What I did for beer today

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Finally got this thing off the truck and inside, need to clear her up and remove the stickers/tag. Should be in commission soon.
 
Sniffed the airlocks from Saturday's brew session, Smog City's Monster Brew Day for local home brewers. 5G of Pilsner wort got reheated just enough for a whirlpool of Hallertau Magnum and Saaz. 5G got dosed in a 60 min. boil with extract, dextrose and agave syrup with CTZ, Nugget, Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook for a solid American Barley Wine. Everything smells as it should.

Yesterday bbq'd for family and they bypassed all the cans from local breweries I bought for their drinking pleasure to drink the hell out of my Session IPA. That didn't suck.
 
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I just bottled my batch of American wheat beer, 30 IBU’s and 5.1% abv. This was hopped exclusively with Azacca, with some tangerine zest late in the boil. For an aroma and flavor boost, I added a few ounces of tangerine infused vodka about 15 hours before bottling. I am trying to make a beer similar to Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat, one of my favorites. Next weekend, I’ll open a bottle to see how things are progressing.
 
Bottled a batch of cream ale - 55 12oz long necks. It's a variation of Cream of Three Crops, pilsner malt and some flaked corn and flaked rice.

Then suddenly decided I needed more hard cider so I ran to Aldi and bought a bunch of apple juice and made a 3 gal batch with SafCider TF-6 I had on hand. First time using that yeast--I want to see if it will give the fruit flavors they claim.

Cider is fermenting away in a 3 gal glass carboy in my downstairs office (no room for it in the ferm chamber now). Temp rose to 74, so put it in a tub of cool water with some 16 oz bottles of ice to keep it around mid-60s. The mfr says ideal range 59-77F, but I like to avoid having the temp go too high.
 
Worked from home today, with all intentions of getting everything together for taking the brewery on the road tomorrow for our semi-annual group brewday. Yah, got none of that done because, well, work. Then a long nap and dinner. So now I have to get up at the crack of stupid tomorrow to hit up the store for RO water and eggs to make my world-famous devilled eggs, HD for the barbs to finish the pressure lid, and then home to make aforesaid eggs and collect all my gear together and load it in the car. And keg a pale. Yep I like to be busy.
 
seatazzz said:
crack of stupid tomorrow
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damn, i only got 5-6 hours sleep, and this morning smelt like...welll, but.......anyway.... :mug:


as far as beer goes, i've been tracking a packge to see if a $15 microscope is good enough to do a cell count, and a 600mg/2oz methylene blue solution good enough to quantify living vs dead cells....be pretty cool if i can post pics for you all!
 
bracconiere said:
be pretty cool if i can post pics for you all!
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0.1mm grid...yeast cells are 0.010 or so....this is what i see...with the dye it should be a pretty good smell test to see how many are dead or alive....there's no way i'm counting them..

but that's what i did for beer today! got this photo op....

Sat Jun 04 16-33-39.jpg



so as far as know, if i add a couple drop methylene blue to the smear, give it a bit... the dead cells will revele themselves as dark cells....but honestly i'd be at a loss to tell you how many cells that is....looks like an avg of ~13 per 0.1mm square to me....i'd have to count all the squares....
 
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Finished removing most of the shelves from the door of my kegerator and improvised a cover for the exposed insulation. Left the top shelf for dry yeast. I don’t think I’ll add a fourth tap anytime soon but I did add another gas line so I can keep a fourth keg carbed and ready to serve, or serve from 3 and have one lagering.
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grampamark said:
I keep some glasses in the freezer, along with my hops. It annoys the “no frosted glasses” folks.
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I personally don't prefer a frosted glass but why the hell would people get bent outta shape about the way you enjoy your beer?
 
Sam_92 said:
I personally don't prefer a frosted glass but why the hell would people get bent outta shape about the way you enjoy your beer?
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That‘s what I want to know.
Pro tip-rinse the frosted glass with cold water before pouring. Cold glass, less foam.
 
Unloaded the car from brewery road trip yesterday; Hefeweizen turned out great and is bubbling away this morning (no I didn't leave it in the car all night). And fixed the plate chiller; installed new garden hose swivels yesterday (old ones were shot) but didn't get them tightened down enough before chilling yesterday. This morning heated up some water to flush out the chiller, and tightened the swivels to reveal NO leaks (have had a small leak on the water-out side for a while). All four beers I brought to share with my buddies were well received, tasted some from them, just a great time was had by all. Next one is in August when I'll do something on Kveik, and the one after that in December our host will finally dip his toes into all-grain, something I've been after him to do for a while. Can't wait to help him dive down that rabbit hole! Offered the use of my grain mill, but he wants to buy his own.
 
3 Dawg Night said:
Kegged my dark mild.
Cleaned the fermenter.
Cleaned and sanitized a kicked keg.
Cleaned keezer beer line.
Set some bottles in PBW solution (to get the labels off).

Time for a beer.
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After a beer and a nap, I went back out to the garage and changed all my faucets from Perlicks to Nukataps
 
MaxStout said:
I've thought of doing that with a light-bodied lawnmower beer. What is your process? Is it as simple as dumping a bottle of Rose's lime juice in the batch?
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Wish I could help. It’s my first attempt. Well, second I guess. I had luck adding lime peel in the boil once, but I’m planning on using some crystallized lime this time around.
 
Sam_92 said:
I personally don't prefer a frosted glass but why the hell would people get bent outta shape about the way you enjoy your beer?
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People get bent about a lot of silly stuff in homebrewing. Dirty glasses, the wrong type of glass, the correct yeast choice or pitching rate, the importance of oxygen mitigation, extract brewing, blah, blah, blah. It's been this way since the old bulletin board services were terrorized by the Reinheitsgestapo. Those were fun times to be a UK-inspired brewer. ;)

If you can believe it, there was once a big war about Star San foam--it got personal, really, really personal. The result was utter carnage.
 
What I did for beer yesterday...because I was too tired to write this up last night.

After officially saying that my years-long Panther Piss American adjunct lager project had ended at the start of the year, yesterday (like a dog returning to its sick) I brewed another Panther Piss series beer.

I quickly settled on 10% rice in the core Panther Piss adjunct package, but I always wondered about doing a full rice adjunct package. Yesterday, I brought shame upon the world by bringing Panther Piss Super Dry into the world. Seventy-percent Avangard Pils (LHBS can't get Barke atm) and 30% rice. I boiled the flaked rice to make it super dry, then step mashed at 142F for 2hrs to make it super dry, then 158F for one hour (with the recirculation on) to make it super dry, then sparged and lautered for 90min. Full LODO.

It was a long day.

Here's a picture of the runoff...okay, not full, full LODO, but I did put the cap on after the pic.
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well, i just walked up hill! BOTH WAYS! to my mail box to get the methylene blue dye....here is what it shows me right now....this yeast was harvested and kept in the fridge for a couple days....looks like one dead cell so far?

out of you count em! i just weighed out 2 grams of the slurry and diluted it with 4 grams water...mixed up really good and added a couple drops of the dye to it...pretty fun stuff!

Mon Jun 06 15-04-33.jpg


but as @McMullan said to me, this going to be shite data....and i still thinking for the price of a movie ticket...this is way better
then hollywood! ;) :mug:

edit: does look like i got kinda some other critters creaping in too though...going to have to see how that problem progesses also....
 
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Bramling Cross said:
What I did for beer yesterday...because I was too tired to write this up last night.

After officially saying that my years-long Panther Piss American adjunct lager project had ended at the start of the year, yesterday (like a dog returning to its sick) I brewed another Panther Piss series beer.

I quickly settled on 10% rice in the core Panther Piss adjunct package, but I always wondered about doing a full rice adjunct package. Yesterday, I brought shame upon the world by bringing Panther Piss Super Dry into the world. Seventy-percent Avangard Pils (LHBS can't get Barke atm) and 30% rice. I boiled the flaked rice to make it super dry, then step mashed at 142F for 2hrs to make it super dry, then 158F for one hour (with the recirculation on) to make it super dry, then sparged and lautered for 90min. Full LODO.

It was a long day.

Here's a picture of the runoff...okay, not full, full LODO, but I did put the cap on after the pic.View attachment 771064
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Love the name "panther piss." :rock:

I just bottled an adjunct-laden ale that I brewed with 2 lbs. flaked corn and 1 lb. flaked rice. I call it "piss yellow beer."

Never boiled flaked rice like you did, but might have to try that next time. My FG was 1.006 anyway, so it will be plenty crisp.

Keeping the summertime piss beer tradition going.
 
MaxStout said:
Love the name "panther piss." :rock:
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That's my Dad's favorite term for beer he doesn't like, which is most beers that don't come from Munich.

Your 2lbs of corn and 1lb of rice is the ratio that I settled on (in a 10lb grist). It's really good! You get plenty of corn flavor and the rice is there to dry it out and keep it refreshing...all the way up to 1.074. Yeah, it's like a N. American Tripple.

I don't think boiling the rice was necessary. I did so because I think Asahi Super Dry is one of the dumbest and funniest beer names out there. I don't know why, but I think "super dry" is funny. So I made everything as super dry as possible yesterday...and yuck, yuck, yucked the whole way to the fermenter.

Was the boiled rice worth it? Not really. Beersmith says I scored 97% mash efficiency. I normally hit 92% on my 60min/30min step mashed adjunct lagers. Five percent mash efficiency is jack squat, in terms of OG into the fermenter. There's lots of ways to get way more efficient, boiling your flaked rice isn't one of them...unless you want your beer to be ***SUPER DRY!!!!!!!***

Snicker, snort. ;)
 
MaxStout said:
On further review, I think we need a new beer category for summer lawnmower beers.

Call it "lawnmower beers."

Doubtful BJCP will get on board for this, but we could.

Make it anything goes for ingredients, color. Just keep it <5% ABV and FG <1.010 or so.
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Yeah, I could get behind that. I might suggest calling it N. American Summer Beers. There's nothing wrong with Lawnmower Beers, we all know what it means, but it's too established as a term and covers way too much ground. N. American wheat beers, fruit beers, Hefes, Kolsch, Cream Ale, CAP, the various N. American lagers, Golden Ale, Australian Golden Ale maybe even dry examples of UK Summer Ale, etc, they're all "lawnmower beers." The AHA would need something much more narrow to create a "style."

Spit-balling, "A style of beer designed for consumption during hot summers in N. America, emphasizing dryness and a refreshing quality. The grist is not tightly defined and can be any color, provided it is dry and refreshing. Adjuncts are often used (corn, rice, sugar), but not necessary. Hopping can be variable, bitterness and hop flavor are acceptable, provided that they do not detract from the refreshing, quaffable quality of this style. Yeast selection is also variable, but should emphasize the refreshing and quaffable nature of this style."

The problem is this...What's quaffable? What's a good summer guzzler?

I started the Panther Piss series of beers because I'm a native of the Pacific NW that has been stuck living the Mid-Atlantic for over twenty years. It's hot and miserably humid out here during the summer and my old PacNW ale recipes just didn't work out here during July and August.

Eventually, I started reading about the origins of adjunct brewing by immigrant German brewers in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and how corn and rice were **not** used as cheap fillers, but, rather, as necessary ingredients to produce clear beer with 6-row as the base malt. At that point I was hooked.

Several years later, like you, I'm thinking there's room for a contemporary style, beyond CAP (or whatever Gordon Strong wants us to call it these days) and N. American adjunct lager.

This is a really, really interesting (for want of a style) "pocket" of brewing to explore. I've had a blast in it and I'm glad to hear you're goofing around in it too.

:bigmug:
 
I wrote another poem! From personal experience! Iambic pentameter, shemtameter.

Fruit Flies in my Ferment Fridge (an off-the-cuff poem)


Beautiful hefeweizen, bubbling away.
Did I use a blowoff? No way.
It’ll be fine, I said,
With a nod of my head.

This morn when I awoke (late because clock)
I made my way to the brewery to take stock.
What to my wondering eye did appear,
Airlock blown out, and krausen far and near.

Added a blowoff real quick,
And wiped up the krausen, banana-ish and thick.
Thinking I was okay,
To work did I away.

Home again after a long day,
Opened the ferment fridge door in major dismay;
A veritable swarm of flying vinegar makers
Did zoom from my refrigerator!!!

Armed with natural insecticide,
I sprayed every nook and cranny where the little bastards could hide.
A quick glance under the lid,
Showed that none of them hid.

Hanging my head in shame,
Only myself to blame.
Praying to Ninkasi the beer god,
That this batch won’t be nasty and odd.

A message to all;
Before the krausen do fall,
Use a blowoff not airlock,
Or later you may be saying many words that rhyme (kinda) with FOCK.
 
I haven't read your poem yet, but, oh boy....this is gonna be good! :mischievous:

LMAO already!

Fruit Flies in my Fridge, Brilliant!!!!!

I had much the same experience a week ago today when I discovered that one of the four latches on my Brewbucket had popped when I lowered it into my Brewjacket. Of course, it was a hefewiezen...This would only happen on a Hefeweizen.

I arrived home from work with thick krausen on the lid. No biggie, I thought. Indeed, I thought I had gotten lucky, just a bit of a leak from the new gasket in the center of the lid where the cooling rod enters. It took me a further day and so much runaway krausen to figure out that one of my latches had popped. And that's when it sank in, my brewjacket had soaked through to the hardwood floor.

Oh, something that rhymes with FOCK.

Flies. So many flies.

Thank you, so kindly for your remarkable poem. It was exactly the salve that I needed to start to smile about this shameful experience. I've brewed for over 25-years and I've never had a fermentation leave the fermenter. I was feeling pretty low about that, but your poem makes it all worth while.

Thank you! :bigmug:
 
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Bramling Cross said:
That's my Dad's favorite term for beer he doesn't like, which is most beers that don't come from Munich.

Your 2lbs of corn and 1lb of rice is the ratio that I settled on (in a 10lb grist). It's really good! You get plenty of corn flavor and the rice is there to dry it out and keep it refreshing...all the way up to 1.074. Yeah, it's like a N. American Tripple.

I don't think boiling the rice was necessary. I did so because I think Asahi Super Dry is one of the dumbest and funniest beer names out there. I don't know why, but I think "super dry" is funny. So I made everything as super dry as possible yesterday...and yuck, yuck, yucked the whole way to the fermenter.

Was the boiled rice worth it? Not really. Beersmith says I scored 97% mash efficiency. I normally hit 92% on my 60min/30min step mashed adjunct lagers. Five percent mash efficiency is jack squat, in terms of OG into the fermenter. There's lots of ways to get way more efficient, boiling your flaked rice isn't one of them...unless you want your beer to be ***SUPER DRY!!!!!!!***

Snicker, snort. ;)
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Was your dad a Marine? Panther piss seems to be a favorite non-curse among them.

On the "summer lawnmower beer" thing I would go so far as to make it include both lagers and ales. Only requirement is low-ish ABV and dry finish.

Of course, such broad inclusiveness would make the BJCP people's heads asplode, but no reason why this should keep us from having a de facto category of beers we can readily pour down our necks in copious quantities.

If it's easy drinking, it's in like flynn.

I'm only half serious here, but why not?
 

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