Brewing Activities (2019)

Another random hoppy beer today

Lightly Oated IPA
All centennial/nugget hotside
Wlp072 French Ale yeast fermented on the warm end
Large dose of KCL in the kettle

Might suck, might not.

 

This may be a dumb question but what is KCL?

 

KCl stands for potassium chloride. I can't say I've ever heard of it being added to a mash or kettle. CaCl (calcium chloride) and NaCl (table salt) are common, though.

 

Oh ok. Thanks for the info

 

Fuller’s adds it to a lot of their beers... Tree House beers test really high for potassium, way higher than could possible be attributed to malt. Some hop derivative products are processed using potassium salts so it might come from that but just thought I’d try it out to see what affect it might have. I’ve been adding some level of NaCl to almost all my beers for a few years now. This will only be the second with KCL.

 

Fuck Ya DUDE

 

Not only the set up, but the beer selection. Four of my favorites. Outstanding @invertalon .

 

Robust Porter today. Inspired by Everett and lately Catharsis from Tree House.

Goal is to brew this recipe a lot this winter to try to dial it in.

7.5%
1.030 FG
Really chocolate forward using a multitude of chocolate malts. Catharsis is amazing. Just got a few cans of it. Tastes and smells like there is actual fudge in it but it’s just chocolate and caramel malts supposedly.

 

Interested in your mix of malts?

 

First attempt is a mix of Brown malt, Crisp pale chocolate, Fawcett pale Chocolate, and a bit of Bairds chocolate. Decent amount of carastan for the crystal. Thought I had more brown malt than I did. Next batch will probably be more. Adding the roasted grains to the mash at the end.

 

I just aquired a 12l (3gal) corny keg and plan to start making smaller batches of with extract.
My plan is to start testing all the different stuff, like new hops and yeast, I never have time to do with 7 gallon all grain brewing.

Btw - your thoughts please:
If I use a Kveik yeast and finish in 3 days, can I get away with just pitching the yeast in the brewing kettle and putting the lid on?

 

Got my red ale kegged up for spunding after three days since brewing it up. Taste is really promising, I like the malt profile going on with this one. Should be a nice compliment to what will be on tap around the time this goes on in a few weeks.

Next up to be brewed is another lager of some sort... I am thinking a Czech/German Pils hybrid of sorts.

 

Prepping some starter wort. Thinking Ill brew the Averagely Perfect American Brown this weekend.

 

Today - brewing up a gluten free American Stout.

Tomorrow - racking GF Saison onto peaches.

 

Brewing a pseudo-Marzen, using Oslo Kveik yeast. It’s supposed to be very clean, so we shall see...

 

Alas, I've brewed another Averagely Imperfect beer...

1. Higher gravity. I had boil off and mash efficiency variances contributed to a lower volume with greater extract.

2. Wrong malts, one for sure, and one possibly.
2a. Supplier was out of American C60. I used Muntons.
2b. A bigger issue is that I think I was not sent brown malt. When I tasted it, it seemed quite raisiny, which is unlike other brown malt I have used. For the record, I was supposed to get Thomas Fawcett Brown Malt; previously, I have had Crisp Brown malt, in my brown porter, which I brew about every couple years.

The gravity is 1.063, a bit out of style. The wort tastes like there could be some C120 or special B in it; I'm not getting the brown malt flavor I am familiar with. If the fermentation goes OK, I should have a very good beer on had, but it may differ from the target in noticeable ways.

 

A big, raisiny brown ale actually sounds pretty tasty.

 

Brewed up a mango kolsch with the last of my harvested yeast I had in my fridge. May be the last kolsch I make for a long while as there are just too many other beers I prefer (and I'm better at making). Everything went smooth except forgetting to take a post boil gravity which isn't all that important. Next week I'll be taking my 2nd attempt at a pastry stout. 1st try is tasting great so hoping I can recreate it

 

Brewing Irish stout and a west coast ipa this week

 

Propping up the Simonaitis strain that @TooHopTooHandle sent to me a while back to ferment an extract IPA of sorts. Trying to use up some hops that have been in my chest freezer for quite a while now, and they still smell very good:

9 lbs golden light LME
1 oz Nugget
8 oz of 2017 Comet

Will be fun to go back to my stovetop, extract days. Looking for something that will be quick/easy to make, and hopefully be drinking from the keg within 8-10 days.