Brewing Activities April 2016

I brewed an extract citra-mosaic IPA on Apr 3. I tried an all-grain variation on Apr 9. They are not similar enough to glean any real lessons on one technique versus the other. But this was my first all-grain brew, so I am still curious.

Both were kegged tonight, charged with 30psi, got 2oz of hops and put in refrigeration.

The extract brew will be 68IBU/8.01% (1.074/1.013), the all grain will be 65IBU/6.5% (1.06/1.010). I need to work on efficiency a bit (I have a good idea of what I did wrong) or add a pound or two next time.

 

5 gallon batches, sometimes 10.

 

Brewed a batch of Belgian Dubbel on Sunday and added amber candi sugar tonight. Once it is finished in primary, it will secondary in a Hungarian oak wine barrel. Excited to pull the first beer out of that barrel at that time as well, a Belgian Golden Strong. I pulled the nail on Sunday and it had already amassed a fair amount of oak and wine character in the less than two months that it was in there.

 

Some guy with a hobby winery in Oregon City. I don't even know if the winery has a name.

 

Exactly!
I recently won third place at a local competition with this recipe. It's a simple beer, but very tasty!

 

26 gallons, so it's an adventure to fill it. Sunday was a LONG brew day.

 

Pulled a hydro sample on my hefe brewed last Friday... Hit FG and tasting really nice! Probably keg it Sat/Sun and be drinking by tues/wed! Grain to glass in 11-12 days!

Thankfully, the sulfur the yeast was throwing off isn't in the final beer... It still lingers in the headspace though of the beer. I figure another day or two for yeast to clean up will be good. Going to carb at 3.5 vol's in the keg.

Used WLP351 as a last minute sub (wanted WLP300)... But overall I am happy with it. I get a nice light clove essence and some banana perhaps. Nice flavor. Fermented at 68F for the first few days then let it rise to 70F to finish. Now it's down at 65/64 as it cools post-fermentation.

Excited to see what the carbonated end result is like!

 

Third batch/year of the spontaneously fermented lambic under way! Always kind of nerve wracking waiting for the 'magic' to happen.

 

Pulled samples of batches 1 and 2 of the spont. fermented lambics that are 2 and 1 years old, respectively. Batch 1's OG was 1.072, got 4oz of maltodextrin at the 1-year mark, and is now sitting at 1.000. Very dry, nice sour profile. Very tasty and could stand on its own. Would be stellar with fruit and/or oak+dry-hop. Batch 2 started at 1.059 and is at 1.002 right now. Very thin, and is a completely funky brett bomb - no sourness yet. Thinking brett brux. I would not package it by itself as it stands, but a 60/40 blend of batch 1 and 2 was quite tasty. Going to add some more maltodextrin to each batch to provide some more ammo for sourness. Looking forward to blending all three batches next spring for the gueuze (assuming batch 3 turns out well).

 

The below Vienna lager is on deck for Saturday (5 gal batch)

11 lb Avangard Vienna
.5 lb Special B
.5 lb Melanoidin

.5 oz GR Opal 6.3AA 60 min
2 oz Hallertau Mitt 3.9AA 10 min

Yeast WLP830

CALCS
1.063 OG
1.014 FG
6.3 ABV
22 IBU

 

Tomorrow I will brew 10 gallons of ESB. Five gallons pitched with Windsor and five with WLP007. My hops are First Gold. In case anyone was wondering I am not going to hydrate or make a starter for my yeast!

 

Bottled up 4 gallons of a Dark strong and 4 gallons of a La chouffe clone on Monday. Brewing up 2 gallons of my house stout tomorrow and bottling up 16 gallons of a Orval clone on Wednesday.

 

Bottling a brown bitter tomorrow. Was supposed to do it last week but completely forgot. Also tempted to brew on sunday, not sure what though. Possibly a munich based strong ale

 

did a centennial, cascade, citra pale ale yesterday. 2.5 pounds of flaked oats, 1/2 pound of light belgian rock sugar and about a teaspoon of grapefruit peel. Wyeast 3787 with a blowoff at 71 and this thing took off in about 8 hours. Before I left this morning it was really active. Hoping it doesn't blow the lid off of the fermenter. going to dry hop at about 4 weeks as I have read that 3787 needs a little more time to properly attenuate.

 

Heating strike water for a best bitter. 91% Crisp pale malt, 9% Simpsons dark crystal. Can't decide between Windsor or Nottingham. Any opinions?

 

Mashing in for a mandarina citra simcoe ipa

 

I like Windsor between the two. Nottingham can get too dry for an english style and is very neutral.