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What I did for beer today

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Did an incremental feeding of my monster RIS she's down from 1.210 to 1.050 but krausen has dropped and there is very little co2 production so I fed her a little wort with yeast nutrients and gave her a minute of pure o2. Hoping to get it to 1.030 at which point it would be 23% abv. I love project brews.
 
Finally got around to winnowing some barley (Conlon 2-row) I grew last summer (threshed a few weeks ago). Just getting ready to plant it for a bigger crop this year.

Also, I bottled a 16-month-old sour to free up a second fermenter for a partigyle batch this weekend. Brewing a big Hop Wine IIPA and some sort of lower gravity wort for a sour.

And I checked on the other variety of barley (Spartan 2-row) I have growing in a container in the backyard. It's already about 4 or 5 inches tall. The birds/squirrels only dug up about half of the seed I planted, so I count myself lucky.

I still need to prep the Norwind 6-row I grew up last year, so I can get that planted in the next week or so.
 
Turned down the CO2 a bit on my ESB, now that she's carb'd up. Thought about drinking one but didn't. Thought about how I need to clean my plate chiller and crush some grain tomorrow after work. Also thought hard about how awesome it's going to be to mash in after work come Friday. Lastly, thought super hard about how wonderful drinking beer will be after mashing in after work come Friday.
 
Also, I bottled a 16-month-old sour to free up a second fermenter...


Any tips for bottling a sour? I will be bottling a 12 month Kriek come June... Assuming it's ready. This is my first sour and admittedly, I haven't done much research into the bottling matter. Do you add yeast and/or fermentables? I imagine one could write an essay about it but any tips or references would be most appreciated!
 
Picked up some pieces of metal for my brew sculpture that will be under construction as soon as I grab some sandpaper so I can sand down the nasty looking top of the stand I am building on...
 
Bottling day tomorrow for 2 one gallon batches... Plinian Legacy and Black IPA. Both have been in the fermenter at 64 degrees(f) for 2 weeks and are pretty much finished out. 1 gallon batches seem to finish faster than a 5 gallon. Actually they will be getting close to 3 weeks... but heading into warmer weather and I will lose my cold storage in the pantry.
 
Bottled 4.5 gallons of an ESB, and am attempting to wash my Saf-ale 04 yeast... Yes, I know it's a dry yeast. Call me cheap, I don't care. Lol!
 
Gave a cursory glance in the general direction of a barrel in which I'm aging some robust porter, thinking that in the next few days I will rack to a corny, carb that up and bottle it from there. the taster from a few days ago was pretty sweet but it may need some back blending... i may call in a second opinion.
 
Used my new 10gal pot to do a full boil extract American Light from Brewers Best. Took a hour to get too full boil but found out I can turn up the heat more too late, came out good. Also used my new wort chiller which worked great, no more ice in the sink. Will see how it turns out in a week or so in the fermetor. Going to do another English Brown ale tomorrow so my kegs will be full again. :)
 
Put my Old Speckled Hen into a keg and added corn sugar to naturally carb it.
 
Dry yeast is just fine.

I use dry yeast 10x times more than liquid. Cheaper, more reliable, and no starter required because there's plenty in one pack.

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I did... Nothing. For the first time in about 2 straight years, all I did was drink beer. Damn vacation. Shouldve vicariously made swmbo step up my starters for this coming weekend
 
My least favorite chore... washing bottles(they get rinsed right away so no sticky residue) to get labels off. Home brew bottles I wash as I use them so no stuck on gunk... batch 1 is done, batch 2 of a dozen or so in the sink soaking.
 
Just ordered a stir bar online. Going to go to radio shack and get the nob and switch, and try to find an old computer to take apart to make a stir plate.
 
Sanded this down to where I can put a coat of white appliance epoxy on it. Down to bare metal on a few rusty spots, just well scuffed the rest of the paint. Not real concerned about a gloss finish, just one that will handle washing and occasional brew spills without the paint peeling. Tomorrow I add some steel for the side burner support then I can paint after a good wipe down with a tack cloth.

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Left side will have the boil kettle down low, top will have the mash tun and burner, then right side will have some shelf standards with brackets over the top to hold the HLT and burner for sparging. 3 level for gravity feed.
 
Measured out a gallon jug with half gallon, full gallon, and liter marks. And made the realization my other brew kettle holds a gallon and a half more than the one I had been using... Now on to more accurate brews and actually finishing with 5 gallons as opposed to 4.5.
 
I always want to wash yeast but I never seem to be able to find the time... but... I finally washed some sa05. I made a 6.0% IPA with this yeast's first beer. I'm thinking it was a good warm-up for a big brother version of the same IPA. I love saving money on batches by yeast washing!

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