What I did for beer today

[seanjwalker1]

The gold isn't even worn off. Somebody loved those and kept them on display. Killer score, sir!

I used to buy nice glasses like that for my friends whenever I traveled. Invariably, their spouses would shove them in the dishwasher and the graphics would start losing color and the gold would fade away.

I especially like the Wieselburger glass, it's a sharp looking label, but the bottom of that glass has all kinds of interesting things going on. I'd enjoy spending some time watching tiny bubbles float up through that glass

Trust me I know! I hand washed them soon as I got home. I used to have quite an extensive collection all picked up during my 2 years in Germany. Unfortunately, most of them were broken by the shipping company. The Gov had to reimburse me about $400 which back in 1985 was a lot of glasses ! Well, that and my stereo. I only have 3 left from my tour. I keep them boxed up. I did have 2 of my black Forest beer mugs with the ...unclothed..ladies serving beer but had to give them a burial at sea. For some reason when I got married, they were not welcomed anymore.

 

[Knightshade]

I about choked while mixing yeast energizer and hot water earlier this afternoon. That stuff is rank…which I ended up not using anyways…

Because..I had dry hop round #1 and I figured/hope that with that drop and a little swirl the yeasties will get on track and back to work!

 

[ba-brewer]

Kegged my IPA today, taste of warm hydro sample was pretty good. Put my golden ale I dry hopped in the keg into the cooler to crash, I will transfer it to another keg in a couple days to get it off of the hops.

Working on a starter of WLP835 Lager X yeast for an upcoming brew day, thinking maybe a Classic American Lager as I have some corn and 6 row wanting to become beer.

 

[Liero]

Got some war treasure at Salvation Army, both of these German crystal beer mugs for a total of $3.50 ! Price tags on the bottom from originalView attachment 746370 store were marked $15.99 each. I love being a plundering ex soldier from the peasant masses. The aristocratic wife will scrunch her nose and tisk tisk tisk me. Tisk away ! All is fair in beer and war !

Just for clarification, the right glass is from an Austrian Brewery, not German. ;-)

Lukas

 

[seanjwalker1]

Just for clarification, the right glass is from an Austrian Brewery, not German. ;-)

Lukas

Ja ja Wieselberg Austria. I visited Austria while stationed in Germany in the 80s. Depending on who you talked to back then half the Austrians claimed Austrian the other half claimed Austrian of German decent. Grosse Deutschland and all that. Austria at that time was still trying to distance itself from the nightmare of being so intertwined with Germany and all the horrible things that happened but for some those ties run deep.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Checked gravity on my Amber, and tasted the tiny sample. Mmm, mmm, good.

 

[Imhoppy]

Sent in my water sample to Ward Labs for the W-501 Brewer's Test. Suppose the results might send me down another rabbit hole in my brewing hobby, all for the better. Just one of many that I keep digging up, lol.

 

[Rish]

Put labels on my stea... er... CA common. Watching bubbles from the Alaskan Smoked Porter I brewed yesterday.

 

[Sunfire96]

Trying out the azacca hops from the AHA. Yesterday I brewed a pale ale that will get dry hopped next week, and today I brewed an American wheat. I got poor conversion on the wheat ale for some reason, I have some theories tho. I also kegged a beer for the first time. I transferred a Munich Dunkel to the keg, purged the headspace and let it sit on 10 PSI for a couple hours, and now it's sitting and lagering waiting to be drunk in a couple of weeks. This is a really great hobby

 

[Knightshade]

Did a yeast starter...pretty boring.

Bigger accomplishment..FINALLY got my buddy to agree to brew w/me on the same damn day. We both got into brewing last November or so, and he has only managed to do 3 batches. Lots of bugging..poking..Tuesday the 26th is the big day. We'll see if it actually happens. Picked the All Together IPA to do, seemed appropriate.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Trying out the azacca hops from the AHA. Yesterday I brewed a pale ale that will get dry hopped next week, and today I brewed an American wheat. I got poor conversion on the wheat ale for some reason, I have some theories tho. I also kegged a beer for the first time. I transferred a Munich Dunkel to the keg, purged the headspace and let it sit on 10 PSI for a couple hours, and now it's sitting and lagering waiting to be drunk in a couple of weeks. This is a really great hobby

Congrats on your first kegging!!! You are on another level now! I was so excited about my 1st keg almost 2 years ago. Like going from high school to a university or from pvt to Sgt! No one else may give a hoot but take pride! You are a Kegger of beer!!!

 

[Sunfire96]

Congrats on your first kegging!!! You are on another level now! I was so excited about my 1st keg almost 2 years ago. Like going from high school to a university or from pvt to Sgt! No one else may give a hoot but take pride! You are a Kegger of beer!!!

Thanks I managed to get the posts off and sanitized without losing parts and back on without a leak, so I'm pretty pleased! I even remembered to put lubrifilm on the gaskets!

 

[MaxStout]

Bottled 5 gallons of Kolsch today, half of a 10 gal batch I brewed a few weeks ago. I'm splitting the batch with friends, and they'll be over tomorrow so we can bottle their share from the 2nd fermenter.

 

[seatazzz]

Finished out the 2-week notice on the job today at 1pm; got a nice surprise lunch & cake from my co-workers. This is for beer because now I have two weeks to pump up the pipeline and get the brewery in spotless order. And brought home a beautiful young German Shepherd/Pit Bull mix from the shelter tonight, black with a white chest whose name is now Shelby (original was Hazel, that's a horrible name for a dog in our opinion). Now begins the long process of teaching our older dog to get along with her; she was NOT amused when we came home. Had to get a crate for the new dog to keep her safe from the psycho hellhound our normally docile older dog has turned into. Couple hours later and the frantic barking and posturing (all on the part of the older dog, the young dog is mellow beyond belief) has calmed down; we've been down this road before and a few days should see them if not friends then tolerant of each other.

 

[crazyjake19]

Brewed a 4.25 gallon batch of my California Common, composted the spent grains and added some leaves and grass clippings to keep my compost happy, and letting my equipment soak with PBW until later this afternoon. Pondering on a possible second brew tomorrow morning.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Used the Tapcooler counter pressure beer bottler for the 1st time. Failure and success. No matter what I did I could not get the tap adapter to seal well in my Perlick 650ss taps. Kept getting leaks around the seal. So next time I will put in new washers, they give you an extra set. So I took off the tap adapter and connected the valve/keg connector and that worked like a charm. Bottled up some Czech pils and Irish Red for the brother in laws birthday tomorrow.

 

[JAReeves]

Bottled the remainder of the Perry that was in the keezer to make room for the keg of Crabapple Lambic for the 12 Beers of Christmas bottle share. As the Lambic wasn't as sour as I had hoped, I added about 1/2 gallon of the 18 month old Flander's Red, which also made it to a keg (what was left of the carboy, that is). Tomorrow I brew another batch of the Flander's Red to go straight on top of the existing culture and let that sit another 8+months.

Tasted the mid-1800's style British IPA, and it was remarkably good. But it wasn't done yet. It was only at 1.015, it should drop off at 1.010-1.012, so I will let it ride until mid-week or next weekend. When I keg it, it is going in on a 5oz blend of Fuggles and EKG, plus oak to give it a classic flavor. Hope it works, as I am not planning on waiting a year and/or sending it around the world on a container ship.

 

[Beermeister32]

Today I’m sampling my 2/13/21 batch of Olympia Beer 1912 recipe and comparing it to the recently discontinued 2021 production, not sure if Irwindale or Milwaukee. Anyway, all are currently unavailable. We’re comparing dinosaurs here.

Leopold Schmidt started it all in 1896 as Capital Brewing featuring Olympia Beer. Later this was changed to Olympia Brewing. In the Clint Eastwood and Dustin Hoffman inspired 1960’s-early 70’s they commanded about 25% of the West Coast market, long, long ago.

For this batch I even researched the Tumwater Sand Aquifer and found the water specifications for Tumwater artesian water. “It’s the Water” was the tag-line.

How does the 1912 recipe on the left compare to the mid-2021 recipe on the right? Pretty darned close!

There really isn’t much difference between these two quaffers. Color came out right-on, similar flavor, similar head, the newer has slightly more lacing. These two adjunct lagers use rice (mine used Minute Rice) in the mash. This lager took longer to clear than usual, even with gelatin, I think I was picking up something maybe from the rice.

Anyway, I’d call this success, making beer sure is fun!

 

[Deric]

Cool stuff!!! I grew up (and still live) a couple hours north of the Olympia Brewery. Great memories, thanks for sharing!

 

[kmarkstevens]

I now live even closer to the Oly brewery. What's the 1912 recipe?

 

[Tom R]

Oly was the only beer I ever saw Grampa drink. I'd like to see the recipe also.

 

[Beermeister32]

I grew up in Olympia, my grandfather worked at the Tumwater brewery, as did half the people in the area back in the day. Recipe sheet is behind the beer, I’ll get a written version posted for you soon.

 

[Pkrd]

Kegged a wit for me and filled a few bottles too for an exam next month.

 

[Beermeister32]

Here you go. For the mash, I doughed in at 80F, 122F rest for 20 minutes, 135F for 30 minutess, 147F for 60 minutes 154F for 30 minutes, then let the temp drop back to 147F for 30 minutes.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Filled a second cask for a cask fest. I let this one finish and primed it with Lyle’s syrup, wow does that taste good, it reminded me of a Werther’s.

 

[Tom R]

Here you go. For the mash, I doughed in at 80F, 122F rest for 20 minutes, 135F for 30 minutess, 147F for 60 minutes 154F for 30 minutes, then let the temp drop back to 147F for 30 minutes.

Thanks for posting the recipe, I'm going to give this one a try.

What is the purpose of dropping the temp 7F for the last 30'? I haven't seen that in a step mash before.

 

[ba-brewer]

@Beermeister32 I seen you made adjustments for acid malt in the recipe, do you need to do the rest at 122F if you add acid malt?

 

[BrewChem]

Recovered the yeast from the last of 3 steps… one vial of WLP099 in 750ml… then 4.5 L … then 5 gallons…

This is for an attempt at a 20+% ABV ale.

 

[BrewChem]

I’ll put up a post on the brew in the all grain forum when I get it going

 

[MaxStout]

Bottled the other 5 gallons of Kolsch (friends' share) yesterday.

Back on brew day, I spotted a small brown object rolling in the boil. I fished it out with a strainer and discovered it was a yellowjacket that decided to commit suicide in my wort.

We needed a label for our beer.