What I did for beer today

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After a talk with Russ @Buckeye_Hydro, I know what to do to troubleshoot the low pressure in our house/municipal water. The RO System isn't running optimally because of the low house pressure, but it did work great for what I was able to run through it. He was great and patient and I can't recommend him enough!

Reevesie
 
Got up this morning with not much to do, so fiddled around with the three brewvisions I have. One short probe and two long. Short probe was in the keggle I'm trying to sell since I got a new HLT last week. And had a thought; what if I put the short probe in the BK (which is the one I use for BIAB, when I go that route), so one of the longer ones could be installed in the mash tun? Gathered tools, read instructions three times, and got it done! And discovered something that made my eyes roll. I've always measured the temperature of my mash with a stick thermometer at the top; you see where this is going? Turns out the top is about 4 degrees higher than the middle, which means I've probably been mashing about 144-146 for quite some time. Would explain crappy efficiency. It's going to be beer, just not the ABV I was hoping for in a hazy NEIPA. Oh well, I do like learning!
 
Cleaned 3 kegs that kicked a few days ago, then cleaned the keezer lines and faucets, and finally kegged the Morehazy Juicy DIPA. 20220522_163341.jpg
 
Kegged a 2.5 gal batch of Hazy Ale and harvested the US-05.
Have you tried Beer, Beer, and More Beer's Cali yeast strain yet? I tried it out when it released last year, liked it a lot, then bought a ton of it on sale.

I gather from the AHA forum* that it isn't re-packaged US-05, but it does the same thing, but it's cheaper. A penny saved is a penny earned, so I thought I'd pass it along.

*The cork-sniffing A-holes over there have declared that it doesn't ruin your beer with peach flavor as all US-05 beers are documented to do. *snicker, snort*
 
Have you tried Beer, Beer, and More Beer's Cali yeast strain yet? I tried it out when it released last year, liked it a lot, then bought a ton of it on sale.

I gather from the AHA forum* that it isn't re-packaged US-05, but it does the same thing, but it's cheaper. A penny saved is a penny earned, so I thought I'd pass it along.

*The cork-sniffing A-holes over there have declared that it doesn't ruin your beer with peach flavor as all US-05 beers are documented to do. *snicker, snort*
I haven’t tried that one. This recipe, for 2.5 gal, has 2 oz each of Cascade, Citra, and Mosaic, at 10 min., flameout, and +20 min respectively. I don’t think the modest contribution of -05 to the flavor profile is likely to be noticeable. :cool:
 
Bottled my citra double IPA that came in at 10.1% ABV OG: 1.090 and FG: 1.015 (85 IBU). I had to wait an extra couple of weeks to bottle due to COVID and waited until the house was clear of it.

Bottled directly from the fermenter and added a measured amount of corn sugar to each bottle.

The sample had a very nice full hop flavor with no harsh alcohol taste it seems very balanced.

Edit: I meant to say Centennial for the hops lol.

Cheers!
 
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Shipped my NHC entries, grabbed some grains that a local spot let our brew club tag along on an order, cleaned the last keg that kicked and the line it was on, trouble-shooting possible issues with a couple of other kegs. Also first taste of the black IPA and man, it's definitely bittered like a west coast IPA, a bit more than my typical liking. Not bad once my palate adjusts though.
 
I haven’t tried that one. This recipe, for 2.5 gal, has 2 oz each of Cascade, Citra, and Mosaic, at 10 min., flameout, and +20 min respectively. I don’t think the modest contribution of -05 to the flavor profile is likely to be noticeable. :cool:
No kidding! Try as I might, and no matter how hard I try to think peachy thoughts while tasting, I have yet to get the dreaded, beer-destroying, peach flavor from US-56. As an unrepentant cheapskate, I am evangelically enthusiastic about the Cali strain.
 
I've decided to throw away a perfectly fine grist. That's a first for me and I don't like it.

I measured the grist and ran it through the mill last Friday night. Unfortunately, last weekend was a glimpse into August, with temps in the 90's and high humidity. My enthusiasm for that 5% C-40 IPA grist evaporated. Sure, I could go ahead and brew it, but I'll just add squandered hops to the wasted grist as that keg languishes in the coming hot months.

It kills me to throw away perfectly good malt, but it's the correct decision. I can't stand C-40 when the weather is hot and sticky.
 
I didn’t “do” anything for beer today…but I did drink one and bought this. I am in NC and am super pumped to know that allagash has built their coolship program up enough to include it in its distribution footprint. I’ve read about this beer for years but could never get it down here. A three year labor of love. VERY excited to try it out. I have always enjoyed allagash and am super impressed with their growth and contributions to community as well.
 

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Sorted out the hops for tomorrow's Monster Brew Day at Smog City.

For the 5G of base wort (1.050OG / 25IBU est.), I plan on just heating the wort to 170F and then whirlpooling Hallertau Magnum and Saaz with the Pilsner (WLP800)yeast.

The 5G of base wort for the American Barley Wine will use Dry English Ale (WLP007). I am going to add extract to boost the gravity to 1.110 and approximately 150IBU additional in a 60 minute boil using CTZ/Cascade/Centennial. Maybe some Chinook and/or Nugget as well.

Any thoughts from the community?
 
Well, today I actually did more than think about what I could do and accomplished a little something. I finally kegged 3 gallons of Maibock then primed and bottled the remaining beer. Cleaned the fermentor put some empty bottles to soak.
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sample is cloudy AF… lager keg has a top draw.
 
Sorted out the hops for tomorrow's Monster Brew Day at Smog City.

For the 5G of base wort (1.050OG / 25IBU est.), I plan on just heating the wort to 170F and then whirlpooling Hallertau Magnum and Saaz with the Pilsner (WLP800)yeast.

The 5G of base wort for the American Barley Wine will use Dry English Ale (WLP007). I am going to add extract to boost the gravity to 1.110 and approximately 150IBU additional in a 60 minute boil using CTZ/Cascade/Centennial. Maybe some Chinook and/or Nugget as well.

Any thoughts from the community?
You know how you smile when you see something clever click into place? I gave your post that smile when I remembered that you're getting wort from a local brewery. I really like how you're doing the pils! Clever.

Regarding your request for thoughts from the community...

1.050 to 1.110 is a *huge* jump for evaporation+extract, assuming you're doing 5gals of the BW. If I were in your shoes, I'd use some sucrose to keep the beast, as the Belgians say, "digestible." I've been coaching a couple of new brewers and they're getting amazing results with 5-10% sucrose drying out their extract.

What is your goal for this BW? If you want to be able to drink it by the half pint, I think you're going to want to dry it out. At least, that's how I approach a BW.

Lastly, I really like your hop choices for the BW. Do the Chinook! Chinook is awesome in a BW.
 
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Thursday morning I brewed an American lager using 2 row malt, and flaked Rye. I chilled wort down to 62°F and pitched 2 packs of saflager 34/70 and 4oz of honey; and read the tilt hydrometer OG =1.061.
The next day with my tilt hydrometer I had already been bubbling away at 1.046 and dropping fast with a temp of 69/70°F . I left the temp alone at room temperature to ferment it warm and today I checked it and it’s 1.006 with the temp still at 70°F but also starting the subtle lager/sulfur smell. I’ll leave it till it’s done and cold crash soon. I’m extremely excited to see how this turns out.
 
Planning on kegging a lager and an NEIPA at some point today, if I can convince the husband that it would be a damned silly idea to drive 4.5 hours each way to Chelan, to pick up his golf rangefinder that he left there last weekend. Jeez dude just have them ship it. And looking into getting into pressure fermenting; I've got two fermonsters, just need the solid lid and the hardware from morebeer. Have a blowtie spunding setup on its way today, been overcarbing the hell out of my kegs lately and hoping it will help. Need the IPA on tap quickly, as my kids are in town for a visit and I want to share it with them.
 
Yesterday brewed a strata-galaxy golden ale. I drug my feet getting starting and finished very late, late enough that the yeast got pitched today. Everything went pretty well except milling my grain, not sure if the battery for the drill was low or some thing was going on but it took what seemed like a long time to mill and the battery went dead 3/4s of the way done. Luckily it continued milling with the battery swap instead of spinning grain backward like does sometimes. The grain bill is mostly Best Malz pilsner with bit corn sugar.
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Waiting for my NEIPA to settle a bit after moving to the top shelf prior to kegging. Still have to clean the fermonster from the lager that just got kegged, and later will get grain weighed out and milled for tomorrow's Galaxy Pale brewday. Also finally procured some airtight containers for the yeast nutrient, water salts, whirlfloc, and k-meta; bought a pound of that, and since I use barely an 1/8tsp for each batch, I think I'm good for the next century or so. And had to wear a mask when I put it in the container, I hate inhaling that stuff, yuck.
 
Okey dokey, today I tapped the spunded Tony's Pre-1980 Boddington's Clone. It's pretty dang tasty. Maybe not my favorite Bitter but definitely in regular rotation. And I have to say, I like the widget can Boddington's and have drunk a fair amount of that ever since HOng Kong circa 1994. Tony's is much better than the widget Boddingtons but tastes in the family to me. Tony's has a nice hop bite that leaves one hankering for more, and maybe a thirst in the back of the throat that demands more to be satiated. I used WLP038 Manchester yeast, which was gifted to me by someone on these boards clearing out his yeast bank (much obliged and I'm buying if you ever come to Seattle!). Haven't done a split batch with say Notty or WLP026, but will try that at some point to see if the yeast is critical or just a good neutral attenuator does the trick. Like Boddy's, I used a mix of English hops that were handy (BX, EKG, First Gold, Fuggles).

I've done a couple of batches and my latest is not crystal clear but here ya go:

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To add some tangerine flavor to my American wheat beer prior to bottling, today I put the zest of 3 tangerines into a couple ounces of Tito’s vodka. Tomorrow afternoon/evening, I will add the tangerine infused vodka to the fermenter, giving it at least 12 hours to blend. On Monday I will bottle that batch.
This picture shows the sourdough round that I baked this evening, including flour of spent beer grains from two different batches of beer.
 
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