What I did for beer today

[Ski12568]

Finished putting together, and testing, my DIY temp controller.

Here's a pic
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1429660529.897427.jpg

 

[FatDragon]

Ground grains last night (best smelling grainbill I've ever ground) for a session IPA I'm going to brew with Kohatu tonight.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Casked both my house Ordinary Bitter (3.1%) and House Dark Mild (2.7%). Been a while since I've had cask real ale in the house...

 

[Zekk]

Dry hopped my Amarillo IPA with 1 oz Amarillo and 1 oz Simcoe. Also took a gravity reading, maybe a few points high, and tasted the sample which was delicious!

 

[philipCT]

Ran another beer tasting for my work peeps - but this time is was on request of my boss

Five beers. And I put out a sampling of six grains, each with a label card. I even put out a warm cup of water and opened a dry yeast pack into iit for the full ambrosial experience.

Had about 15 people drift through during the hour. Lot's of good chatter and questions. People really like to pick their fav and tell you all about it.

Not a drop left at the end.

 

[BrewinBromanite]

Been on somewhat of a brewing hiatus over the last year. Last March, my brew-buddy/bro-in-law, whose garage houses all our equipment) had premie-twins. We've brewed 2 5 gal batches (same day simultaneously), over the last year. Depressing. He and my sister also just sold their house and are building. They're staying wit my parents for about 6 months while that happens, and now all the equipment is tucked away in storage. I also just had my 2nd son one month ago, so brewing-time will be harder to come by for a while.

Anyways - I've focused my brewing energy on getting some new toys that will stay at my house. So what have I done for beer? Last week I got a 16.7 cu ft freezer less vertical fridge. Already full of beer! This will be my fermentation chamber. (I also, 2 weeks ago made sure that my bro-in-law grab a few essentials before going into storage, including Johnson controls temp controller, thermometer/, hydrometer, a bottling bucket and a better bottle. The double propane jet burner and 10.5 gal pots couldn't make it...)

I just ordered a UEi DT304 Quad Input Digital Logging Thermometer. Been wanting to log temps for a while during fermentation. This had 4 inputs, so I can easily log 2 fermenters simultaneously, the fridge ambient, and the 4th for the garage ambient or the chest freezer next to the fridge.

About to order an extract & steeping grains kit (for the first time in 3 years, since I won't be doing AG until my stuff gets out of storage). However, I now have temp controlled fermentation, do good starters, and picked up an oxygen wand (2.0 kit from Midwest supplies). I never had any of those things under control back when I was first doing extracts, so I'm curious to see how the same recipe I (first extract recipe I ever did) comes out now that I'm "learned" in the ways of brewing. Back to extract basics, but with some fancier toys and knowledge! .

Also, reading the forum nearly every day is doing something for beer (not to mention drinking beer), right?!?



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[mcbaumannerb]

Racked six gallons of chocolate coffee stout to a carboy. On Saturday it will go into a JD barrel (along with nine other batches) to sit for a spell.

 

[max384]

I put together my party keg system that I'll be bringing to the beach with me next weekend when I get married.

 

[fimpster]

Today I kegged 5 gallons of oatmeal stout and 5 gallons of ESB. At this point all 5 of my kegs are full, and all 4 of my primary fermenters are empty.

 

[Ski12568]

Dry hopped my first IPA

 

[Psylocide]

Yesterday I showed the girl one of the finer points of brewing... sniffing the airlock post-dry hop.

 

[amiller]

Checked out local classified ads, managed to find a 7 gal primary, 6 gal glass carboy, 10 ft of tubing, siphoning cane, bottle caps, and a small thermometer. All for $30!!

On a not so good note, I finally accepted my defeat with a previous batch.. over carbonated, really really bad tasting blonde, that I used a lager yeast (at 20C for only 10 days... It was my second batch ever and I didn't know anything about brewing..) Had to dump 4 dozen bottles.. But now that means I have 4 dozen empty clean bottles waiting to be filled! Can't wait to get my BIAB set up ready and do some all grain batches for the summer.

 

[fimpster]

Yesterday I showed the girl one of the finer points of brewing... sniffing the airlock post-dry hop.






View attachment 273838

When I first saw this picture I thought she was doing bong rips. :fro:

 

[unionrdr]

I was just gonna say pretty much the same thing. I just got done ordering grains & a lil LME's for 2 beers I need to get brewed. My "new" Buckeye Red recipe I wrote 2 years ago & never brewed. And the new, improved version of my Whiskely stout. More chocolate malt, & swapped the black patent malt for black prinz, which is supposed to be smoother & mellower than the former. It's also said not to have that astringent aftertaste as well. Just what a chocolate, bourbon, oaked stout needs to develop better flavors with less aging than the bitter, overly roasty black malts typically do. In theory, of course...

 

[CJ-3]

Today I bottled 5 gallons of raspberry & blackberry wheat lager.

 

[1fast636]

We poured at battle of the homebrew clubs and took home 1st in people's choice
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430130542.166729.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430130558.724806.jpg

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Delabling bottles. I started making ciders and have *quickly* run out of delabled bottles between brewing and cider making. At least now I have the room to store all these delicous fermented beverages, and I can do the delabling in a utility sink in the basement, instead of in a bath tub (oh god my back).

Edit: Yes, a kegging system is in my future, hopefully by end of summer I'll have a fridge with picnic taps, spend my tax refunds next year to build it out to be a really nice kegerator.

 

[Ski12568]

Picked up 4 of the top ten from this link
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articl...116-of-the-best-american-ipas-we-hav.html?p=3

 

[1977Brewer]

Ordered my Corona mill on the church's Amazon prime account. It'll be here wednesday.

Entered my first competition, and my town's first. It's May 11, can't wait to see how that turns out. I did it more for the oppo to meet local homebrewers than in any hope of winning. It's not even BJCP, just a simple BOS comp.

 

[Oceantendency]

So back on Sunday, I tripped on a towel and knocked over my Mash Tun with 14.75 lbs of grain and 5.6 gallons of wort all over my back porch, right when I had only 15 left on the mash...smack...that sucked, but I am making a corner wall for my table that holds my mash tun to help block from the wind. Wasn't expecting the wind to get that nasty on Sunday afternoon. I will be drinking some good amount of Juniskeet Smoked Wheat when I get home.

 

[phug]

Cleared some hop pellet debris out of the neck of the carboy that was riding to foam up to the narrow blow off tube before it could be a problem. Used the sanitized handle of a spoon because I discovered that the business end didn't fit. I swear I wasn't drinking when I forgot to use a hop sock

 

[SupervisingChildren]

Yesterday, I dry hopped a batch of zombie dust and took the gravity on a blonde base for a strawberry blonde.
Today, I cleaned out 2 kegs and completely cleaned out my jockey box. Also found out that my co2 tank for carbonating is empty.

 

[BrewinBromanite]

Got my ingredients for Saturday's brew delivered - an AHS Irish summer ale, which I originally did about 3 years ago as stovetop extract batch, and am expecting a new kettle and propane burner to arrive tomorrow.

(All of my AG setup is in storage for 6 months. Was planning on doing this batch on the stovetop and realized my biggest pot will hit the brim at 3.5 gal's. Decided last minute to pick up a really cheap 30 qt. pot/propane burner to get me through the next 6 months without my regular equipment. May be tough to get a complete full boil w/out boil over even w/ 7.5 gal kettle, but better than a 2.5-3 gal partial boil!).

First time going back to extract from AG in about 2 years, but never had a temp controlled chamber, oxygen system, or yeast starter knowledge back in the day, so I'm hopeful it will turn out better than in my early days.


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[erick0619]

So back on Sunday, I tripped on a towel and knocked over my Mash Tun with 14.75 lbs of grain and 5.6 gallons of wort all over my back porch, right when I had only 15 left on the mash...smack...that sucked, but I am making a corner wall for my table that holds my mash tun to help block from the wind. Wasn't expecting the wind to get that nasty on Sunday afternoon. I will be drinking some good amount of Juniskeet Smoked Wheat when I get home.

That is ****ing terrible man, sorry for your loss.

 

[RodrigoEick]

Just finished building my stir plate. Will use liquid yeast for the first time. Spent less than 10 bucks. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430288060.754208.jpg

 

[ChelisHubby]

That Dern keg kicked when I got home so I cleaned it quickly and put the next brew in it. It was a repeat and I forgot to check the gravity DUH!
Beer tomorrow again tho!

 

[unionrdr]

Cleaning & delabeling a few batches of bottles finally. Waiting for my new camera & two batches worth of grains/extract to be delivered today. Going to brew my Irish red & Whiskely ale, at least one this Saturday. But this weekend is also free fishing weekend here in Ohio. No license needed! Momma wanna go feeshin'. Me too, but I wanna brew on National Home Brewer's Day Saturday, darn it.

 

[Oceantendency]

That is ****ing terrible man, sorry for your loss.

I made up for it, by rebrewing it yesterday. My wood corner shield worked like a charm .. my conical is bubbling away nice and steady

 

[DigB]

Well, a day late but Brewed my first Hefeweizen, looks good. Overshot my numbers by a little and collected an extra 2L of wort... Should be good though, trying to control ferm temps with a wet towel and a fan. We'll see how it turns out in about 3 weeks to a month!

 

[SupervisingChildren]

Swapped out an empty co2 tank yesterday after work.