Brewing Activities June 2016

Bottled my saison at the weekend, sample tasted great. got 92%AA from belle saison

 

Let me know how it turns out!

 

Brewed my Hefe this weekend. The hydrometer sample was very sweet, I'm hoping the yeast makes it more drinkable!

 

Wort of course tastes sweet, since the sugars have not been turned into alcohol.

If you are used to brewing IPAs, however, the bitterness is overwhelming when you sample the wort, at least enough to balance out the sweetness somewhat.

When you brew a low IBU beer like a hefe, the overwhelming wort sweetness is to be expected.

 

Good to know!

 

I made four gallons of Dunkel on Saturday to serve as the starters for an Oktoberfest and Schwarzbier I will brew in two weeks. It's my first Dunkel, first lager without decoction, first starter designed to produce drinkable beer, and my second step infusion mash. Nailed several things I've been wanting to do with one little batch.

We also kegged 10 gallons of Helles on Saturday just before brewing to clear the fermentation chamber. Five gallons with 2124 and five with Omega Bayern Lager.

 

Racked my festbier over to secondary tonight for lagering. You'll hear back about it in September's brewing activities thread. Planning to do an extract blonde this weekend, pils dme, saaz in the boil, maybe nelson for dryhop additions, or maybe nelson throughout with a neutral yeast.

 

Ordered up ingredients for my next Salty Doge gose batch. Using pink guava and white peach for this batch. Looking forward to getting that in my mouth.

 

This is my first Hefe also, so I'm no expert, but from what I've read it just depends on what kind of flavor you are going for. 85 degrees is definitely too high, but if you want some banana flavors then you'll want to ferment a bit higher than normal (low 70's).

 

This is the one style that is easy to make "ok" but hard to make "great." Regarding fermentation temp, I usually aim for 65, and get a nice clove and banana balance, imo, at that temp using WY3068. I've never gone higher than 70 so I can't comment as to how much that ramps up the banana notes.

 

I dumped my yeast in the 70s and then brought the temp down to the low 60s for fermentation. I held it there for a couple of days and now its in the high 60s. Hopefully this will turn out nice.

 

I'm brewing a hefe for my next batch, and am considering doing extract for it. Of all the times I've brewed hefes/weizenbock style beers I've gotten the most banana/bubblegum esters from using extract. My theory is that extract recipes seem to have less efficiency than AG, and the yeast may struggle a bit more to ferment extract wort, thus creating these sought after esters. I could be wrong though, but I'm gonna compare. Last year's AG batch of hefe was good, but not "great". I'm thinking the simpler the better – 7 lbs wheat LME, tettnang for 10 IBU, 3068 yeast fermented at 68F. We'll see!

 

I too am going to try to squeeze in an extract batch this weekend. Not a hefe though since I am a nonconformist.

Something like:
6# Light DME, 1# Wheat DME
8 oz Nelson, 4 oz Citra, 2 oz Centennial
US05, distilled water, 1/2 tsp gypsum

I was originally planning on brewing either a mild, brown, or pale ale all grain w/ London Ale yeast, but I am feeling pretty lazy this week. Extract + dry yeast sounded like a nice change of pace.

 

Must kick mostly empty keg of Prickly Pear Wheat...need room for keg of Full Pint IPA...doctor appt. in 2 hours...Kryptonite making me weak

 

Update: keg kicked...sober Dr. appt. on tap

 

It's amazing how much quicker brew day/prep goes when going back to dry yeast and extract. I need something to fill the keg quickly so am opting for a 2-week hefe!

 

I am officially on vacation so I am brewing up a pale ale with Equinox, Galaxy and Citra hops.



While the wort boils I am enjoying my DIPA and bottling up a 2.5 gallon breakfast stout. Added whole beans into the fermenter for the firt time.

 

Completely agree. I love the all grain process and the freedom and control it gives you for recipe creation, but something I just wanna knock out a brew day in 2.5 hours including setup/cleanup. Massively hopped beers a a prime candidate unless you're looking to do something specific with the water profile. Wheat beers are another due to the quality of the extract and the fact that yeast tends to be the main flavor driver.

 

Made and canned 5 quarts starter for raising Lacto and multiple Brett strains. There's a bit of sour brewing planned for July, with the bulk of the action on the 4th of July weekend.

 

On sunday I brewed 6 gallons of a Berliner inspired wort. Pitched Bootleg Biology's Sour Weapon Pedio and almost exactly 48 hours later I pitched a packet of us05 and a little Bootlet Biology's Funk Weapon #1.

Today I bottled 5 gallons of a Vienna/NB SMaSH pale fermented with WLP075 Hansen Ale, and 5 gallons of a Belgian Pils/ Pekko hops SMaSh saison fermented with Belle Saison.

Thursday I'm planning to brew a Golden Promise / Nugget SMaSH IPA with WLP075 slurry.

Still waiting on the White Labs vault Saison blend to ship so I can take it for a spin. It's getting to be the hottest time of year in TN and I'm so ready to drink nothing but saison.