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What I did for beer today

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All my ferment chambers are full, just checking air locks to still if they are holding pressure and checked gravity on a couple.

Sampled beers from a beer experiment I did a couple weeks back, split batch where I dry hopped one for 2.5days and one for 5 days. Not over impressed with the aroma of either for 6oz of hops but the 5day dry hopped beer was only slight stronger. Flavor is more different though, the 5 day hop is noticeable more bitter and there is a spicy bite.
 
Milled grain for tomorrow's WF lager batch, and brown-bagged the crystal malt I made this week. Tomorrow will keg up the Blonde brewed last weekend (yes it's done, will finish out in the keg) to give me room for both batches being brewed this weekend.
 
2nd iteration of Northern Brewer Blonde turned out SO much better than the first! Really digging on using Comet for bittering, it's a lot more subtle, and the lighter late additions of NB give it a nice kick. Been crashing a couple days, almost perfectly clear and will get kegged today. Six days grain to keg? Hell yes! It will get some more conditioning time in the keg if I can keep my hands off it (fat chance).
 
Just bought the materials to put a collar on my freezer to turn it into a fully-functional beer distribution apparatus. I’m using the model posted by Mongoose33, Easy-Peasy Keezer Build.

Looking forward to getting delivery of 4 kegs I ordered as well. It’s been a busy Saturday.
 
>5 hour brewday this morning, from running in the strike to final cleanup; gotta love fall/winter brewing, with ground water temperature so cold that my little 30-plate chiller gets the job done in one pass, and it's so cold out here it pushes me to get everything done faster so I can get back in the house where it's warm. WF lager in the ferment fridge waiting on the new-ish S23 to take off; this was a packet I got from Amazon that was expired so did a vitality starter for it, should take off in about 24 hours. Not worried if it takes a bit longer, sanitation is on point and won't have any issues. And have some slurry in the fridge to add if it decides to plotz on me. Tonight when I get home from dinner date with Mom will mill grain for tomorrow's House Amber; finally got the grain-bag spout attached to the grain mill stand so won't have flour & dust everywhere.
 
Brewed yesterday
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Took the blow-off tube off my primary of 5.25 gallons Caribou Slobber and installed the air-lock a little over 28 hours after yeast pitch. Used Danstar Windsor dry, rehydrated in 4 oz. water at 86F for 15 minutes.

Fermentation really took off 5 hours after pitching and started to overflow from the blow-off tube on the 6.5 Gallon Big Mouth Bubbler after 5 more hours.

Then watched the air-lock bubble away until I got thirsty. [emoji481]
 
About what temp does keep your fermentation? I have thought about this as an alternative to using a wet t-shirt/towel as an evaporative cooler.
Mid 60s usually which is fine for most yeast. I just throw a 20lb bag of ice in there and it keeps cool for a week!
 
Got some comet growing now !
2nd iteration of Northern Brewer Blonde turned out SO much better than the first! Really digging on using Comet for bittering, it's a lot more subtle, and the lighter late additions of NB give it a nice kick. Been crashing a couple days, almost perfectly clear and will get kegged today. Six days grain to keg? Hell yes! It will get some more conditioning time in the keg if I can keep my hands off it (fat chance).
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I pitched two yeasts ( WY1280 & 1318) into my share of a 50g Bach of English Brown we brewed yesterday.
Transferred a Session Blonde to secondary for lefty hopping and transferred 18g of a Wookey Jack clone from a whiskey barrel to carboys for DH before packaging.
Cleaned up all my equipment.
I’m pooped!
 
Home from work to ogle the two beers I brewed this weekend in the ferment fridge; both are going crazy busy in there, had enough headspace to use airlocks in both so no blowoff blorping to listen to. The Amber I brewed today turned out great - wort coming out of the BK tasted like Frosted Flakes, and came in at a nice 1.064. And I think I've figured out my crappy efficiency issue; I mash in a bag, and the bag I use is a bit long for the mash tun. Today I shortened it up until none was hanging over the false bottom, and grabbed 6 more points at preboil. One of those "duh" fixes that for some reason I never thought of. First brew in a long time that I've done a 60 minute boil instead of a 90, and still managed to get the right gravity. If I'd done a 90 would have wound up with rocket fuel. Gonna be kicking myself over this one for a while.

Sipping on some of the NB blonde kegged yesterday, tastes better with every sip. Sitting on a streak of at least 8 batches that turned out great, hope to keep it going.
 
Aardwolf is great! That my kegerator lol. The top part
Whoa! I frequently travel international, and often get stuck in Miami overnight. When I do, it's Aardwolf's for sure!

And that sure as hell looks like a meal cart on the right side.
 
Bottled my Mocktoberfest ale. Used 1009, harvested a jar of it as well. Sampled very clean and smooth, but hoping a bit more flavor pops with carbonation. Bottle lagering this one so hopefully 3 weeks in the bottle, and another 3-4 weeks in the fridge clears it up nicely.
Also washed a case of bottles since I had everything set up and cleaners out.
 
I cleaned the fermenter in prep for upcoming brewday. I always rinse out the ring around the collar and yeast/trub residue but I don’t always soak it in cleaner right away. Today was that day.
 

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