What I did for beer today

[ba-brewer]

I’m calling it American. 50% 2 row, 50% Pilsner, Magnum and Willamette hops to about 25 IBU, Nottingham yeast. I just got a wild hair to brew a very light, low gravity, top fermented beer. Purists might call it a Blonde. Using Beersmith, this recipe fits the style guidelines for either British Golden or Blonde Ale.

Sounds like it should be good. I used to use Willamette as a 60min addition for a wheat beer I would brew for my wife. It always smelled good in kettle that I thought I should use it in a different beer later in the boil but never did.

The two style overlap a bit, I brew quite a few beer in that range. More of a british type grain bill(all base malt) but American type hop a bit more bitter and prominent than a blonde. Started as a way to check different hops, but then it sort of stuck as a easy beer to brew and drink.

 

[grampamark]

I use the Magnum/Willamette combo in a lot of ales. Those hops seem to provide a good balance between maltiness and hoppyness, at least to my palate.

 

[day_trippr]

Planning on doing two neipas this week, a new one tomorrow and a repeat on Thursday or Friday.
Spun up another batch of 1318 for the second brew (looks nearly done) and getting everything staged for the morning...

Cheers!

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Brewed an IPA today, and I used my new fancy-schmancy oxygen system (a Xmas present from the in-laws). Worked like a champ, and SO much easier than shaking the carboy for a few minutes!

 

[khannon]

Also brewed an IPA today after realizing that I never started that starter for a dopplebock that I meant too.. Guess that means I know what next weekend holds..

 

[kmarkstevens]

Brewed ~9 gallons of the London Porter Clone, and then split into a 4 batch yeast off:
Pub
WLP085
S-04 aka Whitbread Dry and
WLP017 Whitbread liquid strain

I'm trying to reduce my yeast library down to the strains I really like. I favored WLP085 (WLP002 and either WLP006 or WLP007) but perhaps because I wanted to try it forever and was able to pick it up when I did a drive by of White Labs a couple years ago.

I had a mild batch split between S-04 and WLP085 that had been bottle conditioned for a few months. S-04 had a more mineral taste and I picked up on chocolate notes that were missing from the 085. Go figure.

I have been doing simple ordinary bitters for my yeast offs. But after having tried the mild split, this time I decided to go for the London Porter. Hops I've pretty much narrowed to Tettnang, N Brewer, EKG, First Gold, Fuggles

Like I wrote above, been trying to cull my yeast library, but for my first Steinbart order, I grabbed WLP006. Le sigh. Also got ingredients for a simple Munich/Vienna czech hack lager.

 

[day_trippr]

Almost done with the sach rest. Mash started out a bit hinky with lots of oats and wheat threatening to gum things up but eventually got it tamed and it's been smooth sailing since.

Onwards!

[edit] Missed my OG by two points, but hit the volume to the carboys on the nose, so I'm ok with it - it's still an 1.082 neipa

Took almost an hour longer than usual between heating up strike and sparge water and then heating up the boil - because I didn't set my tank regulator properly and was starving the burners for gas. Halfway through the boil I finally figured it out. First time I've done that

Otherwise it will be beer!

 

[seatazzz]

Here's one that belongs in three threads; here, Don't Do That, and What Came in the Mail for You Today. Bit of backstory, work recently changed my hours so I start at 6; I still get up at 4am so in the mornings I have some time to sit and enjoy coffee, read emails, and check on the ferment fridge. This morning when I checked, found that somehow the wire for the temperature controller probe had got stuck/melted to the heat lamp. It's fried, literally. Quick check on Amazon found the replacement, which is currently 5 stops away. Paid the extra $2.99 to get it here today. Stout already dropped its krausen before disaster hit, and the WF (not anymore) lager is only down to 58 per the fermometer, so not a huge catastrophe, but it still sucks. Next trip to the store will get some of those stick-on plastic hook thingies to keep it out of harm's way.

 

[BrewZer]

Almost done with the sach rest. Mash started out a bit hinky with lots of oats and wheat threatening to gum things up but eventually got it tamed and it's been smooth sailing since.

Onwards!

View attachment 715086

[edit] Missed my OG by two points, but hit the volume to the carboys on the nose, so I'm ok with it - it's still an 1.082 neipa

Took almost an hour longer than usual between heating up strike and sparge water and then heating up the boil - because I didn't set my tank regulator properly and was starving the burners for gas. Halfway through the boil I finally figured it out. First time I've done that

Otherwise it will be beer!

Is that your fresh air source running down the middle?

 

[day_trippr]

That center duct is indeed an "air source" - but it pulls cool air up to the big blower motor on the ceiling to keep it from thermal-tripping.
For make-up air I have a window open...

Cheers!

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Bottled 9 liters of ESB, forgot to subtract some of the suggested amount of sparge water from beersmith, and ended up at .050 instead of .055. But it tasted promising anyways, now I just have to be patient for 3 weeks...

 

[catdaddy66]

I purposely didn't add ice to my swamp cooler because I saw no krausen after 48 hours. I think I might have under pitched so I want to get the temp up and wake up the yeast. No napping on the job!! Lol

 

[day_trippr]

Kegged 10 gallons of my imperial triple chocolate honey stout (it literally is a mouthful! ), cleaned the carboys, checked on yesterday's neipa (percolating nicely while it's gas-purging the kegs it'll end up in), then poured a Juicy Bits...

Cheers! (Tough day )

 

[Elric]

Started cold crashing my spitfire clone and cleaned out a keg and line after kicking my spruce tip ipa. That means I currently have two of four taps empty! Plan to make a peanutbutter marshmallow imperial stout this weekend to replace the ipa. Here’s a pic of my ghetto cleaning setup to not waste any co2.

 

[aharri1]

Transferred a beer I made using a helles recipe, but with lutra kveik. Came out very interesting and citrus-lime forward so I double dry hopped it with Pacific Jade for an intercontinental psuedo lager lol.

 

[Mekchu]

I tasted my first all grain brew. Lady Liberty, a Sierra Nevada American pale ale clone from Palmer, How to Brew. Not bad. I'm kind of pleased. I might have gotten lucky on this one. I'm still struggling to understand water chemistry in general and more specifically alkalinity and sparge acidification. I bottled a cream ale the other day which tasted a little astringent at bottling. I'm guessing this is the result of not controlling for alkalinity of the sparge water.

 

[BrewZer]

Soaked/scraped labels off of 24x12oz bottles that have been hibernating in the garage for just over a year or so... 48 more to go. It's good to have in-laws who will save bottles for you when you ask them to!

Oh, and almost forgot -- exchanged a propane tank that died in the middle of my last brew... fortunately, at the very moment we shut off the flame to add the LME! How's that for timing? Fortunately, I keep a spare tank on hand for just such an occasion.

 

[BrewZer]

Transferred a beer I made using a helles recipe, but with lutra kveik. Came out very interesting and citrus-lime forward so I double dry hopped it with Pacific Jade for an intercontinental psuedo lager lol. View attachment 715345View attachment 715346

You need another line on the glass that says "Wizard of Oz"

 

[catdaddy66]

I purposely didn't add ice to my swamp cooler because I saw no krausen after 48 hours. I think I might have under pitched so I want to get the temp up and wake up the yeast. No napping on the job!! Lol

Now I have high krausen! The little suckers are rocking the wort, throwing gas upward and outward...

 

[ba-brewer]

Yesterday: Blew the crap off my red rye at night IPA and had a couple pints. Thanks @JAReeves for sharing the recipe, I really am enjoying this beer. The chinook and rye worked very well together, not over powering hop aroma and flavor but enough to keep it interesting.

Today: Brewed a Cali Cream Ale, but will actual ferment it as a lager. I am using Great Western California Select malt, homegrown cascade hops and a combination of glass corn and over ripe sweet corn I allowed dry on the stalk. It is only a 3gal batch, 5lb of malt, 1lb of corn and 1oz of hops. Should of used California lager yeast but it is whitelabs 835 Lager X.

This is during the cereal mash, you can see a slight purple color to the liquid from the glass corn.

Finished product, quite pale in the hydro tube but a nice golden color in the glass.

 

[catdaddy66]

My critters are happily churning away and it smells divine

 

[day_trippr]

Checked in on Tuesday's batch and the 1318 is still raging even running at 64°F beer temperature.
Keeping on eye on those two 'boys lest they start working that catch bottle.

Gonna brew again tomorrow, so I got the brew rig all staged and ready to go in the morning.
Just filling the kettles with RO water now...

Cheers!

[edit] Was down in the brew space to pull a beer and triple check everything was ready. Watching the bubbler attached to the end of my keg purging system with the two kegs attached to the currently fermenting brew. Boom! It suddenly dawned on me, my having teed my two primary fermentation fridges' purge lines together meant I couldn't purge the next pair of kegs while the first ones were still purging! Arrgh!

Blessedly I had plenty of 5mm ID EVABarrier tubing, CMB QDs, and one more 1/4" FFL PTC connector than I needed to set up a second, independent line, so I'm back on track for the AM. Woof!

 

[BrewZer]

Sampled my Another New Year American Pale ale one week after bottling. Slight carbonation, a bit sweet in the start and a touch hoppy in the finish. Needs another 2 weeks in the bottle.

 

[JAReeves]

Yesterday: Blew the crap off my red rye at night IPA and had a couple pints. Thanks @JAReeves for sharing the recipe, I really am enjoying this beer. The chinook and rye worked very well together, not over powering hop aroma and flavor but enough to keep it interesting.

Today: Brewed a Cali Cream Ale, but will actual ferment it as a lager. I am using Great Western California Select malt, homegrown cascade hops and a combination of glass corn and over ripe sweet corn I allowed dry on the stalk. It is only a 3gal batch, 5lb of malt, 1lb of corn and 1oz of hops. Should of used California lager yeast but it is whitelabs 835 Lager X.
View attachment 715414

This is during the cereal mash, you can see a slight purple color to the liquid from the glass corn.
View attachment 715416

Finished product, quite pale in the hydro tube but a nice golden color in the glass.
View attachment 715417

Glad you like the recipe! Are those green pucks the hop pellets sized for kegs/barrels? I have never seen one before. I thought they were like unicorns or the Easter Bunny.

 

[JAReeves]

Checked in on Tuesday's batch and the 1318 is still raging even running at 64°F beer temperature.
Keeping on eye on those two 'boys lest they start working that catch bottle.

View attachment 715463

Gonna brew again tomorrow, so I got the brew rig all staged and ready to go in the morning.
Just filling the kettles with RO water now...

View attachment 715464

Cheers!

[edit] Was down in the brew space to pull a beer and triple check everything was ready. Watching the bubbler attached to the end of my keg purging system with the two kegs attached to the currently fermenting brew. Boom! It suddenly dawned on me, my having teed my two primary fermentation fridges' purge lines together meant I couldn't purge the next pair of kegs while the first ones were still purging! Arrgh!

Blessedly I had plenty of 5mm ID EVABarrier tubing, CMB QDs, and one more 1/4" FFL PTC connector than I needed to set up a second, independent line, so I'm back on track for the AM. Woof!

View attachment 715474

Technical questions:
1. Do you just leave the water system hooked up all the time?
2. Do you use it for other things or just beer water filtration?
3. Do you need to open it and dry out the filters in between use?
4. How long do filters last?

I am not happy with my one canister system and finding activated charcoal filters that fit it and don't leak, so I am thinking of changing it up.

 

[day_trippr]

Technical questions:[...]

1. Yes. There is a feedwater shutoff if needed but it's always open.

2. It's dedicated to the brewery - I don't like the character of RO water for drinking and it's caustic AF to boot. I make up my ~6 gallon Star San reservoir with it - lasts forever and cheaper than buying distilled water. Also use it for rinsing my pH meters. etc.

3. No. I actually have a waste water solenoid that prevents any water from draining out when the system isn't producing just to avoid having any part of the membrane go dry.

4. I got 3 years out of my previous, 50gpd filter, and it did not have the advantage of being run every night to produce a quart of product (controlled by that black box). So there were times it sat unused for weeks (travel away from home, primarily) which isn't good for the membrane. This one is going on two years now and is still bringing my 300 tds water down to 10 or below. Given the low volume but babied treatment I expect it should last a few years longer. And it only cost $37...

I recommend giving HBT member Russ @Buckeye_Hydro a PM as he is very generous with his time here and helped me put my 100gpd system together...

Cheers!

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

We are here! Who needs what when and where?

Russ

 

[ba-brewer]

Glad you like the recipe! Are those green pucks the hop pellets sized for kegs/barrels? I have never seen one before. I thought they were like unicorns or the Easter Bunny.

Those are 1/2oz pucks of compressed hops from the backyard. No unicorns or rabbits required, just a big C-clamp and a piece of 1.5in PVC tube. Greatly reduces the volume needed to store them. I got the idea somewhere here on HBT.

 

[Bramling Cross]

I kegged 5gal of Vienna lager, brewed a 1.072 CAP, and took my new Apera pH meter out for a spin. It performed well alongside my trusty old Milwaukie M102, I'll continue to run them in parallel for several batches but I hope that it will eventually retire the M102.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Those are 1/2oz pucks of compressed hops from the backyard. No unicorns or rabbits required, just a big C-clamp and a piece of 1.5in PVC tube. Greatly reduces the volume needed to store them. I got the idea somewhere here on HBT.

That makes me miss the old hop plug format. I really liked those! They were a nice compromise between T90s and whole leaf.