Brewing Activities (2019)

IIPA
1.072
147/162
Weyermann Pils/Admiral Pale
Carafoam, Carahell, Acidulated
Hopshot @ 60
Nugget @ 10
Citra @ 5
Citra/Strata/Nugget WP
Yeast harvested from some HF cans

 

Bottling abv down pale ale. Should be around 4abv.

 

Brewed an IPA with Chinook, Azacca, Citra today
Will dry hop with Chinook and Azacca

 

Sounds like an awesome beer! My wife is from Germany, and she STILL doesn’t like them. My father in-law lives in Bavaria so we try to go over every other year. Although with 2 little ones now it may not happen for another few years. Really wanted to make the trip to Schlenkerla last time we were there over Christmas but they were closed around that time, unfortunately.

 

FINALLY getting around to brewing a Ekuanot hopped pale ale. Rahr 2row, English crystal, caramunich, and some aromatic. Fermented with WY1968. It will probably be a little on the hoppy side, so might end up calling it a session IPA.

 

Brewing up a GF Black IIPA (basically a slightly lower abv Stone Self Righteous clone).

Pale Millet
Pale Rice
Dark Roasted Millet
Medium Roasted Millet
D-180 Candi syrup
Chinook
Simcoe
Amarillo
US-05

Should be an nice assertive ale to finish out the winter.

 

My second red flagship recipe mimicks the first one with 78% Vienna and 18% Red X. But I subbed out The 3% Crystal 40 with CaraRed and also subbed the 1% Pale Chocolate with Carafa II.
Finally I subbed the Imperial Tartan yeast with Imperial Dieter.

So basically I tweaked the color. And the yeast (from Tartan to Dieter) but that was the plan from the beginning.

Super clear. 1.051-1.010 in a week. No cold crash yet. It’s just 58° in the fermenter right now. And it tastes great.

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Abv down pale ale was actually 3.9 abv. Initial taste was a lot more bitter than my usual pales. We will see how it ages, but I believe hop reduction should have been greater than what I applied.

 

Kegged my Ekuanot SMaSH pale ale.
Finished a little low at 1.010 = 5.91%

 

Sample before bottling the Maris Otter Styrian Golding SMaSH v2.0.
Aroma of the previous version was a hint of honeydew melon, and a bit stronger of kudzu blossom, much like a ripe muscadine (wild grape).
The nose on this one has a bit of hay and a prominent aroma of late harvest Riesling.....hoping that carries through in the bottle.

 

Quite the description. Sounds delicious.

 

Thanks. The sweet wine thing kind of took me aback. FWIW, this is the pic posted earlier (that photobucket says I removed). I've had more grief than satisfaction with photobucket.....let's see if this one sticks.

 

-> pssst <-

 

Thanks. I created an account last night.

 

Wife and kids will be out of town in the next few weeks, so you know what that means. Planning a 11 gal batch of rakau saison, inspired by Funkwerks Tropic King, but a bit lower gravity.

I’m giving my house saison yeast a break, as I’ve been wanting to try Imperial’s Rustic for a while now. Also, Yeast Bay’s Amalgamation II has been another one I’ve been eyeing. May do a split batch and do a 100% Brett ferment on 5.5 gal, and pitch Rustic in the other 5.5.

Mixed berry Gose is another one on the list if I get some time.

 

Brewed today for a club fantasy ingredient draft challenge. Here were my ingredients...

Vienna Malt
Chocolate Malt
Roasted Barley
Cocoa Powder
WLP002
Challenger Hops

So with these, I figured a stout would be the direction to go. Sadly, no C-Malts or Lactose made the team, but here's my strategy:
For Residual Sugars...
- Short(ish) Mash (45 minutes)
- High Mash Temp (161F)
For Quasi-Sweet Esters...
- Under-pitched
- No O2 other than transfer splashing
- High(ish) fermentation Temp for WLP002 (68F-69F)
For Balance Tipping
- Hopped to only 30 IBUs

 

Checked in with the cream ale/pale ale split batch (half hopped with Huell melon and half hopped with Hallertau blanc). Both are down to 1.002, so now they are Brut IPAs . Seriously, that was the plan, mashing in real low, and deriving 15% of the gravity points from table sugar. That got me wondering why the fuss about enzymes when mash temps and sugar for grain substitutions can get you down close to 1.000. Perhaps fear of the cidery reputation of sugar? Or just to be different. Anyhow, the melon tasted fruity and the blanc, well, undecided, but not as good. I plan to dry hops these separately and see what I think of each in another week.

I also checked in on my Berliner weisse. Originally I was going to pitch brett C into the bottling bucket but decided to dose the whole batch instead. Tasting nice. Tart, but not offensively sour, some fruitiness. Maybe package next weekend on all these.

Forgot I had a cider I wanted to check on, too. Later tonight.

 

Brewed the no-boil NEIPA today in my new AMCYL 10 gal kettle. Went well. Heated 4 gals of water to ~160F to pasteurize, mixed in 6 lbs of Briess Bavarian wheat DME, and whirlpooled 60g of CTZ for 20 minutes (starting at 155F and letting it drop as the whirlpool continued). After the whirlpool, chilled to 65F, transferred to a bucket, and pitched a packet of S-04 dry. Fingers crossed!