Brewing Activities (2021)

So sorry fo the loss,
best to your family in his really tough time.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Made a starter of Bootleg Biology NEEPAH this afternoon. Plan to brew Sunday.

Never used this blend before but I have never smelled so much fruitiness when opening a yeast package before. Very excited to see how this turns out!

I have 2 IPAs on deck with the same grain bill and yeast where I will change the hops and thinking of changing the water profile as well. The first will use my tried and true NEIPA hops of Idaho 7, Citra and Mosaic. The second will combine Amarillo, Simcoe and Cascade, this one I may change the water to work for a more west coast IPA.

 

Hooking up lines/taps for a smoked helles (first lager for me) and a witbier. Lager's been lagering for 5 weeks. Wanted to lager for 6 weeks but once the line's hooked up I might have to test it. Some sticky weather approaching the Boston area so these are most welcome.

 

Brewed a Baltic Porter today. I’ll lager this one over the summer and tap it this fall. First time I ever made one and I couldn’t decide on a recipe, so I went with one I came across in Zymurgy a couple years ago.

 

Brewing a Key Lime Gose sometime this weekend. Fermenting with Omega Kolsch II

Also kegging 2 batches of West Coast style IPA with Amarillo, Enigma and Ekuanot.

 

Brewing up an American Amber Ale
63% Briess Brewers Malt
35% BestMalz Red X
2% Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate

All Cascade
60min: 1oz
30min: 1oz
5min: 2oz
Flameout: 1oz

This is a 6.5gal split batch. I’m testing whether I’m taking the beer off the yeast too soon.

When I started brewing, the books prescribed the following schedule and it seemed like it was common practice: 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary, and then 2 weeks bottle conditioning. When I came back I was seeing people going grain to glass in less than 10 days. Now I like to brew beer but I’m not a real patient guy so when I saw this I thought I needed to immediately emulate it. I have been having some trouble with my home brew, so I’m testing this variable.

One fermenter will stay in fermentation chamber for 2 weeks. The other will be removed after it hits terminal gravity for diacetyl rest and kegged shortly after.

Also I have been having trouble getting hop flavor into my beers so I changed out my SS hop spider for a brew-in-a-bag type mesh bag. I’m hoping to get better hop utilization.

I also picked up another Tilt hydrometer so I can track these simultaneously.

Oh these are fermenting with A01 Imperial House @ 66F.

 

Split batch today:

Pale millet
Quinoa
Biscuit rice 4L
Buckwheat
Dextrose

Mt. Hood
Barbe Rouge

Beer #1
Philly Sour, then secondary with Brett I, strawberries and bourbon soaked med toast oak cubes.

Beer #2
Belle Saison w/ white wine soaked med toast oak cubes after fermentation.

 

cream ale

50% golden promise
35% pilsner
9% corn
rest table sugar

2oz hallertau @ 60
0.5 hallertau blanc @ 1

 

Whole hop ipa, finishing up Columbus cascade and foundry blend hops which consist of cascade Columbus nugget chinook and centennial.

 

Lime zest at flame out.

 

Ok, that’s what I do with my version as well. The ‘pie’ part had me wondering. I’ve heard of people doing crazy things in their mashes these days!

 

I did do a bunch of graham crackers in the mash. Should have mentioned

 

For those of you who home-toast flaked coconut, does the oil that's rendered have an impact on head retention? Is it worth patting/pressing with paper towels to remove some of the oil?

 

Added to the imperial stout secondary:
4 oz cacao nibs
4 oz toasted flaked coconut
2 vanilla beans (split, scraped & chopped)
4 oz. bourbon the vanilla was soaked in for months
2 grams candy cap mushrooms

 

Yahoooo, sounds excellent

 

I’ve done it a few times with a stout and a couple brown ales. I never noticed head retention problems as I recall. But I also used flaked oats in all I believe so maybe that helped it? I dunno I’m not a rocket appliances scientist.