January brewing and doings

The winter of lagers is coming to a close for me this weekend, at least as far as brew days go. Still plenty of time left for fermentation, secondary, and bottling. After it's all done I will have a very nice stash to get me through the summer months when I don't have as much time to brew.

Unfortunately, I awoke this morning because my brain reminded me that I forgot to collect RO water for today's brew day! This is a first for me. I have 3 five gallon water jugs that I fill up with RO water between brews and forgot. I'm crossing my fingers and maxing out the RO system in hopes that I can be ready to go tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a 10 gallon batch of maibock. My first ever attempt at the style, which is surprising since I really enjoy it. I'll be maxing out the mash tun's capacity on this one. Anticipating 7.5% ABV. The recipe is 75% pils, 20% dark munich, 2.5% caramunich 2, and 2.5% melanoidin. 28 calculated IBUs of Czech Premiant all from a 60 minute addition.

 

Noticed a leaky faucet the past few days, so this morning has been a line cleaning day... Have a particular faucet soaking in some BLC right now while all the others just got my normal BLC/Star-San from the keg thru the lines. Hoping that fixes my issue... I replaced all the gaskets a few months back but only recently has it start dripping. It's on my RIS, so I am thinking the sugars or whatever are gumming up the sealing surfaces. My only guess... We shall see!

 

Boiling a NE Session IPA as I type. First go on a recipe i'm looking to dial in.
80% Pilsner
10% Flaked Oats
10% Flaked Wheat

No hops during the boil. Two Flame out additions and two dry hops.
2:1 Galaxy to Citra throughout.

1.048-1.012 (predicted) 4.8% ABV
1318 Yeast
3:1 CL to Sulfate Ratio.
Mash PH 5.2 (measured)
IBUs...8-70 . Depending on what calculator you trust. My guess, it tastes "perfect"

Cheers

 

Just wrapped up a brew based on the Black Sheep Riggwelter brown ale. First time using Simpson's Golden Naked Oats. Looking forward to this one.

 

Just put my NEIIPA on the gas. Did 3 days of intermittent shaking in the keg at room temp after I transferred to the keg. My most aromatic ipas have all had this step in their process. Looking forward to trying this latest.

 

Rebuilt (sort of) my keezer. The freezer gave up the ghost, but I had an identical model freezer in the basement that I had used as a fermentation fridge. So we hauled it upstairs and transferred the collar and all the equipment to it. I'm glad I had the spare, but there's something underwhelming about having a new keezer that is exactly the same as the old one.

 

Yesterday. I brewed my annual. first beer of the new year, a Pivo Pils clone. Been doing this the last three years in a row now, I usually start drinking it around May and into June, so it works out great. Makes for a long brew day with the step mash process, but it's always fun. Decided to use Dinegmans Pils this time though, since I loved it so much in my Kolsch.

https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/peepo-pils-pivo-pils-clone

 

Brewed a new recipe for a NEIPA today. Also put my new pH meter to the test - love this thing. Already tweaking this recipe for next weekend (wasn't happy with the mash pH or efficiency), but looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. Cheers!

 

Woke up early to brew an wheated American Brown IPA. No, it's not a real style but it will be delicious.

American Brown IPA
2.5 gal
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.009
32 SRM
47 IBU
6.8% ABV
0.78 IBU/gravity

0.5 lbs caramel 80L malt
0.5 lbs caramel 120L malt
0.125 Special B malt
0.25 lbs chocolate malt
2 lbs pilsner DME
1 lb pale wheat DME
0.5 oz Ekuanot hops (14.3% AA): 60 min
0.5 oz Ekuanot hops: 0 min
Safale US-05 dry American ale yeast

 

I brewed my second attempt at an Imperial Stout / also my 2nd attempt at all grain BIAB. This is my first self-designed recipe. Even though I didn't make the same mistakes I made last time, I had some problems with the cold wind blowing my burner (and also brewing at 6700') so I couldn't maintain a rolling boil at times. I made up for this and for my high water volume by boiling 150 minutes. And then I overshot my OG and undershot my volume. So I'm not really sure what I was doing.

OG was 1.103 and if my mash was any indication, this should be super fermentable. So it'll end up being 10-11% alcohol. I've never had a beer make it's target gravity yet.

Never-the-less, something like 4.5 or 5.0 gallons of imperial stout are bubbling away in the fermenter right now. I call it "moonless night" because it's incredibly dark. If it tastes as good as I think it will, I want to enter it into a competition.

 

Keg cleaning to make room for a mild.

 

That explains a lot. I think my slower evaporation rate for the first hour was due to the mild boil. I need a huge windscreen I think. More brewing junk, lol!

 

Sending off a water sample to Ward Labs to see what’s up with my water the past few batches… My mash pH came in low (up to .15) the last three and nothing changed in my process or the malt used, so just curious… Plus, I never had a water analysis done – the values I use in Bru’n Water come from multiple sources averaged for Cleveland city water. In the past, always nailed my estimated pH but recently it’s been off. I figure I will do three samples this year to see the change with the seasons and can reference the time of year I’m brewing with the three samples (Thinking Jan, May, September). Will be interesting to see how consistent the water is season to season.

Secondly, took my cream ale out of my fermentation chamber (brewed four days ago) and placed my pilsner back in to start cold crashing down so I can gelatin fine it and keg. Once that’s done, I will repeat with the cream ale.

 

Ordered the grain bill for my Xocoveza inspired stout to be brewed this weekend. My homebrew club is having a stout bout competition in March. Cheers!

 

We racked to keg 10 gallons of a Chocolate Cherry Milk stout....Its now sitting on a half pound of chocolate nibs....It aged for 2 months on some sweet cherry puree....Next will be bottling 10g of the Chocolate vanilla milk stout...After that which might take us into February but the next beer is either a NEIPA or a DDH pale ale....

 

Racked my latest NEIPA to a keg with an additional 6oz of hops. Nailed my OG and FG.

 

Racked Recreational Lager to keg with 2 oz Citra...after looking at weather report, am also making 1728 starter for a hoppy Scotch Ale (with barrel aged Vermont maple syrup for 2nd day of primary) ...hopefully this one is going to taste like a blend of Dirty/Backwoods Bastard and SN's Maple Scotch Ale.