What's Brewing - April '17 Edition

Nice, how about doing a single 10 gallon of the Alt/Amber and add a dark malt syrup to the Fermenter of the stout?

 

Cascade IPA is chugging along vigorously. I don't know if anyone's used imperial organic's A24 Dry Hop blend before but it's a beast. Smells from the airlock are very promising

 

Brewed my 2nd Dark Mild of 2017. Couple tweaks to the first recipe. Tried Muntons double roasted caramel malt. Loving these milds by the liter!

 

Brewed my Hefedunk (people whose kids like Winnie the Pooh will get the name). Darker than a hefe, lighter than a dunkel and aiming for 5.75-6abv

 

Today brewing a brothers virgin ESB, another first.

 

Yesterday I bottled my Ameri-English Barley Wine. Tasted excellent. I will wait till fall before I start drinking them. Also this is the last beer work I will do till September.

 

right... people's kids... I totally didn't get it based on my own knowledge

 

I could link you the song but then you'd hate me for putting it in your head.

 

So Saturday brewed my IPA, this morning go check how it's going and the airlock was clogged up and somehow did not blow the lid off the bucket. Cleaned and replaced airlock and went to work. Came home, this time not only clogged but yeast/krausen all over the top of my bucket. Thankfully, small cleanup and replace of airlock but damn. Never had fermentation this crazy, perhaps due to this Conan strain being a few generations in. Need to find my blowoff tube attachment for the next time

Aside from that, added the first dry hop. Basically 1.5oz Galaxy and 0.5oz Columbus. In 3-4 days it will get the big charge that is something like 4oz Galaxy and 1oz Columbus or something (don't have notes in front of me).

Also finished my session IPA recipe to be brewed in a week and a half or so. 4.5% ABV, Conan yeast based off my last session grist wise. But this time with Mandarina, Belma, Azacca and Columbus. Should be an interesting one!

 

Brewed 14.5 Gallons of Belgian Dubbel/Oud Bruin. After Primary I'll pull off 5 gallons to sour and age for a bit. Going to add a little bit of Bourbon Oak, and dried cherries to both.

 

Brewed an Oberon clone today. This was my first time harvesting dregs for primary strain, (Bell's yeast of course).

 

Did the second dry hop of my 2 "wort challenge " NEIPAs. Checked gravity and they are both sitting at 1.010 7 days in. Samples tasted real nice. The one with Huell Melon, Azacca, Meridian, and Mandarina was super duper fruity kinda citrus and kinda juicy fruit gum.

 

I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out. My first attempt at Oberon, so we shall see how goes.

 

I've been relatively busy this month on the brewing front. Washed and reused yeast for the first time from a batch of coffee blonde ale I did last month.

Used that yeast (London III) on a session IPA bittered with Belma, Comet in the hop stand, and I plan to dry hop with Chinook this weekend. I wanted a decent malt presence (and some color) despite being a session beer ~4%, so I went with Light Munich as a base, along with some CaraFoam, and a little flaked rye for body and hopefully a dry finish. Hope the Munich wasn't overkill.

Also, brewed an American Wheat with white wheat and pilsner. Belma for bittering and FO. Split that batch between two fermenters; one got Mangrove Jack M36, and the other got MG M42. I'll dry hop the M36 batch with more Belma and the M42 batch with Mosaic this weekend. Should be a fun comparison.

Currently got the wheels turning on a Saison recipe as well. Probably won't brew that until next month, though.

 

Haven't posted in a while, but currently brewing the latest batch of None More Black. Aiming for 25%ish abv, half will be put on oak cubes I am soaking in red wine + rye whiskey + bourbon, and the other half is going into a port barrel.

Tonight I will be bottling my first gueuze-inspired ale:

 

I just bought an auto-syphon, because the LHBS didn't sell racking canes by themselves, I've been playing with it with water, and so far I'm not impressed. I'll probably give it another shot tomorrow, and then break it open and just use the hard plastic racking cane when I transfer my first sour to secondary on Friday.

 

Why the difference in color?

 

Tomorrow, I'll finally be getting around to brewing a Tripel that I've been thinking about since last year.

11 lbs Pilsen
1 lb Munich
0.5 lb Rye (just because)
2 lbs cane sugar

Using some combination of Hallertau and Saaz for hops, and co-pitching Wyeast 3787 and Brett B.

 

I've heard of people brewing ultra high gravity beers, but I'm not familiar with the process. How do you achieve a 25% ABV?