What's brewing August edition

There's a local dry yeast supplier to me who says they have been offered a "Lille saison" yeast from their manufacturer

I wonder if various companies are just culturing up other tried and tested dry strains and selling them as something similar, or if they are offering something new. I know a lot of brewers yeasts don't respond well to the process of making dried yeast

 

My hands are all sticky from picking hops tonight, just thought I would share that. I can't stop smelling them either.

 

Same! Picked 13oz of Chinook and 18oz Cascade for my brew tomorrow. Then I will go get about that much more for when I dry hop in two weeks or so. Smells incredible!

 

I never weigh mine, I usually put a brew bucket full of hops in at flame out.

 

Have you had success with drying hopping with freshies? I'm tempted to pick some fresh Chinook, Centennial, and Cascade in a week and dry hop with them. However, I'm a little afraid of the "grass clippings" flavor some say they give.

 

Never done it, actually. Only for boil additions and flame out the past two years I've had my fresh hops (and used pellet for dry hop).

This year though, I am doing it. We shall see how it goes! Planning on using about a half pound of each variety though for the dry hop.

 

I'm fine with that Thanks!

 

So I got my beer brewed up this morning. OG of 1.052. Used approx. 2lb of wet hops for my late and whirlpool hops. Spent a little time cutting most of the flowers in half to expose all that wonderful lupulin. I know I didn't need to, but there was a comforting, therapeutic feeling about it all... haha

I'm thinking for the dry hop I'll also split all the cones and do two sacks, weighted with stainless steel so it drags it the bottom. May try to bag and purge the hops with CO2 to try and reduce oxygen with the hops somehow. Not sure the method just yet, but I figure even a little benefit is a benefit, right? Maybe place all the dry hops in a garbage bag and push a bunch of CO2 thru before adding to the fermenter. Or packing into a vaccume sealed bag and pulling all the air out right before or something.

 

On vacation this week. Brewed a dank Red IPA on Tuesday afternoon with Cal Ale, Nugget, CTZ, Simcoe, Citra. Let it ride until today at 67, then moved it off of temp control (room gets around 75-80). Brewed up a Mexican Lager today: Pils, Vienna, Flaked Maize, (touch of Carafa for color), Saaz, and WLP Mexican Lager Yeast. Got it down to 81 with the chiller. Pushed it to the 1/2 barrel keg fermenter and crashed it to 58. Pitched and continuing to chill to 54*F for the duration. Productive vacation. Had a vaca a month ago and didn't get to brew at all.

 

Brewed the ALMOST Averagely Perfect ESB today. I say almost because the lhbs didn't have Northdown hops so I just used more ekg in its place which was fine with me because the urinal cake description of Northdown was a little off-putting. Then I was busy talking to my neighbor at the 10 minute mark and added the whirlpool hops instead of the 10 minute hops. So the 10 minute addition went in at whirlpool time. Oh well I'm sure it will still be tasty.

 

Just brewed @c64person 's Strawberry Milkshake IPA. With 33% oats and wheat, the lauter was a bit stubborn even with 1/2 lb of rice hulls. There was a thick layer of gummy protein at the surface of the grain bed. But in the end I wasn't too far off my target numbers.

This is the first time I'm using the Cool Brewing ice bottle fermentation chamber/bag thing.

 

Cool, hope to see the results of that when it's finished!

 

Question about the recipe: the gravity numbers you specified didn't include the lactose or strawberry puree, correct? Because 1.012 FG seems impossible with 1.5 lbs of lactose. But the OG is really high for that grain bill, unless you get crazy efficiency.

 

T

That's including everything. Around 83% efficiency, but with second and third generation Conan it's not unheard of. Stuff eats up sugar like no one's business. Also, I used diced up whole fresh frozen strawberries, I've never tried a puree.

 

You'll have to let me know how it works. I ended up getting a Coleman Cooler instead which gave me a 15deg change via ice bottles.

 

How big of a cooler? Enough for a 5 gallon fermentor? I'm sure that will work at least as well as the Cool Brewing. I'm also using a heating belt and temperature controller, so I won't be able to tell you how cold it could get. But so far it's enough to cool it below my target temperature, and that's all I need.

I'll echo what others have said about it: the lack of rigidity to the walls makes it a little weird to use. It's a big, thick, heavy, well insulated bag.

 

Probably not big enough for a 5gal fermentor - I use it for my Speidel 3.2gal and it is about the right size. I can load it vertically in and there is room around it for ice bottles.

 

Bringing ten gallons of Berliner Weiss to a boil. 5 gallons is receiving Bootleg Biology's Sour Weapon P, us05 and Funk Weapon #1. The other 5 gallons is getting mango goodbelly, sacch trois and 3# of passion fruit puree in secondary.

 

Just did brew 2 of my Altoberfest. Modified the boils off rate some and did pretty good. Not sure if the bright sunny day made my boil off that much better but the humidity is about the same. Either way, still got a 81% efficiency. Now it's time to bottle my British IPA.

 

Already blew the top off the. Fermenter bucket. Smoked magik safe, but lost around a half gallon.