What's Brewing - November Edition!

I really like pilsners but didn't want to spend the extra time lagering and such since I don't use kegs. I came up with a pilsner recipe but I used Nottingham dry ale yeast and fermented at 55. I kept it pretty simple with 9lbs of pilsner and 1lb of Vienna. I used an once of Liberty hops at 60 and an once of Sterling for 10. I mashed at 148 (mostly) BIAB process. My OG came in at 1.048. I fermented for 5 days at 55 and then raised it to 58 for 2. I took a reading at 7 days and was down to 1.010 so I raised the temp to 66 and will let it ride a few more days and re-check. I feel pretty good about this one, the sample tasted and smelled great. So hopefully this will be a good faux pilsner for me.

 

Going the decoction route for your doppelbock?

 

@frozyn

Nah, used to do them but now skip for my lager. For the Doppelbock, I have a small percentage of Melanoidin at around 2% (along with Caraaroma at 4.5%) which should give some malty depth, along with the Munich II of course that makes up almost 50% of the grist. Balance of Pilsner and Carafa Special II for color. FWH hopping of Mittelfrueh and Tettnang to about 26 IBU. No late additions. Pitching WLP830 and the OG is expected at 1.074 and FG of 1.017.

 

All Sabro IPA today.
1.063
Warrior @ 60
1oz Sabro @ 20, @ 5
3oz WP @ 170
Best Pils/Weyermann Pale
Carafoam/Carahell
1% Caraaroma
Sabro smells amazing. Reminds me a lot of Vic Secret. It definitely smells like a Southern Hemisphere Hop. Incredibly fruity with a touch of that herbal quality you get from Sorachi Ace.

Hoppy Spelt Pale Ale Yesterday
Weyermann Pale
Malted/Flaked Spelt
TYB Midwestern
Cashmere/Citra/Motueka
1.053

This guy was ripping today so took 2 quarts to Krausen a Citra/Idaho 7 Pale Ale and took one quart to Krausen 2.5 gallons of a Eureka/Enigma/Ella IPA that I fermented with a blend of S04 & 34/70.

Single Decoction Pils Tomorrow, hopefully.

 

Have kegged Winter Warmer, tapped Irish Red and last night made yeast starter for my first NEIPA which I'll be brewing this weekend.

 

Just had some Sabro hops delivered so would love to hear how it comes out! Might do a smash ipa next weekend to try it out for myself.

 

I agree. This style is an under appreciated style, and can be brewed with many different hops, not just NB. Crystal and chinook sound really good. Good call!
I also think pilsners are fun to experiment with less traditional hops.

 

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Yeah for sure ! I have ten gallons of Pilsner style beer lagering now , one half was dry hopped with 2oz Amarillo, the other with 2oz equanot.. excited to see the difference.

On the Cali Common front, I suppose the style is mostly defined by the ‘hybrid’ yeast strain WY 2112 ? Because a lot if the grain bills I have seen are basically pale ale grists from 2002... and then NB hops I suppose show up because they were growing in the region at the time? It would be cool to see a little more homebrew riffage on the style...

Anyone use 2112 for other beer styles?

 

Excited to head the difference! And wish I lived closer to Alberta so we could swap experiments.

 

Finally had the perfect night for a coolship batch after dealing with a very rainy Fall in New England.

 

Great picture!

 

Just prepped everything for brew day tomorrow... A Doppelbock (first time I've brewed one!).

Gravity targets of 1.073 OG and 1.018 FG (7.4% ABV)
26 IBU
20 SRM

Will pitch and ferment at 48F... Spund and lager at 30F until Feb, give or take.

According to my research, my recipe is not exactly the most cookie-cutter, which usually is mainly all munich malt in the grist. Mine instead is basically a 50/50 mix of Pils and Dark Munich making up just over 93% of the grain bill or so, then of course some caraaroma, melanoidin and carafa special II to finish. I used more Pils to make it a bit more delicate, if you will. I have a Dunkel in process, just about to come out of lagering, which has something like 80% of the grain bill as Munich. I didn't want this one to be just an imperial version of that, even with the other specialty malt additions. I have liked the less intense doppelbocks, in terms of malty richness, which was another reason I decided to cut with more pils than typical.

Really looking forward to this one... I have been wanting to brew a Bock of some sort for quite some time.

 

I just had my brewing revenge on the world. my last brew was a total disaster, and had my spirits down a bit. On this latest brewday, making a vesion of the averagely perfect IPA, I hit all my nymbers and everything went to plan. I fermented with Gjaernes kveik and finished fermentation in 3 days. It's good to be back. Actually, so good i finally decided to invest in kegging equipment

 

How big is that batch? How long did it take to get to fermentation temps?

 

This is 12 gallons, but my coolship will hold 22. The overnight temps were in the low 40’s and it takes about 6-8 hours to get to pitching temps. However, I like to let it go for about 10 hours.

 

Cleaned a keg, and kegged an altbier. FG=1.010. Tasted hydrometer sample, below. Success.

 

Double brew day Sunday

 

SMaSH blonde ale w/ German Pils, Saaz, and Munton's Ale Yeast.