in the fridge to settle out. Repitching some when I transfer from my primary to Secondary (I'll be aging with a toasted French Oak Stave for another 3 weeks) and then pouring some into a couple empty vials for next brew day.

 

[jperry]

Today went well for my all-grain brew day, my Mom helped me dough in!

Brew day lasted 4.5 to 5 hours, which is awesome because it's usually around 8 hours, but, thats with a longer mash and hop steep.

I was doing a lot of running around, from forgetting this and that, but I stuck with the plan and hit my times well. I was also able to harvest some lovely 007 from my starter, during the 160*F 30 min hop steep, as well as getting the rest of the 007 starter ready to pitch. Chilled my wort, down to 66*F and pitched...

I'm Ready For A Beer Now!

 

[Cheapo]

Planned out the brew area under the deck, about 13' by 7'. Really excited to get it built, it'll be pretty simple and easy to build walls and close the area in.

Afterwards I'll have a seperate fridge in there for beer and the freezer for hops, along with brewing area, grain storage area, kegerator and a beer shelf for the excess that can't fit in the fridge. Upgrading to bigger fermenters to make bigger batches as I have a few recipes I like to make over and over.

It satisfies all that SWMBO wants, with it being a whole seperate area for the hobby away from family time, and gives me the room to do it right.

 

[Mexicanconnection2002]

Kegged 5 gallons of kolsch, started cold crashing 5 gallons of kolsch, made a starter of wlp002 for my brown ale and dryhopped my hoppy red ale with 2 ozs of Simcoe and 1.5 ozs of Chinook.

 

[mitchwfsu]

Or more appropriately, "what my wife did to keep me out of the kitchen today" LOL

SP10 burner with 10 gallon aluminum winco kettle. I had a 5 gal winco that I narrowly did 3 gal full boil BIAB batches on the stove top. I like the quality and durability of these winco pots. Thick and sturdy. Happy Friday!

 

[Brood]

Roasting these puppies for my first attempt at a Pumpkin Ale.

 

[unionrdr]

I gotta figure out how to get some gas for the car to go get my spring water. Damn bills. Got cold yesterday for at least a week they're sayin,& got stuff for 2 IPA's I wanna get goin.

 

[Shred]

Cut the mangled end of my braided steel mash tun filter off and reattached the good part... sure wish I had time to use it this weekend!

 

[smccarter]

Brewed beer.

 

[clskinsfan]

Bottled 10 gallons of stout. Now I have to be patient for 5 or 6 weeks. The hardest part of brewing I think.

 

[mcbaumannerb]

Picked up a bench capper - thinking the wing capper isn't sealing tight and leaving some beers under carbed.

Also picked up two Homer buckets and now have over two cases of bottles soaking and de-labeling.

 

[mitchwfsu]

Bottled my Midnight Sessions IPA.

 

[drainbamage]

Picked up a bench capper - thinking the wing capper isn't sealing tight and leaving some beers under carbed.

I just got one myself...same problems with some bad seals and a few shattered bottle necks.

Now that I've used it, it seems like a long-overdue investment.

 

[Xtant]

Bottled six of Biermuncher's Centennial Blonds to share with some of my fellow soldiers using his beer gun.

First time ever bottling, really, aside from a few bombers of apfelwein as I was siphoning into a keg. I've had the parts to BM's beer gun in my brew cabinet for years, but never messed with it. Super easy, super quick, and I'm a little disappointed I waited so long to try it out...

 

[Trail]

Bottled a batch, bought a more powerful burner (Banjo cooker, upgrade form a SP10), bought ingredients for SWMBO's stout.

 

[Trippel-A]

Decided what to brew for my second all-grain batch and placed the order. It's a little tricky, because my boil kettle is a turkey fryer, which holds 9 gallons max. That really constrains my all-grain options!

I decided to try the Northern Brewer SMaSH again, because I had quite a few glitches the first time, and I want to master the simple before moving on to the complex. This time I'll use Galaxy hops instead of Simcoe, just to try something a little different. But I'm really happy with the Simcoe version. Very fruity and biscuity and slightly sweet.

 

[jperry]

It's a little tricky, because my boil kettle is a turkey fryer, which holds 9 gallons max. That really constrains my all-grain options!

I hear ya, I'm using an 8 gallon megapot, and fill that puppy up to the top. Controlling the boil, is a job in itself! I'm finding, that I need a bigger pot, after going all-grain.

 

[nukebrewer]

I hear ya, I'm using an 8 gallon megapot, and fill that puppy up to the top. Controlling the boil, is a job in itself! I'm finding, that I need a bigger pot, after going all-grain.

Why do you have to fill it up? I do 5.5 gal batches and only need 7 gal pre-boil. You do 90 minute boils?

I brewed my imperial pumpkin ale today, The Drunkin Punkin.

 

[unionrdr]

What I did for beer today? I brewed more. & tomorrow or the next day,5 gallons more.

 

[winvarin]

Picked 417 grams of Columbus. They are in the dehydrator

 

[Shred]

Just took a gravity reading and oaked my "Strong, Dark & Stoopid" Belgian Dark.

 

[Qhrumphf]

As payment for making a drunken ass of myself last night, went to a flea market with SWMBO this afternoon. While there, scored myself a nice stein. From what I can gather, it's a West German Gerz, stoneware, with the "huntsman family" image, two cherubs, an eagle lid, and made somewhere between 1949 and 1990. I'd been wanting to grab a stein for some time, and for once the imagery, the construction, and the price were all right.

 

[The10mmKid]

Fabbed an Immersion Chiller.
50' of 3/8"
Spaced apart with solid copper wire

Hope to try it next W/E, and post here again.

'da Kid

 

[jperry]

Why do you have to fill it up? I do 5.5 gal batches and only need 7 gal pre-boil. You do 90 minute boils?

I have a high boil-off rate, use a lot of hops, and do a 90 min boil.. I also try to get 6 gallons, into the fermenter.

 

[Leadgolem]

I just spent 400 bucks buying stuff to start kegging. Put together a batch of pumpkin pie mead brewed in a pumpkin, set up 6 different experiments for rice wine, stored so air dried yeast for another experiment, did a gravity reading of a refermentation experiment with another batch of red rice wine, and modified a fridge for future use as a kegerator.

 

[bleme]

You know how you have to enter 3 bottles of beer in a judging but they only open 1 to judge (or 2 if you make it to best of show)? Today I found out what they do with the extras. They share them with volunteers!

 

[nukebrewer]

You know how you have to enter 3 bottles of beer in a judging but they only open 1 to judge (or 2 if you make it to best of show)? Today I found out what they do with the extras. They share them with volunteers!

They also sometimes save some of them for BJCP tasting exams.

 

[bleme]

They also sometimes save some of them for BJCP tasting exams.

One of the beers I tried was a Hef, but it had no Hef flavors. It was very thin and the strongest flavor I could detect was carbonation. I think the brewer forgot to add the wheat ;-)

 

[Oceantendency]

Transferred my Honey/Vanilla Hefe to a secondary for a few extra days, taste test revealed I should've added more honey at flameout, oh well, it's some damn good ****e !! Washed the Hefe yeast, put into a couple Mason jars, labeled. I also had a successful capture of another Belgian Yeast strain from a couple beers that I added to a starter for a couple days and bam, now I have some fresh yeast for another Belgian that I'm planning on soon. I finished my keg of old Ale, just in time to clean and replinish with my new Hefe batch that will be going in soon !

 

[nukebrewer]

One of the beers I tried was a Hef, but it had no Hef flavors. It was very thin and the strongest flavor I could detect was carbonation. I think the brewer forgot to add the wheat ;-)

Last competition I judged my first flight was the German Wheat and Rye category and literally none of them should have been scored over 20. Luckily that category had enough entries to split the flight so my partner and I didn't have to send ****ty beer forward. The other team got better beer and their top three got the places.

All I did for beer today was fix a blowout that occurred sometime between last night and when I got home from work this morning. Got the lid and airlock back on and it continued bubbling furiously. Didn't look like any bugs (actual bugs, not bacteria) got in and since it was still fermenting furiously I'm not concerned about an infection.