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What I did for beer today

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Got the d-rest going on the BoPils I have in the fermenter, and ordered a ton of hops from Farmhouse: 8 oz of Ultra for the hoppy pilsner lager recipe in the last Zymurgy, 4 oz. each of Nugget and Centennial for an IPA, and 4 oz. of EKG for an ESB.
 
Finally found a big enough box in the garage for the last big bunch of bottles. I still need an easy, safe way to remove the labels to save/trade extras for other brewing swag. Now a ton of emptied bottles to scrub & dry as well. But at least the man cave/brewery is cleaned out a hair more...:ban:
 
Picked up the chest freezer that will become my fermentation chamber, drinking a blueberry wheat beer I as gifted for Christmas.
 
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I cleaned up after Wyeast 3787 she's a bad girl. Blew the lid off and ran everywhere. There was a gallon of headspace in the fermenter. Crazy yeast!


Any time you ferment warm, especially those Belgian strains, you need more headspace. I usually put 5.5 gallons in a 7-gallon bucket, then ferment on the low side but my saison (which had to be warm) still blew the lid off.
 
Any time you ferment warm, especially those Belgian strains, you need more headspace. I usually put 5.5 gallons in a 7-gallon bucket, then ferment on the low side but my saison (which had to be warm) still blew the lid off.


Yeah I was worried about it but I like The ester/phenols you get from warming up Belgians. I would have used a blow off but the only blow off set up I have was used for a farmhouse with brett and I don't use plastic/rubber gear on clean beers once it's been used for something funky/sour. Time for a second blow off for "clean" beers.
 
I invited my neighbor over to sample all the beers I have on tap. He tried a cream ale, a nut brown ale, a dry irish stout, and a Chinook IPA (I also keep Yuengling on tap but I didn't offer that to him.) His favorite was the Chinook IPA, which surprised the hell out of me since he's a Coors Light drinker.
 
In the process of cleaning a bunch of bottles, did a minor reorg of the beer equipment closet, had two kegs run dry today so cleaned those along with the lines and faucets, put an oatmeal stout on one of the empty taps and changed the line on another keg (thought it was too long).

And now relaxing with a Joe's IPA and watching Red Zone. My name is Joe so I think they made this beer especially for me and days like this! :)
 
We're so sorry, uncle Albert. But we haven't done a bloody thing all day! we're so sorry, uncle Albert...but we're so easily drawn away!:mug:
 
It was brew day today...Through together another Porter with what I had on hand. Got 78% Brew House out of the ol' "John Deere Brewery" but I was only running her in 2 gear.......... Ya Ya I know.... go Blue and it will shoot up to 87% :p

Actually got 97.2 mash efficiency according to Beer Smith :ban: so spare me the banter. :tank:

2 hours 55 min Start to finish from dead start to final clean up.. And it was cold and snowing.

Thought about firing up the Bow Flex during boil but common sense kicked in and I opened a beer instead.

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Bottled up a "learning experience" brew today. It was my second brew, first brew in drinking now.

Anyways, made a all grain batch of literally all specialty grains. :'(. Well, it kind of smells like soy sauce, and taste kind of similar to that as well. I did add half a pound of light dme but it's bad lol. I should say it was only a gallon and a half so that's not horrible.

I did bottle 8 16.9pz bottles just to see what happens to it after a while.

Ready to brew from a reliable recipe from here on out though.

Cheers folks
 
made a starter of WLP-001 for my upcoming clone of nugget nectar.
got a gang load of hops for use this Wednesday!
 
Had a brew day nightmare... all grain kit was missing hops ... stuck sparge... bad hops lineup and timing audible... but we made beer.
 
Well, as my FIL used to say, I robbed Peter to pay Paul. gives me a lil extra $ to start the new year with. gotta get the rest of the ingredients for the mumme' brew day...
 
Realized I left my fermenting buckets in the garage with water in them...it's been about 20* outside for the better part of the month. Said screw it and ordered a stainless fermenter from SS Brewtech. Oops...
 
Realized I left my fermenting buckets in the garage with water in them...it's been about 20* outside for the better part of the month. Said screw it and ordered a stainless fermenter from SS Brewtech. Oops...

Well that's going to get expensive fast when you forget water in that one..:D
 
Checked on yesterday's Witbier. Active and temp is good (68 and free rising, check).

Got the weekend's 3522 Ardennes starter in the fridge first thing this AM for Blond brewday tomorrow.

Made 4 pounds of #4 invert sugar.

Making another 4 pounds of #1 invert now.
 
Hooked up the nitrogen regulator that came in the mail today to a coffee stout I have kegged up and installed my new SS stout faucet in keezer. Drinking at home is about to get a whole lot better!
 
Bumped temp up on fermentators 3 degrees to finish out last Sunday's brew.

Popped a cap on my 3 batches ago Black Butte Porter clone test...Best one yet but you have to bottle age it 2 months minimum. And it uses some DME which I want to get away from completely.
 
Buried my sage saison in a snowbank for coldcrash, took the first SG reading for my Irish Red Ale in primary, and refrigerated my first few bottles of conditioned porter.
 
Cleaned an empty keg, racked a 6% Winter Warmer into it, and decided to go ahead and fine with gelatin while force carbing to see how it works. I used 1028 and got a fast start, ~80% attenuation, but definitely did not floc
out. The hydro sample is so hazy I can't see thru it.
 
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