What's Brewing - June '17 edition

Not really. I'm totally shocked. Super clean

 

All week long my wife has been drinking Cherry Blossom Wheat from Oliver brewing in Baltimore. According to the can they use 50 gallons of cherry juice per 20 bbl batch. It's tart cloudy and a little pink. Today, after coming home with 10lbs of sweet cherries and 10 lbs of sour pie cherries from the pick your own farm, she says "can you make me something like that?"
So the grain bill I had on hand to make a grisette has become a cherry wheat/saison.
5lbs pils malt
4lbs white wheat
1lb flaked oats
1/2oz Columbus at 60 minutes
2oz Hallertau Mittelfru at 5 minutes
Belle Saison yeast
1/2 gallon pitted ground cherries once it hits FG
Going to pit the cherries today measure out and freeze. When the beer is ready I will thaw them, run them through the blender then add them to primary.

 

Curious as to what your "old" technique looked like. Mind sharing?

 

Got 'er done yesterday. No Amarillo. Saved that for the next beer. Already actively fermenting. Will rack onto the first round of dry hops tomorrow.

 

Batch 2 of my Strawberry Milkshake IPA. Damn delicious and choked full of hops and strawberries. This one had 1.5lbs/gallon of fresh picked strawberries, and 1.5oz/gallon of mosaic hops. Hoppy, sweet, and fruity. Perfect for the summer. I always wish I made more when I make this one (except for when I check how expensive a batch is!).

 

Plan is to keg 5 gallons IPA and 5 gallons IPA on Habanero, and rack 5 gallons IPA onto peaches, vanilla bean, and lactose tonight. Also sample the Nectarine Blossom beers for OG, ABV, Flavor, Aroma, Body, app att, etc. IF all good then I will move forward in 2 weeks with full batches.

 

Just kegged a citrus-focused Wheat beer.

80% Pilsner Malt
20% Wheat Malt
12g (0.42 oz) Northern Brewer @ 60min
15g (0.53 oz) Saaz @ 10min
20g (0.71 oz) Saaz @ 0min
4x Kaffir Lime Leaves (@ 10 mins)
2x Kaffir Lime Zest & Juice (@ 10 mins)
2x Lemon Peel & Juice (@ 10 mins)
Black Pepper, Coriander, Sage (@ 10 mins)
Safbrew WB-06

OG was 1.041, FG 1.006
4.6% ABV, 14 IBU


The smell when kegging gives off a bit too much Kaffir leaf, although not as strong when tasted - I probably should have only put in half the amount (will see if it subsides over time).

 

Pretty much the process you described. I would transfer to a secondary for dry hopping on leaf or pellets. Then open transfer to a bottling bucket or keg. I used to dry hop for 3-5 days too. I tightened all that up to reduce O2 and my beers have shown much more vibrant hop character since.

 

Kind of figured as such.

Would LOVE to use the type of technique that you do, but since my set-up is SUPER simple and I don't keg, I don't have the capacity.

Just for shits and giggles, what do your hopping rates look like post-boil? Dry hop?

For comparison, the DIPA that I just did was hopped with 3 oz. per gallon @ 180F and will receive a 1 oz. per gallon dry hop.

FWIW, just racked onto my first round of dry hops after < 2 days of primary fermentation.

 

Last couple of batches I have been utilizing about 4 oz in the post boil. I then put 1 oz in with the yeast pitch; 2 oz in day 3; 2 oz on day 5; transfer on day 7 or 8 to a keg with another 2 oz in it. I leave the keg hops at room temp for 2 days then put on the gas and leave in until kicked. This has worked well for me.

 

Made ten gallons of Berliner Weiss two weeks ago.

5 gallons got mango goodbelly and sacch trois. I just added 3# of passion fruit puree to this portion.

The other five gallons saw Bootleg Biology/s Sour Weapon and us-05. Pineapples were on sale at Kroger for $.99 so naturally I bought ten of them. After coring and skinning them, it came out to just over ten pounds of fruit and I racked the beer on top.


Made a large DuPont starter for a classic saison while it's too hot to brew anything else in my house without a ferm chamber.

 

What'd you use for the passionfruit puree? i made a tropical berliner with about a pound of fresh passionfruit that I then froze among other fruits... I loved it and wanted more passionfruit but those little buggers are expensive!

 

Vintner's Harvest makes a passion fruit puree now. I had heard about it on the Sour Hour but hadn't seen any. My LHBS just started stocking it, so I picked up a can. It wasn't cheap, but passion fruit is intense stuff, so I hope one can does the trick.

 

Mind sharing the recipe?

 

So . . . around 11 oz. for your typical IPA? Sweet. I would think that one could get away with using less hops if you are able to keep your beer away from oxygen, like you are doing. Thanks for sharing your technique!

 

Actually I'm a little closer to a lb of hops per batch. I put some in the boil too. Could I use less? Probably but I don't mind the extra $ and wort loss for the safe bet.

 

Don't know about you, but I buy my hops by the lb., so I don't mind using a little more. I'd rather use "too much" than not enough.

 

When life hands you lemons you make lemonade. When your best friend gives you 6 gallons of 1.048 last running's from his Quad, you Milk the Funk. Got the 6 gallons, 1+# of D180, and 10-12# date puree. Brought it home, quick boil, no hops, pitching pom/blkbry GoodBelly drink, then 6 strains of Brett. Let it ride for 4-6 months. Grist was Pils, MO, Munich, Cara Munich, Biscuit, Special B, Flaked Oats, Aromatic, Honey malt.

 

LOVE this combination, but fuck me that's a LOT of dates. Ever use fig concentrate? Great stuff, this:

http://www.valleyfig.com/industrial-foodservice/fig-concentrate

Any idea which ones?

 

@Jesse14 - it looks like you leave the 2oz addition in the keg until the keg is kicked. Is that right? It's working well for you so no grassy/off flavors from leaving the hops in? I'm seeing a lot of people writing that they leave their final dry hops in the keg for the duration and the beer remains great. On the flip side, I know there is a large population of people who always transfer to an empty serving keg. I know, perfect opportunity for an experiment. Interested in your thoughts! Cheers!