What's Brewing & Doing - October Edition

I'm on a brewing kick of SMASH or Almost-SMASH type beers.
Last one was 2 Row and Centennial and turned out great.

I wish I could get some of the Long Trail SMASH project beers.

 

Spent an hour last night cleaning ~ 30 bombers so I can bottle my imperial stout today... Oxyclean soak, bottle brush cleaning, 3-rinses and then into the dishwasher for another rinse/steam/sanitizing. They just need a quick dip in star-san prior to filling with all that black goodness.

Today, my yeast starter is done spinnin' on the plate and will go into the fridge until Saturday when I brew my IPA.

 

October 2 bottled Pumpkin. October 10 brewing Toasted Coconut Porter for the wife.

 

Any reason for the starsan after the sanicycle in the dishwasher or just peace of mind? When I bottled I had always done the sanicycle with no starsan rinse with no issues

 

Just as another precaution and peace of mind. I figure it can't hurt, even if not really required. It barley adds any time for me in my process so it's not a big deal.

 

It's been 13 days since I put @JohnSnowNW's House Pale Ale in the fermentor. This is also my first brew with the BrewJacket so I'm very curious to pop the bucket open and give it a good look-see and smell. It is also my second all-grain batch and my first to use whole hops so there are lots of unknowns here. Getiting it racked to the keg and start putting the gas and cold to it is my plan for Saturday.

 

Saturday, I'll be brewing up an Amber Ale (first time doing so somehow) with Mosaic and Lemon Drop, and pitching WY1450. I guess technically it will be a "session" Amber Ale at 4% abv.

I will use the subsequent yeast cake to pitch a big English Barleywine.

 

I'm trying to find the time to bottle my Belgian dubbel, it was only meant to be in there for two weeks but it's been almost five...

 

Just smacked a pack of Wyeast 1098. I'll do a two stage starter for next weekend's brew, an ESB. Cheers!

 

A+ name.

 

Racked my sour blonde brewed with RR Deviation dregs onto 3lbs of peach puree. When 'its ready' in a year or more I'll add some peaches and apricots and apricot pits (noyaux) and maybe some vanilla beans. Creamsicle sour blonde?

Also freeze concentrating a pint of my 30.5% none more black imp stout. On the second freeze right now and honing my technique. Must be at 45-50% because it burns my nose hairs like a *************! (hows that for precise measuring)

 

Just racked my coffee cocoa stout on to oak chips soaked with cognac.

 

Brewing a Robust Porter today, wife's favorite style. Going with a more traditional recipe with a moderate amount of EKG since she didn't really like the Citra/Amarillo heavy attempts to approximate FFF's Snow Weasel that I had been making. 5 gallons with just 1968, and ~3 gallons will be copitched with a few bottles of Otval dregs.


Also, kegged round 2 of my Mosaic Simcoe Amarillo IPA earlier this month and dry hopped the extra 3 quarts from that same IPA that I fermented entirely with Orval dregs a few days ago. Took forever for that one to start since it was quite underpitched.

And we bottled the non-Brett version of my Saison and rye Saison last week. Brett versions were copitched with Saison Brett dregs and will remain in primary for a couple more weeks.

 

Currently half through my boil for my IPA... Nailed my pre-boil volume and gravity (with a mash efficiency of about 77%!). This IPA has a lot of firsts for me...

1.) Water Adjustment (using campden tablets, adding Gypsum, Calcium Chloride and Phosphoric Acid).

2.) First Wort Hopping

3.) Hop Stand at 170F for 20mins

4.) Using pure O2 to oxygenate the wort

5.) First time using Ahtanum, Mosaic and home-grown Cascades.


House is smelling really nice right now... So excited!

 

Changed my mind on the hops, going to use Mosaic and El Dorado. This is not the first time I've substituted hops on brew day...probably won't be the last.

 

Well, throwing another audible since the El Dorado smell like cheese. Otto Supreme it is!

 

Kegging my pumpkin ale after 3 weeks in the primary. It smells absolutely delicious. On brew day, I was a little duh-runk and I forgot to take an OG. So with that being said, I won't be taking a FG. However, beer should be right around 5.5%, just perfect!!
Cheers!

 

Brewed up a pale ale with some homegrown hops from my father-in-law in Portland Oregon

 

Who said in-laws weren't cool? : )

 

Just finished up a "Mystery hop" pale ale. Mystery because the marker came off, or was never applied to 12 oz of pellets. They are either centennial or pacific gem i think.

Anyway, went with a simple pale ale malt wort to OG50. Did a 30 min boil with 4oz at 15,10,5 min. Ferment with Nottingham. Came up a little short on volume, 4.5 gal, but OG of 53. I will take it.

I was pretty surprised with how fast I finished brewing. I had an issue with my mash tun, so I had to go to the hardware store that did not open until 8am. I had wort in the fermentor at 11:30am so about 3 hours start to finish. I do not brew as much anymore but I guess I still have it. Here are some pics.

Grinding grain

Boil

Said mystery hops