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Bottled the Blonde Ale I brewed at the city house on 5/26. Twenty-four bottles; finished at 4% ABV. Should be a pretty good lawnmower beer.
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Doing my first closed transfer, it’s a DIPA, Nugget, Centennial, Chinook in boil, Mosaic and Citra in Dip Hop and Dry Hop. 11oz of hops total. Praying for an amazing flavor this time.

Cleaning a lot of kegs also, but the closed transfer is more exciting!

EDIT: Ok, it got stuck at 3 1/2-4 gallons. Had to open it up to try and force it to keep going and it wasn’t having any of it. Solutions?
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Gotta get brewing; all my fermenters are empty.

Collected water. Weighed grain. Milled grain.

I really like my Corona mill. I like milling by hand.

My usual beer is ~1.043 with 4.5-5# of grain.

This beer is an imperial stout, ~1.095. 12.7# of grain.

I do not love my Corona mill.
 
Yesterday brew day went well though I did miss the OG I was shooting for but still within style guidelines for a Czech pils. And I thought I had 3 packs of Saaz but had 2 Saaz and 1 Herbrucker...😳. So I guess it will be be a German/Czech Bohemian-ish lager..wort taste good regardless! 24 hours later already down to 52° in the kegerator. Will throw in the lager little yeast beasties tomorrow.
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Comfirmed FG on my kilted rauchbier was good so kegged it up and will now let it lager for a while (it has a lot of clearing up to do). What's a kilted rauchbier you ask? It's a rauchbier that uses peat smoked mLt instead of the traditional beech or cherry wood! Tasted the fermentation sample and it's pretty interesting!
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Baked a parkin and a treacle flapjack, research on a recipes to use up a tin of black treacle(molasses). Thinking a treacle flapjack oatmeal stout and parkin robust spiced porter.

Also kegged my galaxy golden ale.
Hey, I found a small amount, say a .25-.5 cup per 5 gallons, of black treacle aided head retention, produced superior dense bubbles, better mouth feel, but didn't end up affecting the taste (according to my not great palate). So, my suggestion is you try adding this almost token amount of treacle and see if you think it adds anything. Of course, your mileage may vary. ;)
 
Hey, I found a small amount, say a .25-.5 cup per 5 gallons, of black treacle aided head retention, produced superior dense bubbles, better mouth feel, but didn't end up affecting the taste (according to my not great palate). So, my suggestion is you try adding this almost token amount of treacle and see if you think it adds anything. Of course, your mileage may vary. ;)
Thanks for the info. I will be adding oats to both beers so maybe the treacle with counter act any effects the oats might have on head retention. I am hoping to get some molasses flavor but not too much. I have about half pound left and was thinking that might be enough for two 2.5gal batches but by your experience that might not be enough for both if I want some molasses flavor to make it to the finished beers.

As a side note I did not really like the flapjack(could be recipe) but the parkin tasted fine.
 
Ok so missed my target OG of 1.054 2 days ago for my Czech lager. While fermenter has been cold crashing down to pitch temp, it's been bugging the H out of me..the nerve! 😣. I couldn't abide it , just stuck in my craw. So today high tailed it out to the LHBS( 12 miles away) grabbed a pound of extra light pils dry extract and another oz of Saaz, boiled that in half gallon of distilled for for 60 min, added to fermenter and it brought me up to my OG target of 1.054! All is not lost ! It's gone from lowly lawnmower to Sessionable 😊. Pitched 2 packs S-23 lager and back in the cold hole for 4 weeks.
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Kegged the Altbier I brewed a couple of weeks ago. Finished at 4.5%. Now I’m brewing a Lawnmower Beer. :DView attachment 732796
Nothing wrong with lawnmower ! I just didn't want my Czech to be lawnmower...its my 1st premium Czech lager. Actually it's my 2nd..i tried one about 7 years ago and it wasn't my proudest brewing moment. About 9% and had to be about 100 IBUs. I snuck to the garage like a thief in the night and ashamedly dumped it all.
 
Brewing up a Manny's clone today, and have finally had it with the old mash tun; just not holding heat well enough. I'm too lazy to run a heat exchanger, so after a quick online search found that our local Home Depot has the 10g igloo coolers back in stock. I'll take my false bottom with me to make sure it fits (if it doesn't, I guess mama is getting a new angle grinder too); the only issue I can see is the sparge arm. Current mash tun (16g extract barrel) has one built into the lid, made of PEX pipe with several holes drilled into it; hoping I can incorporate it into the new one. Never so excited when I know I've got macgyvering in my near future! Work? I was supposed to go in today? Oh darn, sorry, I'm not feeling well. Har!!! I'm salary so no overtime to miss out on anyway. Can't wait!!
 
Brewing up a Manny's clone today, and have finally had it with the old mash tun; just not holding heat well enough. I'm too lazy to run a heat exchanger, so after a quick online search found that our local Home Depot has the 10g igloo coolers back in stock. I'll take my false bottom with me to make sure it fits (if it doesn't, I guess mama is getting a new angle grinder too); the only issue I can see is the sparge arm. Current mash tun (16g extract barrel) has one built into the lid, made of PEX pipe with several holes drilled into it; hoping I can incorporate it into the new one. Never so excited when I know I've got macgyvering in my near future! Work? I was supposed to go in today? Oh darn, sorry, I'm not feeling well. Har!!! I'm salary so no overtime to miss out on anyway. Can't wait!!
Be more secretive with employment post! Never know who in your corporate chain of command might be a HBT member! Good luck on your build! I bought my 10 gallon igloo 7 years ago over $100 and unlit my own 5 gal igloo last year and for about $35 all together. Caught the igloo cooler on sale at Lowe's and got my false bottom low cost at Wally-World. Pays to search around and compare prices and do it yourself. Save at least 50% of beer supply sold mash tun.
 
Be more secretive with employment post! Never know who in your corporate chain of command might be a HBT member! Good luck on your build! I bought my 10 gallon igloo 7 years ago over $100 and unlit my own 5 gal igloo last year and for about $35 all together. Caught the igloo cooler on sale at Lowe's and got my false bottom low cost at Wally-World. Pays to search around and compare prices and do it yourself. Save at least 50% of beer supply sold mash tun.
I'm good there, my real name isn't in my profile and nobody at work even makes wine, let alone beer! Going in was more of a voluntary thing anyway to catch up.

Giving the new tun a test run this morning with a simple Kolsch-kinda-ale. Also going to use Lallemand Kveik to ferment it, since the ferment fridge is occupied and it's warm enough in the house to start using it again.

*edit Forgot to mention that I stopped at the LHBS in my quest for a 10g cooler (had to go to Puyallup for it, nowhere around here had them, HD lies like a rug), he had the Lowes 10g cooler setup with false bottom and hoses for $150. If I hadn't found one for $50 that I built myself I was seriously considering just saying the heck with it and buying it, now I'm glad I didn't.
 
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Going to go dump batch 108. This was the 1912 Oly clone I was working on, brewed 2/13/21.

Something caused this batch to get totally cloudy. It’s been lagering 3 months now, with gelatin, and has very little flavor. I’m thinking maybe the starch from the 2 lbs of rice didn’t fully convert. Dunno.

Will be dumping on the lawn this afternoon!
 
Planned out a Hibiscus Wheat Saison, shooting for about 4% for SWMBO. Using Tettnanger to up the peppery spice to complement the Hibiscus tart and Wheat for a bread flavor in the middle. Looking at the A/C unit and the cooler and trying to decide if I want to spend Father's Day tearing apart machinery for the Glycol Chiller build, or just save it for tomorrow. Read Brewing Industry Guide's new issue cover-to-cover!
 
Took a gravity sample of my 1914 Courage Imperial. Tastes good, but sweet. 1.099 down to 1.036 in seven days at 60°. ~85% of the way to my hoped for FG.

Swapped the blow-off for an airlock. Added the dry-hops in the process.

Weighed out the grist for the next brew. A 1.043 best bitter. 85/5/10 Optic/C65/invert. Pub and EKG.

ETA: Also prepped a package for shipping to my Pop. This will be the first of my beer that he'll taste.

Irish Dry Stout
Irish Extra Stout
Wee Heavy
Wee Heavy Graf
Strong Bitter
Old Ale
English Barleywine (to be enjoyed in just a week or two when I call to give news of his new grandson)
 
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ETA: Also prepped a package for shipping to my Pop. This will be the first of my beer that he'll taste.

Irish Dry Stout
Irish Extra Stout
Wee Heavy
Wee Heavy Graf
Strong Bitter
Old Ale
English Barleywine (to be enjoyed in just a week or two when I call to give news of his new grandson)

Shipped it.

Clerk at UPS Store: "What's in the box?"

Me: "Food."

Toddler at my feet: "Beer for Grandpa."

Clerk with raised eyebrow: "Is it packed well?"
 
Shipped it.

Clerk at UPS Store: "What's in the box?"

Me: "Food."

Toddler at my feet: "Beer for Grandpa."

Clerk with raised eyebrow: "Is it packed well?"


i just got mine, in plastic bottles....intact...i have no idea why they had tamper proof caps though! i plan on shipping them back full again, with tamper broken evident seals, lol....
 
Bought a copy each of Conn & Beechum's Experimental Homebrewing and Schramm's Compleat Meadmaker. It's the 2nd copy of Schramm's book, the first went to my sister who is looking at a meadery as her retirement plan. I'm also steadily knocking items of the Teacher's Summer To-Do List (the things we can't do when teaching) so that I can brew another batch!

Fixed a door, several locks, the dryer, the central heat & A/C, played with the kids; the stuff that doesn't normally happen for teachers Sept.-June :p.
 
Threw some S-04 into a keg that has apple juice and brown sugar in it. Yeah..I know it ain't beer...but my wife likes cider and it will needs to sit and age anyways. Once it starts fermenting, I'm going to use the co2 to purge a couple kegs to transfer some beer that is conditioning. One is sitting on a cage of mangoes, the other rum soaked raisins.
 
I'm an admitted Airlock Sniffer. Been a week since putting the Czech Premium in the kegerator to cold ferment. Thought I'd get a sniff fix. No bubbles of course most of the co2 trapped in the cold beer. So figured I'd swirl it a bit to get some off gassing...BIG MISTAKE! The rotten egg sulfer smell almost knocked me to my knees! 1st time using Saf S-23...whooooo!!! Never got that with 34/70 though I know it's possible. If that don't cure a airlock Sniff addict I don't know what will!!! 😂
 
Kegged the Hazy Ale I brewed a couple of weeks ago. I put this recipe together after having an Odell hazy and thinking it was a pretty good summer/lawnmower beer; low gravity and a lot of late hops. Next time I’ll cut the bittering hops (Centennial) in half. The sample out of the keg tasted more like a WCIPA; not a bad thing but not what I was aiming for.
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Be more secretive with employment post! Never know who in your corporate chain of command might be a HBT member!

+1000 on this. My ex-boss is a home brewer and I pass his house on my most common route out of the neighborhood. I doubt that he is on here, but I have no real way of knowing. My current boss is also a home brewer (oddly enough), but he hasn't brewed in a couple of years and lives fairly far away from me. Haven't picked up where his preferred LHBS is though...hmm..
 
Decided to finish cleaning the lemon tree of lemons. Low acid at this point, very concentrated juice. So I am asking the community for help in what I can do with the bounty: 6# of lemon zest (in the freezer) and 2 1/2 gallons of juice (in the fridge). Rather than burden this thread, here is where I posted my question.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/when-life-gives-you-lemons.693471/
Peace,

Reevesie
 
Decided to finish cleaning the lemon tree of lemons. Low acid at this point, very concentrated juice. So I am asking the community for help in what I can do with the bounty: 6# of lemon zest (in the freezer) and 2 1/2 gallons of juice (in the fridge). Rather than burden this thread, here is where I posted my question.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/when-life-gives-you-lemons.693471/
Peace,

Reevesie
While I've never used real fruit in my beer (I've kicked the idea around a time or 2) you could probably make a killer summer Shandy wheat beer or a hard lemonade. I've really thought of using real lemons in a wheat beer or even a dark bock. I add sweet lemonade to 80% of my beers anyway! Habit I picked up in Schweinfurt Germany decades ago. Sounds crazy I know and I thought the same thing as a 19 year old soldier. I was like Germans are crazy! Who on God's Earth puts lemon in their beer?!? I tried it...been hooked ever since. It's basically just a Shandy which I been drinking since 1984 that didn't catch on over here till decades later. Just a thought 😊. I'm sure you will find good use for your lemon gold mine.
 
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