What's Brewing & Doing - October Edition

Starting Friday with a multi hopped Thaddius Hop #3 using cascade Columbus Chinook, citra and simco. Saturday John Snow house pale original version. Sunday Smoking 30 lbs of bacon bellies and making an imperial pumpkin ale. Bring on the cold weather, gorm is ready!!!!

 

I've been trying to convince my wife that we need a smoker, but she disagrees. She's not a fan of "BBQ"...but she'll eat the mustard and vinegar based sauces...so all is not lost. One day, I too hope to smoke large quantities of animal flesh.

 

Nothing like smokin yer own while brewin another tasty ale. And I do mean smokin meat.

 

Brewed my Brett IPA over the weekend (well, it was WLP644 so technically not 'wild'), and it is now Wednesday and I'm not seeing any activity. Any thoughts as to what this could be? Is the WLP644 notoriously a slow mover? I love the way this wort tasted, I used a mixture of Briess Bonlander, Briess Pale Ale, and flaked oats. So I hope this is not lost.

Also, I drank my Citra IPA w/ honey malt that I brewed a while back. So delicious.

 

I have it at about 80F right now. I'm not even seeing any activity in the air lock either.

Now I only got about 4 gallons out of this batch, could the headspace be an issue?

 

How much yeast did you pitch ?

@Doomsayer52

 

1 vial of the WLP644.

I read that anywhere from 70-85 was optimal for the strain?

 

644 contains a lot less cells than regular sacc yeast. It has less than 5 billion cells and you probably needed around 200 billion cells. A multi step starter would have made enough yeast. Or you could have used the Imperial Yeast version of 644 since it already contains 200 billion cells.

Your beer might finish normally, but it will probably take 3-5 weeks.

 

Kind of what I was thinking - the recipe I had made for this took ~4 weeks in primary then bottle condition for another 4. Should I pitch another vial or just let it ride?

By the way, thanks for the advice both of you guys. Appreciate it.

 

Not sure. I've never tried to ferment with 644 without building cells with a starter or two. I think @DrMindbender has.

Another vial wouldn't hurt. Not sure how much it would help without making a starter with the second vial.

 

I've brewed with it around a dozen or so times and have always direct pitched with no problems at all. I typically use a single vial on a 1.080-1.095 OG brew and hit an SG of around 1.012-1.016 in 3 weeks or less. Mine typically take off within a day, maybe 2 at most...do you think you have an air leak somewhere that's allowing the CO2 to escape @Doomsayer52 ?

Maybe zap it with a little yeast nutrient/yeast energizer mixture? This has worked well for me on slowing/stalled batches in the past...I usually add around 1/2 tsp of a 2 part yeast nutrient to 1 part yeast energizer mixture that I use on my meads.

 

This is what happened to my sour funky saison that i brewed last March and bottled in November. A month or two in, I thought it was too harsh and was a little disappointed with it, but we just opened a bottle last week and it was drinking amazingly. Looking at possibly brewing another batch of it and doing a secondary with it sitting on wine soaked oak for a bit.

 

This was a 1.060 OG batch. I'll check again tonight and see if there is any activity. I've never had an issue with leaks, but I can probably try a new bung and see if that changes anything.

I was going to make a quick starter tonight to see if that changes anything, but I have some nutrients just sitting around so I'll do that first. I'll report tomorrow!

 

Heading over the mountain to help judge a comp in Gold Country...plan on taking a few growlers/bottles of southern Hemi IPA, Chocolate/Chile Porter, and a 3 year old BarleyWine.

 

Bottled my 12th sour, and my second version of The Raisinator. A sour blonde aged on golden raisins and sauvignon blanc french oak, fermented with RR Beatification yeast (and some Raisinator 2014 yeast, this year). Think Love Child #4, but with a nice vinous quality.

 

Weber Bullets take up relatively little horizontal space, and you can tell her it's a skinny grill. If space isn't her issue, then just man up and buy one. Some things are just too important.

 

Smoking meat is not BBQ. If she likes smoked cheese, fish or meat a smoker could be in yer future!!!! Just don't go for mine its 5 feet by 8 feet and about 7 feet tall