What's Brewing? (July 2018)

Thanks man I’ll look into that. In the winter the pre chiller works great but right now maybe better to build one of those, my keezer knocks it down quick so that helps but I’m an impatient bastard.

 

Here's the one I use. Works really well.

https://www.amazon.com/Wayne-VIP50-Thermoplastic-Portable-Electric/dp/B000CQ6CU4

 

Just brewed an NEIPA with Mosaic, Eldorado, and Amarillo. Cheers and happy 4th to everyone!

 

I have a Franconian style kellerbier in my fermentation chamber at the moment. It's just Pilsner, dark Munich, Perle, and Saflager W34/70. It's a simple beer I can turn around quickly that will be great to have on hand for the rest of the summer.

 

Bottleing a "message recieved" dipa with citra, galexy and centenial, and a nut brown

 

First Brut attempt today and it’s a total experiment...

Using my well water for the second time which is not awesome. I only know total hardness and alkalinity. Preboiled and decanted and managed to get the mash PH corect which was a bit of a miracle.

60% Rahr 2
40% Mecca Pale
Touch of Acid malt

Blend of Nugget, Bravo, Nelson at 175 WP.

K1v-1116 Wine Yeast
Ag300 enzyme

Dry Hop with some Nelson and maybe a bit more Bravo.

Interested to see what the biotransformation of the hops with the highest content of linalool and gernaiol will contribute. In my experience the K1v-116 yeast does some really interesting things to hops.

 

Good podcast on Basic Brewing with Cris Colby on the style. ~5/17/18 Brut IPA~

 

I used the holiday to brew up an imperial stout. I’d never attempted a beer this big but actually exceeded my expectations at hit 1.116 OG. I was hoping to hit 1.110. I split the wort into two fermenters to avoid blowoff losses. Despite the oppressive heat it was a nearly flawless brew day.

 

I usually don’t brew in the summer. It’s too hot, weekend are always busy, and it’s too hot, . But it looks like this Saturday here in New England the hot and humid weather is about to break! Luckily I have everything I need to brew thanks to my procrastination last spring.

10 gallon batch
65% Belgian Pilz
30% white wheat
5% flaked wheat
Turbid mash, extended boil, aged hops
Belgian Saison yeast and a shit tun of bugs (from my Solera)

I’am considering a ‘no chill’ for this batch. I’ve never done one so for those who do, any tips would be appreciated. One question: do you just leave the batch in the kettle, or do you transfer into the fermenter? (I have a stainless steel fermenter.)

Cheers,
Mike

 

Brewing smoked magik tonight

 

I'm on day two of primary fermentation on voss kveik, of an IPA with late additions of cascade, southern cross and a mosaic dry hop. 2 days at 35 °c (!) and the temperature is still not dropping. crazy yeast :-). i expect it to be done in a few more days.

 

Club brew day up at a local pond on Sunday...they've got soft water up there, so going to take advantage by brewing up a "Kolsch"...will be Pils & carahell grain bill, but using Willamette hops and fermented with US-05.

@GormBrewhouse, you're gonna need to fill me in on what smoked magik is...considering the law changes this month, got my mind thinking...

 

Sounds tasty!! Would love to hear how your turbid mash goes...must be 10 years since i've done one.

I would say dump into the fermenter...I've chilled a few times in one of the SS Brewtech buckets. Any way to help the cooling process along, especially for the final push to pitch temp (say after 12 hours)? Going from 100F to 75-80F or whatever your planned pitch temp maybe, can take a while, especially 10 gal...or you planning on pitching the bugs at elevated temps, then pitching saison yeast lower?

 

Just brewed up a kettle soured saison. Soured with 2 bio-K probiotic shots (they claim each shot has minimum 50 billion lacto plantarum cells) for two days, then boiled for 45 minutes with bit of Mt. Hood. Fermenting now with a big starter of wyeast farmhouse ale. Sample tasted awesome! Plan on racking it onto 5 lbs of Saskatoon berries once they ripen up, then bottle so I can share around!

Also brewed up an american sour fermented with a pack of wyeast lactobacillus for a day over heat, then pitched wyeast brett lambicus, a scoop of slurry from a roeselaire ferment, some propped up 1056 and plan on adding some bottle dregs from whatver sour beers I decide to buy in the next couple days. Will rack into a carboy and let it age for at least 6 months, then probably add a bit of french oak and let it go another few months.

 

The turbid mash I do is pretty much what Cantillon does, explained on the MTF web site. I’ve done it quite a few times and it works really well.

No, I always pitch my yeast/bugs at low temps around 65. Thanks for the info,

 

Brewed a NEIPA with sacch trois. Cashmere, centennial, azacca and motueka hops. Just added my first round of dry hops.

Currently brewing a gose. I'll be souring with goodbelly and pitching sacch trois. Hoping to fruit it on some local peaches.

 

Got home from work and decided it was a good day to taste beer. Can you imagine that?

I have three beers in fermenters, so I decided to taste them, uncarbonated:

1. My Admittedly Imperfect Dubbel, fermented from 1.064 to 1.011 in five days. The thickness of the yeast layer on this beer is something to see (sorry, I didn't take pics!). You could rub this stuff into your beard and shave. Despite this, it could be done fermenting, and frankly, I'd be happy if it stopped here. It is really tasty. The first thing I got out of this is a bready/biscuit note, followed by a slight sweetness enhanced by Belgian fruity clovey characters, with a a dry finish. FWIW, I used the Imperial Organic Triple Double yeast, which, while not prescribed specifically in the Averagely Perfect Dubbel, is generally recognized as the Westmalle strain. The key imperfection, though, is using caravienne instead of caramunich, but I think it tastes great.
2. My 52 Shades of Grey Grisette Saison (I'll leave you to figure that out). 1.052 OG (hint), 1.006 PG (that's present gravity). Making a nod to the reputedly under-modified wheat malt used in grisette, I used ~10% German wheat malt and ~5% spelt malt, with the understand that the spelt malt is less modified. Don't know for sure. I never used spelt malt before (used raw spelt once), but I doubt it has much impact in this recipe beyond that which exists in my mind. The rest was Belgian pils. This beer used Imperial Organic Rustic, which is allegedly the same strain as WY3726 (@JackHorzempa , take note). In my own brewing experience, there is a saison spectrum, with the Belgian saison strains and the late great WLP 585 strain at the LOVE IT end of the spectrum, and the WY3711/Belle Saison/Fermentis 134 yeasts at the merely OK end of the spectrum. Rustic is somewhere between. It does hint of the fruit that I find in the Belgian and 585 strains, but not as big as those. It doesn't seem to have the strong clove & pepper that I get out of the 3711 complex (note -- I have no evidence of any relationship among these yeasts other than the impressions they made on my taste buds). Rustic seems to be a good yeast for letting some of the malt character shine, which I do not get from 3711 and friend. There is a grainy/bready note here.
3. My blended kriek, which is half a batch of brown porter mixed with an approximately equal volume of a low gravity cherry wine. The cherry aroma is great, and the chocolate note from the porter complements, but the resulting blend is too watery. I wanted to make it a session beer, but I think it needed the full batch of the brown porter rather than the half batch, to give more malt backbone. There was some lacto in this, but I think it could also use some Brett (doesn't have any).

 

I ran out of propane mid-boil and forgot to add my coriander and sea salt at flameout so it looks like I'm making a Berliner instead of a Gose.

 

Small test batch of NE DIPA on the stove today.

80% Golden Promise
15% Flaked Oats
5% Dextrose

Hopping based on Cloudwater published rates. Small Columbus addition at 60 then Amarillo & El Dorado @
6g/L Whirlpool
10g/L Biotransformation
15g/L DH

I’m kind of hoping it’s not that good! Scaling it up to a full batch is not cheap!

 

We recently moved across town and I haven't brewed recently, but I'm finally getting time to set things up in the new house. Last night, I took apart the keezer for a deep clean and changed the beer lines, removing all the f%*#ing Oetiker clamps without bodily harm. I'm hoping to brew a SMaSH pale ale soon to dial in the new system.