January brewing and doings

2 liters of Conan started for mild imperial stout (8%) I'm Thinking of using chinook and galaxy for it I've only brewed stouts with ekg perle Goldings etc

 

This weekend I am brewing 10 gallons of pale ale. Finishing hops will be Cascade, Citra, and Mosiac. Going to split and ferment one with the ESB dry yeast and one with So4. Looking forward to drinking the results!

 

India Weiz, 7 days into fermentation



(OG: 1.074)
delicious
gonna dry hop in a coulpe of days with more Citra and Columbus, 2 g/L

 

Ha, yea it looks like it's receiving some sort of shock treatment. At only $8, it's worked well for me in the past, but sadly these were the first ever dregs from CS that failed to ever get going... had to dump it. Oh well, at least I enjoyed the beer

 

Just finished waking up ~400 ml of WLP565 slurry harvested a couple of weeks ago (making starter). Brewing a Belgian rye pale ale this weekend...all Centenial hops.

Enjoyed two big mugs of a pre-prohibition Lager along the way.

Cheers!

 

I have the blickman beer gun. I learned the beer needs to be carbonated slowly before you bottle. I do 1 day at 20, 1 at 14, and 12 days at 10. I fill at 4-5 psi and still have great carbonation weeks later. Hit it with co2 before you fill and hit the foam with co2 before you cap.

 

Crashed my cream ale and added gelatin last night... Will keg on Sunday and tap by that Wed or weekend at the latest.

Pilsner is currently lagering for the next 3-4 weeks. Carbonating it up now at 40F but will then place back in the ferm chamber at 32F for a few weeks (cream ale currently in the chamber for the next few days).

Ordered another 4# of hops yesterday... Columbus, Mandarina Bavaria, Belma and more Citra. Never used Mandarina or Belma before, should be nice hops to blend with others.

Got my Ward water test back the other day after my mash pH's have been lower than expected. The new results jive perfectly with the pH's I was experiencing. Plan to re-test again in April/May and then September/October to profile how the water changes throughout the year.

Lastly, after I brew my next beer (Mosaic / Vic Secret IPA w/ cali ale yeast), I finished a Marzen recipe to follow for a spring tapping… Grist comprised of (in order of %) Pilsner, Vienna, Munich I, Caramunich I and Melanoidin. WLP830. Expected 6%, 25 IBU, 8.5 SRM. Whole flower hopped with Hallertauer Mittelfueh.

 

Cleaning out a few kegs tomorrow, and a full line and tap cleaning (break down all the taps, soak, scrub, sanitize, reassemble, etc). While all that goes on I will be kegging up my 10 gallons of Brett IPA from 2 weeks ago, and bottling off a couple things that need to be cellared.

 

Well, my first big beer went a little off plan. Due to some long work days and not paying attention to ferm temps which were way colder than plan my FG only landed at 1.028 vs planned 1.014. Lesson learned and it's still tastes great. Not really too sweet or cloying even before being carbed up. Sitting in keg now so we'll see in a few weeks.

 

Tried a new process tonight. Brewed a Baltic Porter and wanted to shorten the brew schedule. So I did a "no sparge" mash and a "no chill" cool down. I have done the first runnings thing before with good success. First time doing the no chill. In MA in January it makes sense.

From flame on to hot wort in the keg was 3.5 hrs. I'll transfer to the fermentor tomorrow when it gets to 54, aerate, and pitch. Really slick so far.

 

Jesse, you asked me for an update on my Baltic porter (recipe info earlier in this thread). I just took a hydrometer sample. It has attenuated from 1.073 to 1.020. There is still a thick krausen; it may attenuate some more, although I like the mouthfeel and sweetness it has right now. I'm no expert on the style, but I would say my beer is sort of like a traditional bock, maybe ever so slightly roastier, which I think is about right. I think I would have liked some more chocolate to come through, although I'm not sure that would be to style.

For anyone interested in the Mangrove Jack California lager, it seems to be a decent yeast. I started at a low temp, about 60F, in a new cold chamber, set for 65 F. I guess my cold chamber is pretty well insulated because in two days, it still was at temp and there was no evidence of fermentation. I switched to active heating (I only have single mode controllers) and brought the temp to 66. In three days it attenuated to 1.032, and in 5 days, to 1.020. I detect nothing in the way of off-flavor. I think in the near future I will play around with this yeast in a cleaner style (i.e., no crystal or dark malts, probably all pils or maybe base malt + corn) to see what sort of character I am getting. If it is a good attenuator (seems like it is still going), a good floccer (I think I read this), and neutral (tastes pretty neutral so far), at 66 degrees, this could become an all-purpose yeast that I use pretty regularly for lagers and American pales. I've posted recently about needing the convenience of dry yeast lately, so this could become a favorite.

 

Will do! I plan on using Mandarina with Belma in an IPA together within the next few batches. I'll be sure to keep that in mind and bias more of the recipe over to Mandarina quantity wise. If anything, I may just have Columbus in the recipe as well for bittering and light flavor addition. Light malt bill and Conan yeast.

 

Great write-up. Thanks. I may take a look at that yeast myself in the future. My go-to all purpose dry yeast now is Nottingham for ales. I went traditional on this Baltic and used a co-pitch of lager yeasts with wlp833 and 34/70.

 

I've never actually thought about it or checked TBH. It might have a slight effect I would guess...though I would guess the effect should cancel out when it comes to computing an ABV number...going to have to check it out next time I do a sample reading!

 

SMaSH pale ale with Briess Pale Ale/Citra boiling now. Well almost a SMaSH, has 2% carapils in it that I need to get rid of. Beautiful day for brewing, or anything really.

Also taking the first sips of the Averagely Perfect American Stout brewed on NYE and kegged 12 days ago. Came out nice.

 

Getting ready to make starters for GigaVermont...brewing 10 gal NEIPA tomorrow

 

WLP007, shaken not stirred