What I did for beer today

[Bramling Cross]

Is there a name for the beer you make when you look upon shelves of random leftover grains from various brews, and decide to hooch it all together with leftover hops and whatever random yeast is surviving in the fridge? Is there a name for that?

A "kitchen sink beer," sir.

In this case, it's not a kitchen sink beer (although I can certainly see how you might arrive at that conclusion). I've always had a soft spot for Anchor Steam. I love the beer, I love the Fritz Maytag story, as a West Coast native living on the East Coast, I love the idea of hardscrabble 49ers figuring out a way to make beer in less than ideal conditions.

Bluntly, I'm a dewy-eyed Anchor Steam fanboi.

Nevertheless, I'm a bit skeptical that those hardscrabble 49ers were quaffing expensive 2-row and (imported?) C40, much less enjoying a hop variety that wouldn't be created for a further 85 years. I've always thought it much more likely that they were guzzling something that was 6-row and corn based with a light (due to expense) touch of Clusters. I haven't done any serious research on this topic, so this is mere conjecture. And that's okay, because I have done enough research on steam beer to be comfortable with the notion that 99% of steam beer's history is conjecture and outright BS. All the same, I'm sure my entirely anachronistic recipe, while being very far of the actual mark, is substantially closer to the real thing than Anchor Steam.

 

[Nick&Worty]

I like “kitchen sink”. I’m curious cause I’m about to make one! After the next stout... and that sour. I’ve got a bunch of random grains just sitting around.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Grabbed 10# of maris for some bitters and 8# mix of Vienna/Munich for hacked lagered Czech-ish brew from my HBS today. I don't feel like brewing tonight but before I get back to work on Monday, I expect to have filled 3 fermenters with goodness.

Yesterday ordered 3# of Bramling Cross (on sale), some odds and ends, and 1# of invert #3 to benchmark my homemade oven version.

Today started my first try at converting beer to malt vinegar. Used about 10 oz of Mac&Jack's Amber plus an ounce of Bragg's Organic Apple Cider vinegar, and letting that sucker sit.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Looks like a Hullwrecker! Nice!

Cereal Killer

 

[Bramling Cross]

Yesterday ordered 3# of Bramling Cross (on sale).

If you don't mind my asking? Where did you find that?

 

[kmarkstevens]

Haha, don't mean to be a shill, but it is your namesake. Check out adventures in homebrewing and $11/pound

 

[seatazzz]

Brewing up a nice Cascade Pale today, and reflecting on the year past. Really sad that this whole covid crap has put the kibosh on competitions; yes I know 1st world problems, but Mr Murphy is laughing his a** off at me. I'm brewing some of the best beers of my life the last 5 months, and nowhere to compete. Last year at this time I was ramping up for the biggest competition in WA State (2020 cancelled, won a silver medal there in 2019) and had just entered my best IPA in an all-IPA competition (this one came off, and I won my division and 2nd place BOS). I know there are mail-in competitions but I like to stay local so I can be there.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Haha, don't mean to be a shill, but it is your namesake. Check out adventures in homebrewing and $11/pound

Thank you! It's not getting any easier to find the stuff in the States, so I really appreciate your help

Edit: Nuts!!!!! They're out of stock on the 1lbers.

 

[JAReeves]

Yesterday gave away a lot of beer to friends and neighbors for the new year. Today, smoking my grains in Irish Whiskey-soaked Applewood for my Ould Porter.

 

[KeizerBrewr]

After having my BGS brewday last night and almost 15 hours after pitching, I realized I need a blow off tube.

 

[govner1]

Kegged my Allagash North Star clone via CO2 transfer, cleaned kegs & empty fermenters.

 

[Bramling Cross]

After having my BGS brewday last night and almost 15 hours after pitching, I realized I need a blow off tube.

That's a serious blow off tube!

 

[BrewZer]

The day began as predicted -- cold, rainy and miserable. With a cold-crashed flask of yeast just waiting to be pitched, I had to go thru with the plans... and so began New Year's Brewday in the Garage.

Having moved most of the inflammables out of the way (the cars, the lawn mower, gas can and the like), I set up the burner out by the driveway and turned on a fan to fully circulate carbon monoxide. With the burner roaring like a freight train, we brought 3.5 gallons of water up to 160 degrees and added the 2-pound bag of crushed carapils dextrine malt for a 30-minute soak.

Then it was time to boil. Gently this time, to avoid darkening, the burner went back up in increments. Once there, we added an ounce each of hallertau and hersbrucker for the hour boil, fought back waves of green foam, and watched time tick away to the half-hour mark. It was time to add .75 ounce of Cluster hops, 3 pounds of Pilsen light LME and 6 pounds of golden light LME, along with half-a-gallon of water to make up for the boil-off. We had to stop the timer for a bit to bring the wort back up to a full boil. Note to self: boiling wort in 33-degree weather generates clouds of steam, making it difficult to see if the wort is actually boiling.

At 45 minutes in we added Irish moss; at 50 minutes, we added yeast nutrient, and with 5 minutes to go, we plopped in an ounce of Saaz for good smells.

After transporting to the utility sink and running our 40 degree cold water through the copper immersion wort cooler, we strained the cooled wort into the fermenter to remove most of the spent hops and break and managed to get most of the pot into the 6 gallon tank. After adding two more gallons of water to bring the total volume up to almost 6 gallons, we took the temperature (65 F) and the OG (1.070, six points higher than predicted, even with the added water).

Since the wort and the yeast were within 2 degrees of each other, we pitched the slurry after decanting most of the starter goo (which actually tasted pretty pleasant, just a bit yeasty). But we're hoping for light golden color in this batch, and had made the starter with dark DME (all I had on hand, a situation I've already corrected).

So, after clean-up and stow-away, it took about 3.5 hours in total to get this batch into the fermenter. Thanks to my Assistent Braumeister, Atlantic Brew Supply and UPS for their parts in this thus-far successful brew.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Thank you! It's not getting any easier to find the stuff in the States, so I really appreciate your help

Edit: Nuts!!!!! They're out of stock on the 1lbers.

Apologies as it looks like I might have hoovered up the last of the supply. If you're in the seattle area, be happy to share a pound with you. Or hell, I'll help a brewer out and mail you a pound. PM me with your details.

 

[Bramling Cross]

That's incredibly kind of you and I appreciate your offer, but I'm in pretty good shape. In fact, I picked up a few of the 1oz packets, so I should be in good shape for quite a while.

Thanks kindly for offering, though. That was over and above!

 

[catdaddy66]

Is there a name for the beer you make when you look upon shelves of random leftover grains from various brews, and decide to hooch it all together with leftover hops and whatever random yeast is surviving in the fridge? Is there a name for that?

I just bottled a batch I called Frankenbeir

 

[catdaddy66]

It's got 5# of red ale malt from Viking so it's got good color. Also very malty which I like

 

[Immocles]

It's got 5# of red ale malt from Viking so it's got good color. Also very malty which I like

I bought five pounds of that awhile back. Haven’t gotten around to using it but I’m getting antsy and think I need to prioritize a red ipa soon.

 

[orionol73]

Brewed a batch of Australian hopped pale ale

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Prepared some new media for yeast slants - note how they are slanting.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Bought new silicone hoses, spigots, new bottle wand and gave all my fermenting buckets a good cleaning with pbw.
My latest batch turned into volcano-gushers in about 6 weeks of being bottled, I suspect because I was a bit too eager on taking samples during fermentation and some beer didn't get cleaned out of the spigot properly one of the times,allowing some wild yeast to grow. Next time I will just let it sit for three weeks and only take one sample when bottling.
Dear brett and diastaticus, I do not like you and may you please be so kind to f**k off?

 

[grampamark]

We’ve been on something of a de-cluttering kick for the last couple of weeks. Our house at the farm has a large, mostly unfinished, basement which has become the family storage unit. We’ve been trying to thin the herd a bit.

Among the unused items in the cold storage room was a small, CRT, TV which our daughter had in her bedroom when she was in high school (she graduated in ‘98). There is an extra satellite TV cable in my brewing space. So, I hooked up this little box today to see if it still worked. Didn’t even have to change the batteries in the remote. So, I can now amuse myself on brewdays with my very own magic lantern.

All I need now is a more comfortable chair and I could spend most of my free time here.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I made a sassafras ginger tea and added it to the Saison fermenters. Fingers crossed.

 

[JAReeves]

Ordered a Blow Tie Spunding Valve so that I can keg my first lager with some foaming maltiness. It will have sat on the yeast for an extra week while I wait for it to arrive, but what the hell. It'll be beer!

 

[HB2 HughBHomeBrew]

You could totally play Pong on that TV

/

We’ve been on something of a de-cluttering kick for the last couple of weeks. Our house at the farm has a large, mostly unfinished, basement which has become the family storage unit. We’ve been trying to thin the herd a bit.

Among the unused items in the cold storage room was a small, CRT, TV which our daughter had in her bedroom when she was in high school (she graduated in ‘98). There is an extra satellite TV cable in my brewing space. So, I hooked up this little box today to see if it still worked. Didn’t even have to change the batteries in the remote. So, I can now amuse myself on brewdays with my very own magic lantern.

All I need now is a more comfortable chair and I could spend most of my free time here.
View attachment 713211

 

[grampamark]

You could totally play Pong on that TV

/

Well, at the moment, I’m brewing a Brown Ale and watching the goings-on in our nation’s capitol.

 

[aharri1]

I got tired of breaking my nice glasses lol. Got the B cups from fermented reality. Actually very nice! Left to right is IPA, stout, sour, and lager.

 

[BrewZer]

Took a sample from the fermenter (day 6) to see where we are... 1.019 (6.69% ABV) which is right in the range Brewtarget predicted for Wyeast 2112 attenuation for an APA. ABV is a bit high, but then so was my OG at 1.070.

Numbers being off don't bother me as long as the result is tasty... and this result is wunderbar!

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Took a sample from the fermenter (day 6) to see where we are... 1.019 (6.69% ABV) which is right in the range Brewtarget predicted for Wyeast 2112 attenuation for an APA. ABV is a bit high, but then so was my OG at 1.070.

Numbers being off don't bother me as long as the result is tasty... and this result is wunderbar!

Make sure to clean the spigot properly if you have one on the fermenting vessel...

 

[grampamark]

Kegged the Blonde Ale I brewed on 12/26.