What I did for beer today

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
C5685615-DBEB-475E-9FBB-85CC10D57D2F.jpeg
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 

Attachments

  • 473C9241-1063-4ADC-A256-E9C67C260711.jpeg
    473C9241-1063-4ADC-A256-E9C67C260711.jpeg
    1.5 MB · Views: 9
  • A187756B-F542-445E-8A9C-D4E9E4AE346E.jpeg
    A187756B-F542-445E-8A9C-D4E9E4AE346E.jpeg
    1.5 MB · Views: 11
Protein rest probably not needed with the modified malts available. I dough in at 80F regularly, but it’s not there long enough to be considered an acid rest. Kind of a carryover from some of the pilsners I’ve been brewing. I do like a dry beer though. The old recipe doesn’t mention the mash profile, so I run it through the profile I usually use for a very fermentable wort. Also the W34/70 is just a guess, worked Ok. Probably not too many lager yeasts available in 1912, Weihenstephaner probably one of the better known.
 
Last edited:
What is the purpose of dropping the temp 7F for the last 30'? I haven't seen that in a step mash before.
There are some proponents out there of using some reverse mash procedures as the higher 154F temp makes available some branches unavailable at the lower 147F. So basically you just let it cool a bit and allow the enzymes to further break up whatever was made available from the 154F by letting it sweep back through that temp range one more time.

Seems to work ok for making the wort fermentable for a dry, not sweet lager.
 
Last edited:
Kegged my West Coast double IPA for a HB competition at a local hop farm. We will pour to the judges first, and then to the public. They gave us half a pound of whole leaf hops to use with our entry fee from their farm. You could also use additional hops as you wished. I used Zeus and Cascade from them in boil and whirlpool. Dry hopped with azacca, El dorado, and Amarillo.
PXL_20211025_012948250.jpg
 
Had a few pints already while doing some intense training with the dogs. Older one is finally semi-okay with the new younger one being out of her crate but still has some aggression issues we need to work through. Judicious use of training collars (beep & vibrate, no shock) helped immensely, also having plenty of time to spend with them. Currently sitting in my chair with new dog sacked out behind me, planning tomorrow's brewday now with two brewdogs again. Young doggo also needs some more work on how to deal with cats; oldest male already whacked her a few good ones, few more of those and she will leave all three alone. She's exhibited absolutely no aggression towards the cats, just intense interest since I don't think she's ever been around one before.
 
I decided to do another brew today to get my holiday pipeline filled. Did a Roggenbier, BIAB, on the kitchen stove. I expected some stickiness in the mash, but not to this degree. Rye comprised almost 50% of the bill.

It was not a fun brew.

After the rest I put on some silicone grilling gloves and lifted the bag. Almost nothing was draining. There was perhaps 2 gallons in the 8 gal Megapot, the rest locked in the bag. It was like holding a big bag of very hot water. I placed a colander across the top of the kettle and set the bag in it, trying not to let it muffin-top over the sides.

I squeezed, and squeezed. It took a good 20 mins to knead most of the wort out. And a little did spill over, a few gooey puddles on the kitchen counter and some on the floor. I always take the kettle off the stove top before mashout. Good thing. It's much easier to wipe up wort from counters than burnt sugar from a glass stove top.

The rest of the brew day went well. I ended up 3 gravity points low, but nothing bad. OG was 1.049. Pitched rehydrated Munich Classic. Have just over 5 gallons in the fermenter.

Next time (if I ever get the desire to brew with a bunch of rye malt again) I'll dump in a pound of rice hulls.
 
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.
Jezze-O! God I don't think I've seen or heard of Oly since Jr High last century! We used to drink tons of those Pony kegs. Riding the Pony! When we couldn't afford that it was Goebbels. Course we told the young ladies it's Joel'Belle...the good stuff 😂. They even make Oly any more ?
 
Was watching the game last night, heard a weird sound coming from the kegerator. Thought maybe the motor was on the fritz. Checked it out, nothing. Noticed needle on the CO2 gauge wiggling back and forth. Checked all the lines, solid. Checked the fittings nope, all good...woke up today just to double check....EMPTY 😬😵😬😵. Zero, zip , nada on co2! Took it to Air gas shop, had them check all the seals but they couldn't find anything. Refilled, got home and reconnected and started seeing the needle go back and forth. Was quickly turning into a Charlie Brown moment. Rechecked lines and fittings, all good. Gave the tank a good going over and figured out the safety valve was stuck open just a bit. Weird cause I don't recall pulling it since I last filled it ?? Thanks Air gas co2 tank technician experts for NOT HELPING. So far so good 👍.
 
Was watching the game last night, heard a weird sound coming from the kegerator. Thought maybe the motor was on the fritz. Checked it out, nothing. Noticed needle on the CO2 gauge wiggling back and forth. Checked all the lines, solid. Checked the fittings nope, all good...woke up today just to double check....EMPTY 😬😵😬😵. Zero, zip , nada on co2! Took it to Air gas shop, had them check all the seals but they couldn't find anything. Refilled, got home and reconnected and started seeing the needle go back and forth. Was quickly turning into a Charlie Brown moment. Rechecked lines and fittings, all good. Gave the tank a good going over and figured out the safety valve was stuck open just a bit. Weird cause I don't recall pulling it since I last filled it ?? Thanks Air gas co2 tank technician experts for NOT HELPING. So far so good 👍.
 
Kicked my keg of Panther Piss Classic (Liberty Hops). That was an amazing beer, fortunately, I have a fermenter full of Panther Piss Classic (Classic ie Cluster and Haller/Mit) ready to fill the void. Looking forward to this one! After nearly a year spent goofing around with more modern hops, it'll be nice to get back to the core hops of the style.

I can barely wait!
 
I haven't had 2 weeks off in a row since my daughter (31) was a baby.


my god! :mug:---- 🍻🍻


i brewed a oat malt beer today, deculmed it yesterday in my new to me dryer. tightened the gap on my mill down to 0.015"....milled it, mashed 18lbs oat malt along with a costco box of frosted flakes...."just because" lol
 
Well now therein lies my problem. I scooped it into a couple of 5gal buckets. Still much better than scooping it out of the tun.

As an an apartment brewer, I do see the genius in your process. I don't have a garden hose, nor a lawn with which to quickly hose out my MT. Subsequently, cleaning my MT is the single most onerous process that I do on each brew day because I have to do it in the bathtub/shower. It's the only part of brewing that I really despise.

I don't know what you're using as a mash tun, but here are some ideas from a person that has spent waaaaay too much time thinking about how to clean up a mash tun in a shower. 1) If you're using a sauce pan to shovel out your MT, you're doing it wrong--I did this for 15 years and it sucks!!! 2) If you're using a cooler, get a mash bag and use a drilled out cutting board to keep the mash bag from clogging your cooler's ball valve. Clean up is easy, just dump the mash bag into a trash bag, then rinse out the cooler. 2) If like me, you decided to get a serious MT that will allow you to do step mashes and recirculate, in my case, an SS Brewtech Infusion tun, just throw a trash bag over the MT, then invert it. This works well enough, but I really like your shop vac idea. A serious MT is a big, heavy, bulky thing that has handles and ball valves sticking out of it at very inconvenient angles. It's always an adventure trying to invert it into a trash bag without making a mess. By contrast, the base of a shop vac is, at least in part, designed to be emptied.

I like your idea! A thin plastic tub with wheels on the bottom is a lot easier to wash out when you're reaching into a shower than a 40lb stainless mashtun. I'm definitely going to give this a shot.

Thank you.
 
As an an apartment brewer, I do see the genius in your process. I don't have a garden hose, nor a lawn with which to quickly hose out my MT. Subsequently, cleaning my MT is the single most onerous process that I do on each brew day because I have to do it in the bathtub/shower. It's the only part of brewing that I really despise.

I don't know what you're using as a mash tun, but here are some ideas from a person that has spent waaaaay too much time thinking about how to clean up a mash tun in a shower. 1) If you're using a sauce pan to shovel out your MT, you're doing it wrong--I did this for 15 years and it sucks!!! 2) If you're using a cooler, get a mash bag and use a drilled out cutting board to keep the mash bag from clogging your cooler's ball valve. Clean up is easy, just dump the mash bag into a trash bag, then rinse out the cooler. 2) If like me, you decided to get a serious MT that will allow you to do step mashes and recirculate, in my case, an SS Brewtech Infusion tun, just throw a trash bag over the MT, then invert it. This works well enough, but I really like your shop vac idea. A serious MT is a big, heavy, bulky thing that has handles and ball valves sticking out of it at very inconvenient angles. It's always an adventure trying to invert it into a trash bag without making a mess. By contrast, the base of a shop vac is, at least in part, designed to be emptied.

I like your idea! A thin plastic tub with wheels on the bottom is a lot easier to wash out when you're reaching into a shower than a 40lb stainless mashtun. I'm definitely going to give this a shot.

Thank you.
😂😂😂. I'll stick to the using a pot to dig out grains method!!! Yep, me too, about 12 years since going to all grain. One thing I did figure out about 3 and 5 gallon batches though..unless doing a massive rediculous high gravity brew, most "regular" 5 gallon batch grain bills fit nicely in a 5 gallon mash tun vs the 10 gallon and a lot easier to clean up. I used the 10 gal for years before I had an epiphany for saving clean up time and my back. I still use my sink though to rinse it out...if my wife caught me rinsing the mash tun in the shower, it's Come to Jesus !!
 
Ordered tubing and a stainless steel carbonation cap for PET bottles so I can stop handing out my samples in glass flippy bottles that I have to go hunt down cause people always want to keep them. Posting this deal for IPA for those of you into IPA.View attachment 747061

It's 29 bucks for the goop version, here's a link. Looks like it's only good for the goop version, though.

That's a really good kit.

I hadn't brewed a kit for decades, but Mr. Walker posted a deal earlier this year from NB that allowed you to get 3 all grain US IPAs for less than the price of their components. I figured, what the hell, I hadn't brewed a US IPA in years and decided to give it a shot. Dead Ringer/Bell's Two Hearted was my first kit and it was outstanding. I'm currently drinking the Fresh Squished, I learned from this forum that it's a Deschutes beer that I've never had. Also, outstanding. I'll brew the Tangerine Dream for Xmas. No idea what that is supposed to be.
 
It's 29 bucks for the goop version, here's a link. Looks like it's only good for the goop version, though.

That's a really good kit.

I hadn't brewed a kit for decades, but Mr. Walker posted a deal earlier this year from NB that allowed you to get 3 all grain US IPAs for less than the price of their components. I figured, what the hell, I hadn't brewed a US IPA in years and decided to give it a shot. Dead Ringer/Bell's Two Hearted was my first kit and it was outstanding. I'm currently drinking the Fresh Squished, I learned from this forum that it's a Deschutes beer that I've never had. Also, outstanding. I'll brew the Tangerine Dream for Xmas. No idea what that is supposed to be.
I don't care very much for American style IPA or over hopped (to me) beers. Tangerine with some Christmas spices might be good though. Yet once again this holiday, trying my hand at the ever elusive Sam Adams Old Fezziweg.
 
if my wife caught me rinsing the mash tun in the shower, it's Come to Jesus !!

Being a double widower in your 40s isn't ideal, BUT!, it does teach you to relish transgressions such as this. I love the fact that I'm able to keep my brewery set up in the kitchen on a permanent basis. I frequently laugh with joy (and my married friends marvel at the fact) that my fridge contains four kegs--I shop for groceries each night after work and actually cook a nice, healthy, and light dinner based upon my mood. I'm currently rebuilding a Getrag transmission on the kitchen table.

This isn't the life I was aiming for, but it's a pretty good life, all the same.
 
Brewed an American brown ale with 3 lbs of raw honey from near Covington, LA, along with malt and hops that have been gracefully aging in my beer fridge. OG came out at 1.060, and I put some rehydrated Lallemand voss kveik in it that I'm going to let go at room temperature (as if I had a choice).

1635556590749.png


Efficiency was slightly better than expected, as was final volume -- less evaporation this go-around, for some reason...

The OG sample was tasty and quite sweet... I hope the yeasties like it. They're already pooting up a storm just a couple of hours after pouring them in.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top