What I did for beer today

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Kegged a Pale Ale and an Anchor Steam-ish Cali Common. First time in several months there’s been a beer on every tap.
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Just dropped 1oz Chinook in the Strong I brewed yesterday; yeast went gangbusters all night and most of today, krausen is starting to fall, so since I missed the flameout hop addition I decided to do a dry hop; went commando on it, no bag. Yeast is already 3rd gen so unless I decide to wash it (PITA), I still have two fresh packets of Notty I can use for future beers. On a slightly non-beer related note, got ALL the laundry done, kitchen cleaned, dinner ready to pop in the oven, for a tired husband who worked overtime today so we can continue to have nice things.
 
I missed brewing today, but we bottled the DIPA and the Icewine; put the WC12BoC Honey-Ginger IPA in to cold crash, and cleaned a lot. We started reorganizing the closet-under-the-stairs to hold all of the cases of beer, wine, and mead that will be distributed for Christmas.

It's a little fragrant in there, as SWMBO's Christmas soap is curing. The dizziness will go away eventually.;)

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Brewed a batch of beer. Was thinking to do a double batch but settled on just 5gal maybe the best decision of the day. Been having issues with chill haze for a while so thought I would give a protein rest a try. Bad decision, mash bricked a few time, then when I started ramping the temp it turned dark and I thought I was scorching the wort. Drained the RIMS and all good, but when started back I noticed the temp reading funny bouncing around. I double check mash with a thermometer and RIMS was reading 20 degrees off. Dont know what temp I actually started mashing at but the way it was acting I think the protein temp was correct. Mash kept getting stuck right up to the end but the boil went OK. Well actually not, as I start chilling I notice the wort did not instantly start clearing like normal and I realized I forgot to add whirfloc and nutrient. On the brite side I hit my gravity numbers, got cleaned up before dark and it will be beer.
Just a bit milky/cloudy and this was after a 2 hour rest.
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Busy weekend for me. Racked my double batch of weizenbock into secondary, started a blueberry wine, blackberry wine and first aattempt of a mead. I also ordered ingredients for my next two brew days, a double batch of AHS Texas Red, and pieced together some ingredients for my first attempt at a Hazy IPA. Super excited about that one. Unfortunately brew days will be until after Thanksgiving. I also started rough sketching a brew stand.
 
Finally pulled a snifter of the last WF lager. Lightest ABV I've ever done at 4.5%. Very flavorful, not watery like I feared it would be. Going to brew it again this weekend to keep this bad boy on tap. Grain bill was 8lbs pilsner and 2lbs two row, with Saaz as the bittering hop and a mix of Saaz and Mittelfruh as late additions. Might even go lower on the grain bill to see how low I can go, and still get a nice flavor out of it. Will be nice to have on Thursday as I prepare the turkey day feast for just the two of us. Family gathering (as well as our usual friendsgiving with our bowling family) is out this year so I'm pulling out all the stops, starting at 8am with an eye for dinner at 3pm.
 
Watched some bubbles, looks like my last beer will be ready to keg in a few days. Put the hydro sample from that beer(no whirfloc) in the fridge and after 4days it is still very cloudy. Hopefully the yeast and some gelatin will fix it.

Worked on reslanting more yeast and did a starter for that yeast. WLP026 is crazy it really does not like to unfloc, the starter went from pebbles to egg drop soup and never got the wort cloudy.

Made a trip to the LHBS and picked up an order of odds and ends along with 5lb of Munich to make a Marzen.
 
LOL, i was going to say i picked up a broken fridge with a pony keg in it, and faucets and party tap...but after the painfull loading time on this 4mb DSL i have, i think being my boss baught the broken fridge and keg. what i did did is pick up a cable modem at a garage sale near the keg. thinking, about switching so i can view threads like these without it crashing my internet connection! :mug:
 
So, I made v. 15 of the Machine House Mild Ale tonight. This stuff is the bee's knees and easily makes my top 10 beers in the world, and possibly top 3. Dark Mild | Machine House Brewery | Seattle Beer
I talked to the brewer once, a really nice Englishman, and he uses Bairds for all the specialty malts, US pale 2 row and Fullers yeast (either WLP002 or the Wyeast equivalent). I took it as a brewing challenge to work out %, mash temps and brewing temps. It has not been easy and I'm not there yet. Wish I lived closer to his brewery, but then again I like the challenge of learning to back out what he does.

Also, after tagging the thread and then re-discovering it a year later, I am cooling the Miracuix Golden Ale. Will post how that one turns out
 
So, I made v. 15 of the Machine House Mild Ale tonight. This stuff is the bee's knees and easily makes my top 10 beers in the world, and possibly top 3. Dark Mild | Machine House Brewery | Seattle Beer
I talked to the brewer once, a really nice Englishman, and he uses Bairds for all the specialty malts, US pale 2 row and Fullers yeast (either WLP002 or the Wyeast equivalent). I took it as a brewing challenge to work out %, mash temps and brewing temps. It has not been easy and I'm not there yet. Wish I lived closer to his brewery, but then again I like the challenge of learning to back out what he does.

Also, after tagging the thread and then re-discovering it a year later, I am cooling the Miracuix Golden Ale. Will post how that one turns out
could you please share your recipe for the Dark Mild?

thanks!
 
I'm still trying to dial it in but this is what the brewer said:
American 2 row
Bairds Crystal 50-60
Bairds Crystal 135-165
Bairds chocolate
Fullers yeast

most recent try:
4# Viking pale ale malt
8oz C50-60
4oz C135-165
4oz chocolate
Pub yeast
First Gold to ~20 IBU
mash high at 158F with sous vide wand so it is the real temp
basic water salts

I don't think I have the proportions right, and have been tweaking those. His FG is pretty dry at 1008, which implies a lower mash temp of maybe 152-154F? I tried that and found it to watery and wanting.
 
Was a busy day. Tried to troubleshoot a temperature controller, no luck, was dead. Cleared out multiple empties from the keezer last night and cleaned the inside compartment after finally getting the lid struts installed on my ongoing keezer build. Had to rerun the power line into shell and install a new temperature controller. Ran a channel for the tower fan power line through the collar. Then I kegged an Octoberfest, dry-hopped a pilsner and porter, and I am swapping kegs through the keg washer.
 
After a nearly two-month period of uselessness, I got it together and brewed twice this weekend.

Yesterday I made a...thing. I wanted to ramp up a pitch of WY2112, so I made something at the nexus of a cream ale and an historic lager. I'll decide what to call it when it finishes. It's 70% pils, 30% corn, clusters and the Anchor Steam strain. If I had used 6-row, I imagine it wouldn't have been too out of place in 19th century SF, but I'm saving my 6-row for an obnoxiously large Pre-Prohibition Pils I have planned for next month.

Today I made a Czech pils.

Life is good.
 
I'm still trying to dial it in but this is what the brewer said:
American 2 row
Bairds Crystal 50-60
Bairds Crystal 135-165
Bairds chocolate
Fullers yeast

most recent try:
4# Viking pale ale malt
8oz C50-60
4oz C135-165
4oz chocolate
Pub yeast
First Gold to ~20 IBU
mash high at 158F with sous vide wand so it is the real temp
basic water salts

I don't think I have the proportions right, and have been tweaking those. His FG is pretty dry at 1008, which implies a lower mash temp of maybe 152-154F? I tried that and found it to watery and wanting.

What are you doing for a water profile? It took me a while to figure it out, but gypsum is kinda the enemy of dark milds. On the other hand, calcium chloride is a great friend of dark milds, it really fattens up the beer and lends it a full, mouth-coating presence.
 
After a nearly two-month period of uselessness, I got it together and brewed twice this weekend.

Yesterday I made a...thing. I wanted to ramp up a pitch of WY2112, so I made something at the nexus of a cream ale and an historic lager. I'll decide what to call it when it finishes. It's 70% pils, 30% corn, clusters and the Anchor Steam strain. If I had used 6-row, I imagine it wouldn't have been too out of place in 19th century SF, but I'm saving my 6-row for an obnoxiously large Pre-Prohibition Pils I have planned for next month.

Today I made a Czech pils.

Life is good.
I'd be very interested in the recipe for the Pre-Prohibition Pilz if you don't mind sharing?
 
Yesterday I finished cleaning my kegs and then SWMBO said the kegerator can be moved from the basement to the first floor because it came out looking nice - as opposed to my ugly Corona Mill set-up which I am fond of.
 
Yesterday was productive. Got a haircut (much needed), did a small bit of cleaning, then later in the afternoon finally got to take the new car (AWD Hyundai Tucson) up to Snoqualmie to pick up the grain order; full bag each of two-row and pilsner, and 4lbs each of crystal 40 and light munich; also 2lbs of DME for those times when I might need it but never have it on hand. This morning I heated up what was left in the HLT from Friday and used it to clean the mash tun, which somebody left kinda sticky. Next I have to figure out how to clean the heavy metal sheet that the mash tun sits on (kinda looks like this: \__________/) that helps shield it from the heat of the two burners on either side. It's nasty sticky gross, and slightly rusty; so a good scrub and maybe some sanding is in my future.
 
Yesterday was productive. Got a haircut (much needed), did a small bit of cleaning, then later in the afternoon finally got to take the new car (AWD Hyundai Tucson) up to Snoqualmie to pick up the grain order; full bag each of two-row and pilsner, and 4lbs each of crystal 40 and light munich; also 2lbs of DME for those times when I might need it but never have it on hand. This morning I heated up what was left in the HLT from Friday and used it to clean the mash tun, which somebody left kinda sticky. Next I have to figure out how to clean the heavy metal sheet that the mash tun sits on (kinda looks like this: \__________/) that helps shield it from the heat of the two burners on either side. It's nasty sticky gross, and slightly rusty; so a good scrub and maybe some sanding is in my future.
Not sure what you may have tried in the past for the sheeting but I have used Bar Keepers Friend, Blue Wolf, and if the sheeting fits in the oven, stick it in there on self-clean. These I have used on old cookie sheets. Caveat being those suggestions are guided by what the sheet my be made of.
 
Not sure what you may have tried in the past for the sheeting but I have used Bar Keepers Friend, Blue Wolf, and if the sheeting fits in the oven, stick it in there on self-clean. These I have used on old cookie sheets. Caveat being those suggestions are guided by what the sheet my be made of.
SOS pad and a lot of elbow grease got it clean. Thinking my new valve/bulkhead combo might be leaking a smidge, another project for later today.
 
Brewing the Scottish Export recipe from @Brewbuzzard. Smells so bready, I can’t wait to try this.

I’m not a fan of heavy malt beers, and I guess my past experience led me to believe Scottish beers were sickly sweet. After trying a sampling of Scottish-style beers from TotalWine, I now understand how it can be malty and dry at the same time.

so, goals.
 
I'd be very interested in the recipe for the Pre-Prohibition Pilz if you don't mind sharing?

I'm kinda new to the Pre-Prohibition Pils thing, I've made them in the past, but mostly forgot about the style for a decade or more. Out of boredom, I made one last winter. I liked that beer a lot, so I then spent the spring, summer and fall on a Pre-Prohibition bender. I've gone through seven iterations to get to the following recipe, it's still evolving on the margins, but I think the primary parts are in place. At this point I'm mostly just goofing around with the details, because that's what homebrewers do--we goof around with the details.

OG: 1.050-60 (1.057 seems to be the sweet spot for me, it's substantial without being "big")
IBU: 35-45 (the low side of the range will make for a more elegant beer that really shows off the malt and corn, the higher side of the range will let the Clusters shine through--despite their reputation, they're a nice hop!)
FG: 1.008-.0010

Hochkurz mash with soft water. I typically use phosphoric acid, but lactic acid seems to agree with this recipe.

80% German Pils
20% Corn (flaked or grocery store quick grits)
Clusters at 60 (1-1.5oz to match your desired IBU
.5 oz Clusters at 20
.5oz Clusters at 10
1-2oz of "best hops" at 5. Historically brewers would reserve their best (often imported) hops for the last addition. I've used Hallertauer, Spalt, Tettnanger, Saaz, and Clusters. All make a nice beer, I'm partial to the Spalt, Tett, and Clusters. Just pick one. Clusters really surprised me. I've avoided using it for years because it's always described as course, unrefined, or even just plain bad. However, if you keep your water soft, Clusters is a very pleasant hop.
Ferment with 34/70 using the modern lager method, start at 50F then ramp gradually toward 60F after the gravity hits the halfway point.

Over the summer, I made a couple with 10% rice replacing 10% of the Pils and I backed off the IBUs toward 35. This resulted in a lightened, more elegant beer, that made an excellent summer sipper.

The obnoxiously large version that I'll make next month will ramp the gravity up to 1.070, substitute 10% of the pils malt for 10% 6-row, and ramp up the IBUs to match the gravity. I may use a portion of Magnum hops for bittering just to cut down the amount of vegetable matter in the kettle.
 
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Last night I made an English AK inspired hop bomb. Added in about a pound total of First Gold, Bramling Cross, Progress and Archer pellets. BU/GU ratio about 1.50 and calculated ~100 IBU. I'll dry hop after the initial fermentation drops down. The grist had 5% flaked corn, which in my experience can support a much higher IBU than those without.

I have a single keg set up in a fridge, so I'll bottle these in able to have one when the thirst for something hoppy strikes. My palate doesn't like the C hops or most of the new world hops, so if I want a powerful hop taste, I brew it myself.
 
Keg My Cloudy Beer yesterday, looked like a Hefeweizen and so did the SG hydro sample that I put in the fridge to judge if it would clear on it's own. I will give it a few weeks then see if magic happens, if not I will hit with gelatin.

Been doing a starter built up from slant for a couple days now, did the last step today. Hoping to crash tomorrow and put it to work the day after.
 
Last night I made an English AK inspired hop bomb. Added in about a pound total of First Gold, Bramling Cross, Progress and Archer pellets. BU/GU ratio about 1.50 and calculated ~100 IBU. I'll dry hop after the initial fermentation drops down. The grist had 5% flaked corn, which in my experience can support a much higher IBU than those without.

I have a single keg set up in a fridge, so I'll bottle these in able to have one when the thirst for something hoppy strikes. My palate doesn't like the C hops or most of the new world hops, so if I want a powerful hop taste, I brew it myself.
I have multiple kegs and taps but I am thinking about bottling some beers again. I have a british yeast library like you and trying to keep all of them healthy is getting trying. I have been trying to whittle down the number but it is hard to choose so I am thinking I might start doing smaller batches I will bottle to verify the yeast is still good/not contaminated. Hoping this will help get more variation in beers too.

I have some wlp026 I am think I might use for a English IPA. Plan to use a bit more hops then my normal bitter, but I dont think I will use a pound. How large of a batch was your AK?
 
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