What's Brewing? June 2017 Edition

[Phischy1]

I always pitch the bugs at the same time as the yeast. I would especially do this with a higher abv as waiting until the beer is fermented can create a harsher environment for the bugs.

I also tends to introduce less oxygen in my sour beers than a regular beer. This can help with a cleaner and quicker turn around. But if you don't care about turn around time this shouldn't matter.


P.s. i have no exact measurement of Oxygen, just how much i shake the carboy.

I have time to wait. I've wanted to get a sour program going for awhile and now I finally have the time. But I'm constrained by having only 7 pin lock kegs. So I won't hit it with O2 then, and pitch all at once.

Any thoughts on what sacc yeast to pitch, or is it largely irrelevant?

I also expect to have some failures, which is why starting with split batches and using a variety of bugs should help soften that loss for long term beers.

And an entirely different set of fetmentation/cold side for brewing to keep it away from my clean beers.

 

[nanobrew1]

I have time to wait. I've wanted to get a sour program going for awhile and now I finally have the time. But I'm constrained by having only 7 pin lock kegs. So I won't hit it with O2 then, and pitch all at once.

Any thoughts on what sacc yeast to pitch, or is it largely irrelevant?

I also expect to have some failures, which is why starting with split batches and using a variety of bugs should help soften that loss for long term beers.

And an entirely different set of fetmentation/cold side for brewing to keep it away from my clean beers.

I mainly use antwerp yeast for my sours, very clean Belgian yeast.

If this is truly to get your feet wet, I would go with a lower gravity beer, maybe 1.050 to 1.060. Higher ABV sours are much harder and that is where I find more solvent or vinegar type characteristics.

 

[Phischy1]

I mainly use antwerp yeast for my sours, very clean Belgian yeast.

If this is truly to get your feet wet, I would go with a lower gravity beer, maybe 1.050 to 1.060. Higher ABV sours are much harder and that is where I find more solvent or vinegar type characteristics.

Cool. I can knock .010 points off.

I know there a lot of new labs making bug mixes, but I don't know anything about them. Last intentional sour was an underattenuated beer that I dumped the dregs from 3 supplication bottles. Turned out amazing.

 

[nanobrew1]

Cool. I can knock .010 points off.

I know there a lot of new labs making bug mixes, but I don't know anything about them. Last intentional sour was an underattenuated beer that I dumped the dregs from 3 supplication bottles. Turned out amazing.

I don't have too much experience with lab bugs since in SD we pretty much only have White Labs and I don't like their cultures. I pretty much only build up my own cultures using dregs.

 

[Phischy1]

I don't have too much experience with lab bugs since in SD we pretty much only have White Labs and I don't like their cultures. I pretty much only build up my own cultures using dregs.

With the split batches I intend to experiment for that very reason knowing I'm going to lose some batches in the R&D process. I'm just too new to have any direct experience with labs and cultures.

 

[SirDickButts]

With the split batches I intend to experiment for that very reason knowing I'm going to lose some batches in the R&D process. I'm just too new to have any direct experience with labs and cultures.

I'm with nano. Pitch wild yeast and sacch (Belgian strain) @ primary, sit back and relax.

can't go wrong with building starters from your favorite sour beer dregs. I have a monster blend of Cantillon, Drie Fonteinen, Blaugies, Van de Korenaar, Jolly Pumpkin, Jester King and Fantôme dregs. It's tart AF.

 

[Phischy1]

May take you up on some of that in a month or 2 when I do a blond sour. Right now I just want to attempt some "classics" even though I'm fully aware they wondon't be ready until June to December 2018.

 

[Phischy1]

Another 2x 10hr brewday. Knocked out the Oude Bruin 1st. After sleeping in for 2 hrs. Then the DIPA. Last night while milling grains I figured out my efficiency problem. Too much grain (8-10%) is sliding past the rollers on the outside. The hardy board they use has gotten flexible with age, and I see a defect to my hopper.

I just figured it was 8yrs of batch sparging. So...new fix coming this week. I did double crush and I hit my numbers for these 2 brews...but now I can tighten down that variable.

How'd I figure this out? Polycarbonate clear bins, which I hadn't used before, vs the home Depot Homer bucket. And I realized the grain had an uneven distribution of crushed vs not.

 

[anteater1]

Brewed up my 2nd attempt at a Sticky Hands clone this weekend. 2 Row, Golden Promise, White Wheat, Carafoam. Trying Conan instead of 1056 this time. Columbus, Centennial, Amarillo, Mosaic & Citra. My hoppiest brew yet at just over 1 lb, and I'm shifting more of the 0 min and whirlpool over to dry hop.

 

[reverseapachemaster1]

Brewed a NE-style pale ale this weekend. 1318 plus wheat and oats. No apples or lactose. All azacca because I had some azacca in the freezer to use up.

 

[JCastle1]

Brewed a NE-style pale ale this weekend. 1318 plus wheat and oats. No apples or lactose. All azacca because I had some azacca in the freezer to use up.

I'm also brewing an all-Azacca IPA soon. No wheat or oats though, just a plain ole boring non-hazy IPA.

 

[reverseapachemaster1]

I'm also brewing an all-Azacca IPA soon. No wheat or oats though, just a plain ole boring non-hazy IPA.

Probably not even putting it in cans. Why even bother in 2017??

 

[Phischy1]

This weekend I'm thinking of doing a Baltic Porter, same one that the failed pump destroyed. Lagers fermenting at 82F aren't that tasty. And knocking out a Flanders Red. Then I'll be done with double brewdays.

 

[doobiegoobie]

Brewed up another big west coast IPA. Been needing a bitter kick so I went 50/50 2 row/german pils with about 10% sugar for an OG of 1070. 50 IBUs with a hop shot at 60, and then a **** ton of experimental hops I picked up from YVH - equal parts Experimental Stonefruit, BRU 1, and Denali. It smelt like pineapple juice when it went into the fermenter, but I hope a little more tropical character comes through after fermentation. Fermenting now at 65 with US05. Cheers!

 

[anteater1]

I just got done brewing a Fortunate Islands clone just in time for hot weather.

Also did a bit of sampling from some sours. My 15 month old golden wild is tasting much more interesting than it was 6 months ago. I blended some of that wtih 24 month old wild saison and it tasted better than either beer on its own. I threw a few drops of gin in and really liked how that worked as well. I may want to do elderflower or something else botanical.

 

[axeman91821]

******* does it feel good to be brewing again. Hadn't done anything since late February due to some home renovation work, but I knocked out five gallons of Mosaic pale ale yesterday, and I've got a saison boiling away right now. Should have both beers kegged within two weeks.

 

[sneakychi]

Got a Berliner weisse going, kettlesoured with Lactobacillus plantarum (from pills). Fermented with Us-05 @ 17C, added passionfruit and mango in secondary. Should probably used more fruit though, not nearly as much fruit present as I was hoping. Quite pleased with the lowered pH thogih, got kinda a tropical/rhubarb thing going before adding fruit. First try, will re-iterate with adjusments! (Looks to be landing at around 3.5% ABV)

 

[Phischy1]

I hate brewing. I pulled a growler of my APA to take to my home brew club meeting. I sampled it and got a mild bandaid flavor. Strong enough you can't ignore it.

4 batches ago I moved from bulk RO water from the Glacier machine at the grocery store to my own RO system. As soon as I tasted this I assumed a wild yeast infection, but I have not changed my cleaning/sanitizing process so I was pretty pissed off.

Thankfully I was talking about it with the homebrewers and one of our guys teaches chemistry. He looked at me and said "choramines". I then immediately recall reading our HOA new letter which has a note from our water supplier that calls out specifically our water is treated with choramines and should be used for certain medical conditions or aquariums. I falsely assumed my RO unit would strip out choramines.

Turns out the big glacier units have a UV component to dissociate choloramines. I can have that option on mine, but I didnt realize what it was for. In a word: ****. I have 10 gallons kegged I need to dump and another 36 in fermenters.

And I could have fixed the issue with a simple campden tablet.

SAD!

 

[rcubed1]

I cut up about 15 lbs. of Masumoto Farm peaches yesterday that went into the freezer for storage. Not sure when I'm going to brew next but I need to get a cider going and these peaches into a carboy of funky beer.

 

[Five28 hz]

I hate brewing. I pulled a growler of my APA to take to my home brew club meeting. I sampled it and got a mild bandaid flavor. Strong enough you can't ignore it.

4 batches ago I moved from bulk RO water from the Glacier machine at the grocery store to my own RO system. As soon as I tasted this I assumed a wild yeast infection, but I have not changed my cleaning/sanitizing process so I was pretty pissed off.

Thankfully I was talking about it with the homebrewers and one of our guys teaches chemistry. He looked at me and said "choramines". I then immediately recall reading our HOA new letter which has a note from our water supplier that calls out specifically our water is treated with choramines and should be used for certain medical conditions or aquariums. I falsely assumed my RO unit would strip out choramines.

Turns out the big glacier units have a UV component to dissociate choloramines. I can have that option on mine, but I didnt realize what it was for. In a word: ****. I have 10 gallons kegged I need to dump and another 36 in fermenters.

And I could have fixed the issue with a simple campden tablet.

SAD!

At the very least you figured out the source of the off flavor. Are you part of the foam rangers or the cane island guys?

 

[Phischy1]

At the very least you figured out the source of the off flavor. Are you part of the foam rangers or the cane island guys?

Cane Island.

I'm hoping the other batches are ok. The APA was the first beer through the RO system, even though I filled the tank and dumped it once to help clean out the new system.

Totally deflating. The chloramine filter and housing add on is I think $50. I've already emailed the company to get a parts list that I need so I can add this on ASAP. Meanwhile I'm not brewing till I get this sorted out AND send a sample to Ward Labs for definitive proof.

 

[reverseapachemaster1]

Cane Island.

I'm hoping the other batches are ok. The APA was the first beer through the RO system, even though I filled the tank and dumped it once to help clean out the new system.

Totally deflating. The chloramine filter and housing add on is I think $50. I've already emailed the company to get a parts list that I need so I can add this on ASAP. Meanwhile I'm not brewing till I get this sorted out AND send a sample to Ward Labs for definitive proof.

Virtual certainty that the water is treated with chloramine. The municipal water agency should be able to confirm.

 

[Phischy1]

Virtual certainty that the water is treated with chloramine. The municipal water agency should be able to confirm.

Read above, I've already confirmed that. Of course after the fact. I made a mistake in thinking an RO filter is an RO filter and I didn't realize the commercial units had an additional UV filter to disassociate chloramine. Learned the hardway.

 

[SirDickButts]

kegging double IPA (split batch London 3 and Dry English Ale) this wknd. brewed it w/ Columbus, Calypso, Citra and Chinook.

Didn't get the chance to brew the saison.

 

[JulianB1]

Did a parti gyle for the first time yesterday, splitting a batch (66% 2-row, 17% each white wheat and flaked wheat) 50/50 1st and 2nd runnings to make an IPA and a Berliner Weisse (12 gallons split to 6 and 6).

Everything went perfectly, including hitting all the numbers I was aiming for (1.052 gravity split to 1.067/1.034), except for one thing: I realized I had calculated all my numbers based off PBG rather than OG. So I guess I'm going to have closer to a DIPA and a slightly stronger berliner than I planned. At least the boil times on each of them are/were short.

The IPA is also my first attempt at doing a 0 IBU beer. I let it free drop to 190 after the boil, then pitched 3oz of mosaic and let it stand for 20 minutes before chilling. Doing several big drop hop additions of mosaic over the next week, including one today into active fermentation.

 

[axeman91821]

Did a parti gyle for the first time yesterday, splitting a batch (66% 2-row, 17% each white wheat and flaked wheat) 50/50 1st and 2nd runnings to make an IPA and a Berliner Weisse (12 gallons split to 6 and 6).

Everything went perfectly, including hitting all the numbers I was aiming for (1.052 gravity split to 1.067/1.034), except for one thing: I realized I had calculated all my numbers based off PBG rather than OG. So I guess I'm going to have closer to a DIPA and a slightly stronger berliner than I planned. At least the boil times on each of them are/were short.

The IPA is also my first attempt at doing a 0 IBU beer. I let it free drop to 190 after the boil, then pitched 3oz of mosaic and let it stand for 20 minutes before chilling. Doing several big drop hop additions of mosaic over the next week, including one today into active fermentation.

I've been meaning to do another parti gyle, it really is a convenient enough way to knock out two batches. I did all pils and then added dark candi syrup to the boil for a quad, and then capped the mash with a little caravienne and did a belgian pale ale with the second runnings.

 

[JulianB1]

Just went to dry hop the IPA. Absolutely no activity in the airlock and no krausen. Did I have a bad yeast pitch perhaps? Pitched again and hopefully something happens.

 

[rcubed1]

Just went to dry hop the IPA. Absolutely no activity in the airlock and no krausen. Did I have a bad yeast pitch perhaps? Pitched again and hopefully something happens.

Did you make a starter?

 

[Vogt52]

Got a Berliner weisse going, kettlesoured with Lactobacillus plantarum (from pills). Fermented with Us-05 @ 17C, added passionfruit and mango in secondary. Should probably used more fruit though, not nearly as much fruit present as I was hoping. Quite pleased with the lowered pH thogih, got kinda a tropical/rhubarb thing going before adding fruit. First try, will re-iterate with adjusments! (Looks to be landing at around 3.5% ABV)

Care to share the recipe/brewing process?

 

[JCastle1]

Care to share the recipe/brewing process?

This method is pretty great: http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Berliner_Weissbier

I haven't tried fermenting with Trois yet, but I use US-05 and enjoy the results. I use this method when I want to control the sourness, otherwise I just pitch lacto and yeast together.