What I did for beer today

[seanjwalker1]

I was tracking that storm and it looked like we were going to get walloped but it was no more than a moderate to below-moderate storm. We live in the NE corner of the city and it's odd that really bad weather, deep snow, etc. skirts north or south very often.
We were actually prepared to take our pets and ourselves to the basement under the stairs but we got lucky.

Cool. We were in the basement closet for 45 min. Sounded like the lightening was hitting our patio. Could actually see the basement light up from the brightness of the strikes.

 

[mattman91]

Kegged up my first NEIPA this afternoon. Lost about 3-4 pints due to hop bag clogging the spigot. This thing smells sooooooo juicy!

Lallemand New England chewed through this stuff. The estimated FG was 1.015, but it got down to about 1.012. 6.7% ABV.

 

[davidabcd]

45 min.

Holy cow!
My wife commented that it was the first time we either had a tornado warning or planned to take cover because of a storm in the 30 years we've lived here.
I don't know about your side of town but there's been a ton of flooded basements on this side of town from here all the way through the Grosse Pointes. Weather has been a mess for a lot of people this year. We remain fortunate.

 

[JAReeves]

Yesterday, I took apart the A/C unit and began the modifications (bending tubing, bypassing temperature control) for the glycol unit build. Today, we made the platform and cut the cooler. Waiting for the spray-fill insulation to finish curing. Should be able to finish it tomorrow and begin sewing the neoprene sleeve insulators for the fermenters.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Yesterday, I took apart the A/C unit and began the modifications (bending tubing, bypassing temperature control) for the glycol unit build. Today, we made the platform and cut the cooler. Waiting for the spray-fill insulation to finish curing. Should be able to finish it tomorrow and begin sewing the neoprene sleeve insulators for the fermenters.View attachment 736791View attachment 736792View attachment 736793

I wish I had those mad skills! Kick myself for years for not learning mechanical and electrical skills.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Holy cow!
My wife commented that it was the first time we either had a tornado warning or planned to take cover because of a storm in the 30 years we've lived here.
I don't know about your side of town but there's been a ton of flooded basements on this side of town from here all the way through the Grosse Pointes. Weather has been a mess for a lot of people this year. We remain fortunate.

Growing up in Romeo I saw 2 tornados in the distance, had to jump in a ditch outside of Ft. Hood Texas as one screamed by and almost got caught by one leaving Galveston heading back toward Houston. Did about 95 mph down Texas HWY 6 to stay ahead of it. Been through 3 hurricanes, Hawaii , Florida and Texas. Bad luck for a small town Michigan guy!

 

[seanjwalker1]

Dropped my brew kettle off at my buddies house so he can drill the weldless thermometer hole for me tomorrow at his sons machine shop.

 

[csantoni]

Built a small folding-leg table so I can eliminate the jack stands from my brew day setup.

 

[JAReeves]

I wish I had those mad skills! Kick myself for years for not learning mechanical and electrical skills.

I don't have mad skills; I'm just dumb enough to plow forward until I hit brick walls .

I read a lot, check up on what other people have done, and then give myself the time to F*** it up and then fix it. My designs may not be the most efficient, but I didn't crimp or crack any of the refrigeration piping, so that's a win. Otherwise, I'd be watching youtube videos on how to fix copper pipe as well! We'll find out tomorrow if my insulation solution works or not!

 

[csantoni]

I read a lot, check up on what other people have done, and then give myself the time to F*** it up and then fix it.

Man, I've never seen my approach to projects summed up so concisely.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Toasting some oats right now to use in an oatmeal stout this thursday. Other than that I bottled a batch of scottish 80/- and put a carbed up batch of best bitter in the fridge a few days ago.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Buddy finished drilling the new kettle for the thermometer. Pick it up tomorrow and hopefully have time this week to stamp the volume marks.

 

[jcfontario]

Cool. We were in the basement closet for 45 min. Sounded like the lightening was hitting our patio. Could actually see the basement light up from the brightness of the strikes.

Wow, I remember doing that when we lived near Detroit many years ago, Fortunately, the area in Ontario where we are now does not see many tornado warnings. Hope that you all stayed safe.

 

[seatazzz]

Sipping today on what just may be the best batch of WF lager I've done. And kicking myself for trashing the yeast slurry instead of saving it; I've got to make another batch in a couple weeks for competition, and this recipe does better on slurry than fresh. Of course, I could just bottle what I need from this batch (need 5 total for two competitions) but I'm worried it will lose carbonation. Which is silly since the last two competitions I've entered, this same recipe (bottled off the keg) had pretty good scores for head retention and carbonation levels. So maybe I will....just need to hide the bottles good in the back of the fridge so someone doesn't find them....like me when I run out of the keg!

 

[ba-brewer]

@seatazzz, how do you fill your bottles for competitions, have you tired the method outlined in this thread? we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun

It seems to work well for me but you do loose a little carbonation. I have bumped the pressure for a day or two to compensate and deal with foamier pours at home.

 

[seatazzz]

@seatazzz, how do you fill your bottles for competitions, have you tired the method outlined in this thread? we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun

It seems to work well for me but you do loose a little carbonation. I have bumped the pressure for a day or two to compensate and deal with foamier pours at home.

Yes, I have used that method to great effect! However I bought myself a growler filler earlier this year (basically a silicone tube with a fitting that goes in the tap) that works just as well, as long as I purge some of the co2 off the keg first. Otherwise I'm dumping tons of foam. As long as I cap on foam I don't lose much carbonation. I even bought a fancy (not beergun fancy, but amazon fancy) bottle filler 2 years ago that got used once, because its a PITA to put together. *Edit forgot to add, it works on the same principle as the one outlined in the thread, except you have to hook up co2 to it. That's why PITA.

 

[hout17]

Picked up ingredients at my LHBS to brew Orfys Boddington Clone. Using wyeast 1318 not pictured here. Looking forward to trying this beer.

Finally a picture of the moon below I took last night through my telescope just because I can lol.

 

[ba-brewer]

Yes, I have used that method to great effect! However I bought myself a growler filler earlier this year (basically a silicone tube with a fitting that goes in the tap) that works just as well, as long as I purge some of the co2 off the keg first. Otherwise I'm dumping tons of foam. As long as I cap on foam I don't lose much carbonation. I even bought a fancy (not beergun fancy, but amazon fancy) bottle filler 2 years ago that got used once, because its a PITA to put together. *Edit forgot to add, it works on the same principle as the one outlined in the thread, except you have to hook up co2 to it. That's why PITA.

I have a semi fancy one too, added disconnects and a carbonation cap to make connects to the keg and CO2 easy, but cleaning sucks and the picnic tap and piece of racking cane works so well it very seldom gets used. Good luck on your competition.

 

[grampamark]

Brewed some. A 3.5 gal batch of Altbier. I had a 5 gal Better Bottle that wasn’t being used so I scaled my 5 gal recipe down. Four gal into the fermenter @1.040. Should be a “session” Altbier.

 

[Elric]

Kegged my tropical stout today. Now to just hold off on the urges and let it mellow for a week or so before diving in…

 

[seatazzz]

Been a very responsible bottle-drinker the last few days; bought a 12-pack of Ninkasi on Sunday, have had 6 so far and each bottle got well rinsed once empty. Tonight I soaked them in very warm oxyclean water, labels fell off in about 5 minutes. Well rinsed, they are now in the fridge to chill about an hour before filling with my yummy lager. Bench capper that usually lives in a very dusty corner of the garage is now clean and ready to go, found the unmarked caps, and also found that my nifty chalk pens will wipe off the caps once I have the competition labels printed so I know what's what. Gonna do that later too since I've already registered and paid for the entries. More excited (and prepared, I might say) for this competition than any other I've entered. Also a bit worried that for a usually huge comp that hasn't been held since 2019 because of that virus thing, there's only 79 entries (cap is 250, limit of 5 for each entrant) after 1.5 weeks.

 

[JAReeves]

Sold off some more extra equipment so I can empty the shed of brewing equipment and refill it with the gardening stuff that is supposed to be in there. Getting closer to finishing the glycol chiller build and other chores, so that I can finally brew beer!

 

[Deadalus]

Tossed some hops into my NEIPA at the pre-peak fermentation stage. Typically I don't do this, just some late additions, whirlpool, and dry hopping. Thought I would make a small change as I made some pound size hops purchases and can be loosy goosy with them.

 

[dwhite60]

Today I emptied a bottle to make a new home for homeless beer.

 

[2row]

Last night (this morn? 1:30a) 2L yeast starter in a 2L erlenmeyer!? Ha!
Will try to run to HB store to upsize today...

 

[SMD]

Today I got off work early, ran out to the LHBS expecting to pick up supplies for brew this weekend only to find they didn’t have the yeast or hops I wanted and left empty handed (acceptable replacements also not in stock).

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Tried Propper Starter for the first time. I have concluded that, though it's more expensive than DME, it's worth every penny. It takes me an hour to make a starter with DME; I was done in 15 minutes with the Propper Starter.

 

[JAReeves]

Finished the glycol chiller build. Still need to fill it. I have heard two different recommendations: 1:2 or 1:1, glycol to H2O. Any ideas?

EDIT: the ProBrewer website recommends 33-35% glycol to distilled H2O, so a 1:2 ratio it is!

I am looking forward to chilling three fermentations at the same time, and one of my neighbors is harassing me for more PA/IPA. I guess I'm doing something right.

EDIT: Filled it, tested it, labelled everything. Ready for fermentation! Quiet, too! Now I need to tap the lids of the SS Brewtech Brewbuckets so they will allow for the Anvil cooling systems and make the neoprene sleeves for insulation and I will have received max efficiency (well, for my half-@$$ed construction).

 

[Beernik]

Made a journey to the he LHBS to buy ingredients for the first time in 6 years.

 

[johndan]

Got confused by a massive drop in gravity for the Bitter American clone (9.5% ABV when I was shooting for about 4.3%), then I realized when I dry hopped it, the mesh bag must have landed on the Tilt in the fermenter.

Luckily, I'd tied off the hops bag with a string and knotted it to a handle on the outside of the fermenter, so I just loosed the lid slightly and pulled the hops bag off the Tilt.

Back to normal.