What I did for beer today

[NickTheGreat]

Picked up all my brewing crap laying on the basement floor. that counts, right? RIGHT?

 

[unionrdr]

Made priming solution for my robust porter to 2.2 volumes co2. Swirled up vanilla bean/vodka solution & strained into priming solution. Suicide solution? hah,lolz.
Smells really good too. The organic-like smell from the bean pods is gone after about a month in the vodka waiting for bottling day. Just a really smooth vanilla smell. Hope it works well enough to add a decent vanilla flavor on the back.

 

[winvarin]

Just mounted a heating pad (the stick on pad from Williams Brewing) in my ferm chamber and hooked that and the fridge to my newly wired STC1000. Everything appears to be functioning well. Using it for finished beer storage at the moment. Everything sitting comfortably at 57f

 

[unionrdr]

Well,as of 1:58PM I got a hair over 52.5 bottles Of my Snowbound vanilla porter. If it winds up tasting the way it made the room smell,this'll be a treat.
Room smelled of roasty chocolaty vanilla. Yum. Also this came in today,even though I got no e-mail tracking number...
new 7.9G shorty fermenter;
http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0004_zpscf22da6d.jpg.html] [/URL]
The remaining half bottle of Snowbound vanilla porter;
http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0005_zps0db0af9e.jpg.html] [/URL]
Tasting the remaining bit of beer,I def get roasty chocolaty vanilla. Should be great carbed up.

 

[skitamofo]

I went to work so I have a good excuse to have a few when I get home. The things I do...

 

[govner1]

Moved my Cream Ale from primary to secondary & dry hopped w/ Nelson Sauvin

 

[LoloMT7]

Back in October my Saison took best of show at the Montana Mashup. For the 1st place prize I got to brew it on a commercial scale at Bridger Brewing with the head Brewer Daniel Pollard.
http://growlerfills.blogspot.com/2013/10/montana-mashup-home-brew-competition.html

Daniel and I setup this last weekend (Nov 30th & Dec 1st) as the brew dates. So I drove over to Bozeman on Saturday morning and helped begin prepping for brew day and worked on other stuff around the brewery with him as well. We used the yeast I brought over which was a cake from a 10 gallon batch. We pitched the yeast cake into the 10 BBL fermenter with 11 gallons of water and 12lbs of light dry malt extract to get the yeast going and have enough slurry for our wort the next day.

Next we Milled all the grains and made sure all the other ingredients were measured and ready for the next day:

521 lbs 2-row
157 lbs Wheat
28.5 lbs Vienna
15.5 lbs Acid Malt

Hops

60 Minute hops
2lbs 8oz (We subbed a new experimental hop called 5056 here)

10 Minute hops
3lbs Motueka

Other:
47.5 lbs Candi Sugar


Brew day went great. My arms got a good workout cleaning out the mash tun . After all of the wort was transferred into the fermenter we pulled off 5 gallons to fill up my carboy and I took it home with me. It is fermenting away strong now. I had a great time and enjoyed the brewery and people in Bozeman. Thanks Bridger Brewing. If anyone is ever in the neighborhood you should stop by and see them. If you stop in soon you might even see my Saison on tap.

 

[LoloMT7]

couple more pictures

 

[finsfan]

Congrats Clint, Im sure that was amazing!

 

[slbradley01]

Worked on the Keezer collar. Sanded , took some measurements. I think I can fit a fifth corny on the hump if I mount the co2 bottle horizontally. Any problems with this?

 

[prohl84]

Well,as of 1:58PM I got a hair over 52.5 bottles Of my Snowbound vanilla porter. If it winds up tasting the way it made the room smell,this'll be a treat.
Room smelled of roasty chocolaty vanilla. Yum. Also this came in today,even though I got no e-mail tracking number...
new 7.9G shorty fermenter

Bugler tobacco in the background? That's my brand too sir. Nothin' like a good rollie!

Cleaned kitchen for bottling my hopped up Maris Amber Ale. Cracked a test brew of my Sweet Potato Brown dry herb'd w/ chamomile, sage, and simcoe- effing delicious almost fully carbed- a week in bottle tomorrow. Did not realize chamomile and simcoe paired so well!

 

[NTXBrauer]

I just finished bottling a small batch of Apfelwein today. Ended up with a FG of 1.001 and ABV of 8.53%. Tasted excellent after 7 weeks in the primary, and should be even better New Year's Eve.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Worked on the Keezer collar. Sanded , took some measurements. I think I can fit a fifth corny on the hump if I mount the co2 bottle horizontally. Any problems with this?

Yes, actually. You do not want to pull liquid CO2 through your regulator. Bad idea all around as liquid CO2 + beer = immediately overcarbed kegs, not to mention how quickly you would go through fills. Keep it vertical, move it outside the collar if you really need the real estate in the keezer.

I am not sure of your plans for the collar, but you may also want to stick some foamboard insulation to the inside of the collar. The R-Value of wood is not all that high.

 

[Hello]

LoloMT7 that is straight awesome. The yeast cake was all you used to make a starter? Is the yeast the same one you used in the competition?

 

[MrNickVT]

Back in October my Saison took best of show at the Montana Mashup. For the 1st place prize I got to brew it on a commercial scale at Bridger Brewing with the head Brewer Daniel Pollard. http://growlerfills.blogspot.com/2013/10/montana-mashup-home-brew-competition.html Daniel and I setup this last weekend (Nov 30th & Dec 1st) as the brew dates. So I drove over to Bozeman on Saturday morning and helped begin prepping for brew day and worked on other stuff around the brewery with him as well. We used the yeast I brought over which was a cake from a 10 gallon batch. We pitched the yeast cake into the 10 BBL fermenter with 11 gallons of water and 12lbs of light dry malt extract to get the yeast going and have enough slurry for our wort the next day. Next we Milled all the grains and made sure all the other ingredients were measured and ready for the next day: 521 lbs 2-row 157 lbs Wheat 28.5 lbs Vienna 15.5 lbs Acid Malt Hops 60 Minute hops 2lbs 8oz (We subbed a new experimental hop called 5056 here) 10 Minute hops 3lbs Motueka Other: 47.5 lbs Candi Sugar Brew day went great. My arms got a good workout cleaning out the mash tun . After all of the wort was transferred into the fermenter we pulled off 5 gallons to fill up my carboy and I took it home with me. It is fermenting away strong now. I had a great time and enjoyed the brewery and people in Bozeman. Thanks Bridger Brewing. If anyone is ever in the neighborhood you should stop by and see them. If you stop in soon you might even see my Saison on tap.

Such an amazing saison. Congrats again!

 

[unionrdr]

Bugler tobacco in the background? That's my brand too sir. Nothin' like a good rollie!

Cleaned kitchen for bottling my hopped up Maris Amber Ale. Cracked a test brew of my Sweet Potato Brown dry herb'd w/ chamomile, sage, and simcoe- effing delicious almost fully carbed- a week in bottle tomorrow. Did not realize chamomile and simcoe paired so well!

Yeah,I like to keep some in the fridge for when I'm outta cigs. That's a $2.50 off coupon they sent me. I got another bunch of newly emptied bottles to clean today myself. Soaked the strainer & lil vanilla bean jar overnight. Darn little vanilla beans stick to everything.

 

[finsfan]

LoloMT7 that is straight awesome. The yeast cake was all you used to make a starter? Is the yeast the same one you used in the competition?

I believe so which was the as11 strain

 

[MrNickVT]

i believe so which was the "as11" strain

ftfy

 

[bleme]

I have never heard of AS11 and it doesn't come up on Google. Can you tell me more about it?

 

[finsfan]

I have never heard of AS11 and it doesn't come up on Google. Can you tell me more about it?

It is a strain that a member here supposedly created. We later found out said member also lied about a lot of things so this also could have been false. I hear it is good yeast tho

 

[unionrdr]

Finally soaked all the lil vanilla beans & lil bit of gunk outta my strainer & the airlock is clean again as well. I'm trying to soak the label off the vanila bean jar since yesterday about now,& it won't friggin budg. I hate comp labels...got ten more bottles to clean as well. Just about got the racking tube & bottling wand/tube dried out. Bottle trees are so handy!

 

[jperry]

Brewing up an all grain stout. I just mashed in...

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Ordered a couple .5 micron carb stones from Amazon for $11.80 shipped so I can carb my kegs overnight.

 

[MrNickVT]

Ordered a couple .5 micron carb stones from Amazon for $11.80 shipped so I can carb my kegs overnight.

Could you explain?

 

[celticdevildog]

Went by the local liquor store and bought some winter ales for tasting as well as a make-your-own 6 pack of some beer on my long list to try. I also have about 4 cases of empties I picked up for free that I need to clean and de-label. Plus I ordered some beer books for Christmas. Should make next year VERY productive!!

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Could you explain?

The carb stone is a peice of porous stainless that works similar to an air stone in an aquarium but with CO2 in beer. You attach it to a hose and then attach the hose to the gas post in the keg and have it submerged in the beer. According to Midwest, you set at 2PSI with the beer as cold as possible (without freezing) overnight allowing more CO2 to be dissolved into the beer and you have carbed beer in the morning. It's the same thing commercial breweries use to carb their beer, just on a much smaller scale.

 

[MrNickVT]

The carb stone is a peice of porous stainless that works similar to an air stone in an aquarium but with CO2 in beer. You attach it to a hose and then attach the hose to the gas post in the keg and have it submerged in the beer. According to Midwest, you set at 2PSI with the beer as cold as possible (without freezing) overnight and you have carbed beer in the morning. It's the same thing commercial breweries use to carb their beer, just on a much smaller scale.

I'll have to look into that. I usually set at 30 when as cold as possible and it's usually carbed between 2-3 days. But the quicker the better!

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I'll have to look into that. I usually set at 30 when as cold as possible and it's usually carbed between 2-3 days. But the quicker the better!

The higher the pressure the faster the carb. I actually carbed up 5 gal of Saison in 2 hours on Monday with my current .2 micron carb stone at 20 psi. The new ones are supposed to work a little faster yet

 

[LoloMT7]

It is a strain that a member here supposedly created. We later found out said member also lied about a lot of things so this also could have been false. I hear it is good yeast tho

Well said Fins. And yes that was the yeast we used. I would substitute in 3726-PC which is available right now from Wyeast if your interested in making a good saison.

 

[finsfan]

Well said Fins. And yes that was the yeast we used. I would substitute in 3726-PC which is available right now from Wyeast if your interested in making a good saison.

I just placed an order from AIH for 3726 and 1lb acid malt. I will be trying that saison here soon!

 

[jperry]

Brewed my stout, with a pound of Rye Malt, and had a really stuck sparge. I had to blow and suck, to get anything out :cross:. I'll need to use rice hulls, next time.

Finished the All-grain brew day, in just under 5 hours, which was a new record for me. Everything went so smooth, except for the stuck sparge. I'm very happy everything worked out nicely, it made brewing a lot more fun...

Also, I used a few new toys, that made the day easier. An oxygen stone, a 24" Whisk for dough-in, and a CDN fast digital thermometer for checking mash temps.

 

[Qhrumphf]

It is a strain that a member here supposedly created. We later found out said member also lied about a lot of things so this also could have been false. I hear it is good yeast tho

Wait.....what happened now?

Been mapping out a massive kegging system build. Eventual goal of 8 tap system to be assembled piecemeal over the next year or two. Rush it any more than that and to finance it my broke ass would not only need to stop brewing altogether, but probably stop drinking altogether and stop paying the electric bill.

 

[unionrdr]

Brewed my stout, with a pound of Rye Malt, and had a really stuck sparge. I had to blow and suck, to get anything out :cross:. I'll need to use rice hulls, next time.

Finished the All-grain brew day, in just under 5 hours, which was a new record for me. Everything went so smooth, except for the stuck sparge. I'm very happy everything worked out nicely, it made brewing a lot more fun...

Also, I used a few new toys, that made the day easier. An oxygen stone, a 24" Whisk for dough-in, and a CDN fast digital thermometer for checking mash temps.

Wait...so you went from suck to blow?! I put together a 4 pack of beers for my older son who I finally got to come over & get them after work. Gotta go after that to pay a bill & it's homebrew time.

 

[wilson42203]

Brewing AHS's "our special holiday ale." Not expecting it by xmas, but it'll still be ready before the cold weather is gone. Plus, this way, I'll have fond lingering memories of the holidays.

 

[govner1]

Cleaned up & reorganized my brewery after having a new deep SS sink & table installed + both a hot and cold hose bib & filters.

 

[Nightshade]

Brewing the first batch of a double batch of Amber

Also trying to keep warm, need a heater in the brew room

 

[kman6234]

I'm going to keg my IPA later and need to swap out my co2 tank in my kegerator with my spare one that's full.

 

[exc503]

Started pondering the great conundrum of what to brew next, also started a logo contest for my brewing, to make labeling easier.

 

[Melana]

Kegged a rye IPA and a porter. Washed some yeast and a bucket. Brewed a blonde. Oh, and racked my oatmeal stout. My goal this week is to have 50 gallons fermenting.

 

[1fast636]

Mashing my marris otter Columbus smash then mashing 2 row to brew 5 gal batch of hard root beer