What's brewing July edition

Anxious to hear your results with these "experiments". If you don't mind me asking, which saison strain did you use? Brett species/strains?

 

Primary strain was ~ 90% Belgian Saison (Dupont) 10% French. Bretts are:
BKYeast C1, C2, C3 (Cantillon isolates)
Eureka Brewing 09, 12 (Cantillon isolates)

 

I brewed a Cascade pale ale with 4 ozs of my homegrown hops at flameout on Sunday. I hope to use the yeast cake in a couple of weeks for a big IPA or stout.

 

Finally brewing after a 6 week hiatus, longest stretch in a couple years. Going to do a honey blonde ale with some naked oats (naked blonde honey).

 

LOL! You picked the name before the ingredients, didn't you?

 

Also, I need to bottle a sour red rye. I brewed it 1 year ago and soured with Jolly Pumpkin dregs. First I'm going to dry hop it with some Citra for a bit.

Also, I need to bottle a sour red rye. I brewed it 1 year ago and soured with Jolly Pumpkin dregs. First I'm going to dry hop it with some Citra for a bit.

 

I've only ever really used the local Brett strains in the primary, so I'm interested in your results with bottling when you get to do this!

 

Got my second fermentation (lagering) keezer all setup. Will fit 2-kegs in, which should be perfect. I will have this one set at 32F while my other keezer will be for fermentation only. I really like those inkbird controllers versus my Johnson Control A419’s or whatever they are. For the price, can’t beat it.

My shipment of Weyermann Smoked malt came in and it’s smellin’ delicious! Will be brewing that Rauchbier/Smoked Helles soon here, still working on the recipe. But it will be around 70% smoked malt and on tap around September/October.

My hops are ready to harvest soon, believe it or not. So, I may need to expedite my wet-hopped IPA soon here… I need to get some London Ale growing, so I am thinking I am going for wet-hopped, NE IPA style. I have chinook and cascade growing and it’s looking bountiful at the moment with huge, aromatic cones. That may be coming immediately after the Rauchbier… Thinking I will add a little bit of Citra or Vic Secret or something in the dry-hop for a little extra oompf with the cascade/chinook combo. The chinook is smelling like straight up weed, though! haha

 

Here's my latest IPA tapped last week. 100% El Dorado hopped. 6.1% ABV. 71 IBU's. Looks beautiful but I learned a sad lesson with this one. If you think the hops smell kind of funny, trash them and move on. I thought I smelled a weird oniony/garlicy note when I opened the bag to keg hop. My brother didn't smell anything so we went with it. Now tapped and carbed. Very weird aroma/flavor. Prior to keg hop, the samples were tropical with a very strong pear note to it. I was so excited. Now, it's just meh.

 

That's a great pic.

I enjoy the oniony/garlicy/armpity notes. I don't think that's a sign of bad hops.

Keep your hopes up. I've had beers like this that went from mind blowing, to meh, to good, to so so, back to mind blowing - all just from time and going from the bottom of the keg to the top. This style seems to change from the day you tap it until the day you kick it. These fresh squeezed ipa's seem to remain active as you drink them.
At least that's my experience.

 

Yeah, it's just not a natural tasting onion/garlic. Ekuanot I definitely get pepper in the finish but it's tempered and not offensive. This is not that... not that it's overly offensive but it's just odd. When it warms up it starts to go away. But I totally agree with flavor change. I had a Mosaic hopped version a couple weeks ago that went from straight berry to mango/papaya in a matter of 2 weeks. I love seeing how these change... half the fun. I'd say I think they're the best in the 2 to 2 1/2 week range. Early on, they're a bit too green. Once you hit 4 you're tasting the "over the hill" beer. 3 is still good but not the explosion of week 2.

 

Yeah, it would be nice to see a piece on this phenomenon in the print issue of BeerAdvocate. Some one needs to name it too, needs something cooler than bio-conversion though.

This next statement is ultra beer nerdy, but it would be nice to see dates posted for this style. Not only when the beer was kegged, but how long it's been on tap too. I'm guessing some places do this.

 

Yeast starter done for IPA I'm brewing this weekend. I'll be using Columbus and Cryo Citra hops. Never used Cryo hops before, any comments?

 

Well, I got the garage cleaned on vaca... get to brew the beer this weekend though...

 

Stepped up the starter yesterday. Got grains today. Can't wait to brew Märzen Sunday!!!

 

Awesome. I really need to make more session beers. Every time I do, I'm impressed, and the keg kicks quickly.

 

Love a good low ABV beer... I have a 3.9%'er on now and another I brew often that is around 4.2-4.3%. Also got a 3.4% bitter coming on soon here, which I am excited for.

 

Now that we're talking about session beers, I'm considering putting that lager yeast to work on an IPL version of my session IPA recipe. At 3.6%, it could be a winner. On the other hand, it could turn out boring and thin.

 

This was a 4gal straight forward Denali (small amount of Galaxy/Citra) neipa brewed in Feb. We blended enough live YB Melange/Amalgamation sour/brett base to get the tartness we were after then set it aside to let the Amalgamation Brett blend do its thing. Four months and a 4oz BRU-1 dry hop later we just put Tart & Lusty to force carb. It's really balanced. It's not too tart, bitter, or fruity. We are anxious to try it in a week or so fully carbed. Look for it "fresh" in a few weeks. And look for more "developed" versions in the coming months at Bayou Beerfest and Boardroom Beach Craftathon in FWB.