What I did for beer today

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Spent New Year's Day kegging my Extra Special Bitter and cleaned my fermenter. Used the new spray ball to pump PBW through my conical and it worked great ( I used to soak it). Did a hot water rinse and acid (Star San) wash and I am all set.

Happy New Year!

John
 
ba-brewer said:
yesterday I got another brew in for 2021, 4gal of best bitter.

Today watched bubbles a few times and looked at recipes for another brew day tomorrow. Got to get it in before the rain returns on monday.
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new year's brew! :mug:


and seriosuly us drinkers need you around in "how many gallons in 2022"


because 0.3 gallons? WTF?

 
Kicked the wild ale, and after some consideration, put the weizenbock on, so the lagers can sit longer. Though it was earlier than I wanted to tap it, so still very turbid, even for the style. Bottled some of it immediately (with priming sugar) for potential competition entry, if it's good enough.
Also filled a growler (the kind with CO2) with some of my imperial stout for a club competition. Since it's a spiced beer comp, I put some anise and black peppercorns in a bag for flavoring, as well as adding some smoked maple syrup. Will taste day to day and pull the bag out when it seems good.
 
I have WLP775 English Cider yeast on a stir plate and ready to go for a split batch cyser I will pitch tomorrow. Half the cyser will end up with a tincture of goji berries soaking in vodka, and half with the dregs and the oak chips used in my first ever wine kit (Malbec) that is now down to .998 and waiting for the oak chips to soak for a week.

Tonight culturing up Darkness to pitch tomorrow in a Beamish Stout Tribute I've got mashing right now. I say tribute 'cause I've decided not to clone, but to get something that is close and good instead. Still working on the recipe.

I've got a floor malted Czech pilsner lagering away in my cold garage.

First Chevallier SMASH using Pub yeast that still has a gallon or so aging in the small keg to see if it tastes better. I've got a second 3 gallon batch of Chevallier SMASH that I screwed up and pitched Pub instead of Essex Ale. It's okay, I've got 20 more pounds coming to me in a week or so.

And finally, I've got an AK going with Manchester yeast in the fermenter.

So, I've got a pretty healthy pipeline. It's still pretty cold here in seattle, so will be cold conditioning these puppies for a while.
 
Was able to get out a get another beer brewed before the rains come next week, a citra and equinox golden ale. Thing went pretty smooth and uneventful right up to the last task of clean up. I took my spent grain over to feed the neighbors horses and the new skittish one came over close for once so I gave a it a little pet on the neck and it gave me a little bite in the arm pit and shoulder area. Man did that smart, the bruise was almost instant. Glad she bit my shoulder and not my face.

Also check gravity on my bitter and gave it few swirls throughout the day.

The brown horse is the biter, the other close one is her mom.
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Had an eventful bottling day yesterday. The cheap wing capper I got from long ago decided to give up the ghost about 18 bottles into my packaging worth of 5.3 gallons of Baltic Porter. Ended up breaking two bottles no thanks to the capper. Both my LHBS were nil on the capper front. Thankfully my buddy had a spare. Ended up with 6 500mL bottles, 2 550mL bottles and 42 bottles, well, 40 after the stupid capper incident. Now to condition and lager, excited to see the finished product. Happy Monday all!
 
Was able to brew a pilsner today. Very happy to have been able to do so as I have been laid up with serious back issues since November. Wouldn't have been able to do it if I hadn't recently moved to a brewzilla and setup my mill to use a drill. Was able to keep from having to do any lifting except moving the fermenter to the fridge after it was filled and was able to get my wife to come do that for me. Drinking very little at the moment because of all the meds I'm on so it won't be an issue for me to let this brew lager good and long. Excited to check the results come spring.

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Finally finally finally brewed. I did a stovetop batch about a month ago, but I've been itching to brew in my dedicated space since we moved in October. Brewed a Belgian dubbel to break in the brew room. Went really smooth, I have one big hiccup in that my water line shares a line to the outside spigot so I have to shut it on and off after I fill my kettle and after I chill the wort (it was actually a comfy 34F here today, but the rest of this week will be in the negative and I cannot be bursting pipes). Hopefully will have a shut off valve for that other line sometime this week yet. I also miss my floor drain, and a floor that I dont care about spilling onto too much. I think ill be steam mopping after every brew these days...
 
Parts came in to change my regulator from Nitrous to CO2, so tomorrow the lagering box will be upgraded with its own CO2 system to carb and age three kegs at ~34F. Checked on the cider, will add the blackberries in a couple of days, and plan to move it to the red wine barrel on Sunday. Then the fermenter will be empty, so, what shall it be filled with?

Hibiscus Wheat, Smoked Porter, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling Ice Wine, IPA/DIPA, Red Rye IPA, Passion Fruit Cider? Inquiring minds want to know.
 
Been waiting on two fedex deliveries with new homebrew toys since last week; the one from NJ will be here sometime tonight or tomorrow, while the one from CA just today left the facility after sitting there since the 30th. Back to the office this week with long hours so not much done for beer, except for enjoying it when I get home.
 
Went to the LHBS. I don’t make it there often but I was in town for some other crap and needed a tank exchange. Grabbed a few packets of yeast, a couple specialty malts, and a sack of 2 row. When I was there last, over a year ago, they didn’t sell bulk 55lb bags so glad to be able to stock up. They have such a limited selection of everything but still glad to drop some money there.

Also picked up my new milling station. I found an end table in the garage when we moved into the new place and dropped it off at a friends s few nights ago to modify. He popped the hole a little far out, but I have a rough draft on a chute to solve that.
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Ran to LHBS during work to pick up some more grain and a pack of Imperial Urkel; have heard that this one does okay at higher temps, so going to try it for my next lager. And when I got home, finally did the gas side of the kegerator with new 6-way manifold, eva barrier, and duotights; took a bit longer than expected (measure twice, drill three times is my motto; oops) but after spraying a lot of starsan to check for leaks (none!) I've got a MUCH cleaner looking setup. Old gas lines had some nastiness that I've been turning a blind eye to for too long. 20220106_190455[1].jpg20220106_190504[1].jpg20220106_190514[1].jpg
 
Yesterday cleaned a couple kegs and kegged my best bitter, it was a split batch fermented with two different yeast.

Today I gave the fermenter a good cleaning. In a cleaning mode I cleaned my taps and lines. Working on the quality control part tap cleaning process now.

Got an email that a local competition is going to be held again this year so been spending time today figuring how to work a couple contest beers into my brewing schedule. Before the pandemic started dark mild, strong bitter and International pale lager were the beers I was working to get a placing beer, don't have enough time for the lager but might do the other two.
 
Bottled a batch of @Yooper's oatmeal stout. Tweaked the recipe--added 8 oz lactose to the boil. It finished at 1.022, so should have full body. An upcoming birthday gift for my wife, who isn't a big beer drinker, but loves oatmeal stouts.

Racked 5.5 gallons into the bottling bucket, yielded 56 12oz long necks. Hydro sample tasted yummy. Can't wait for it to condition.
 
MaxStout said:
Bottled a batch of @Yooper's oatmeal stout. Tweaked the recipe--added 8 oz lactose to the boil. It finished at 1.022, so should have full body. An upcoming birthday gift for my wife, who isn't a big beer drinker, but loves oatmeal stouts.

Racked 5.5 gallons into the bottling bucket, yielded 56 12oz long necks. Hydro sample tasted yummy. Can't wait for it to condition.
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Nice. I'm on day 4 of ferment of my 1st go around with @Yooper 's Oatmeal Stout myself. I'm already at 75% attenuation so I just kicked it up another 3 degrees where I'll let it sit until cold crash around the 24th? Hope I still get enough bubbling to finish purging the star san filled keg I have hooked up.

Stopped by a local tasting room to pick up something to include in the FoTD Secret Santa package, which was also packaged up and shipped out today as well.
 
Brewed a Porter. I might have mixed up my hop additions. I weigh them out while waiting for the boil and put each one in a plastic cup. I stack the cups with the FWH on top so, at the appropriate time, I just add the hops from the cup on top of the stack. The OG sample tasted really hoppy, so I might have put on an ounce of Magnum in at 10 instead of 3/4 ounce of Willamette. If it turns out well I’ll call it “Bob Ross Porter”. :cool:
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grampamark said:
Brewed a Porter. I might have mixed up my hop additions. I weigh them out while waiting for the boil and put each one in a plastic cup. I stack the cups with the FWH on top so, at the appropriate time, I just add the hops from the cup on top of the stack. The OG sample tasted really hoppy, so I might have put on an ounce of Magnum in at 10 instead of 3/4 ounce of Willamette. If it turns out well I’ll call it “Bob Ross Porter”. :cool:
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I like your idea of stacking the cups to keep things in order. I bag my hops and have grabbed the wrong bag a time or two. That wont stop me from putting the wrong package back into the fridge though.
 
Set up a starter for a Belgian Blonde (and after that a Belgian Golden Strong) and cleaned a bunch of kegs and bottles of all kinds in preparation for a pretty heavy flurry of brewing I have lined up.

Did my first glycol-chilled cold crash on a Wee Heavy in my new Spike Conical, and it worked exceedingly well. Just tasted a semi-carbed sample from the sample port and it's just about the cleanest beer (of mine) that I've ever tasted.
 
I got on the scoreboard for 2022 by brewing an old-school US stout. Simple grist and too much Cascades at 5 and KO. It's a simple beer and kinda boring by today's standards, but it's US stout as I learned to love it in the PNW.

It was a nice easy brew day. Hit my numbers, the pump didn't raise a fuss, and clean up was easy.

It was a nice day.
 

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