Brewing Activity February 2016

Picture from earlier today showing the grist for my latest batch of porter. I've grown increasingly happy with the results of the first batch over the last month as it has been sitting in the bottle so I went with basically the same recipe. 74.7% Maris Otter, 23% brown malt and 2.3% black malt (a bit less than the 3% of the last batch), all from Crisp. I used up the remainder of my EKG but added a 5 minute addition since I had more left than I thought. It will be interesting to see what difference it will make. Pitched a Danstar Windsor yeast.

 

Planning a Yellow Rose clone two do weekend after this coming one. Maybe late in the month I'll be doing my first attempt at an NE style IPA.

 

@SwillBilly and I will be re-brewing my now eight-year-old Courage RIS clone. Last night I opened the last bottle of a 100% Wyeast Brett anomalus brew I did with the same pack I used for that original batch, we'll see if there are any cells left alive!

 

Busy month for me!

Going to do a NE style IPA Saturday, my first time using London III. Going to be doing a Gose and a Wee Heavy pretty soon as well, most likely next weekend. To close the month out I think I'm going to do the coffee brown ale I've been working on.

 

Will be brewing a Maris Otter and Amarillo Smash with Belgian Saison 3 yeast on Saturday. Never done a smash or a saison with Maris Otter so I am curious on how it will turn out.

 

Ended January bottling the 3-ish gallon Vienna Lager Saturday and had enough clean yeast to fill two Grolsch bottles. Brewed a five gallon Munich Brown and 3 gallon Dark Lager Sunday using the (Pilsener) yeast repitch from one of the bottles. The other is cooling in the fridge for the next round in mid-February. Thinking I'll probably do a five gallon batch of Vienna then and maybe something dark as well. Also thinking of putting the current second gen yeast to work making a batch of malt.

 

Split your batch in two when you bottle, add in a little almond extract to one half. Sometimes you feel like a nut - sometimes you don't.

 

You can approximate it by swabbing a drop of the almond extract into your glass to see if you like the effect. Or maybe that hazelnut sweetener they sell to add to coffee. Again, just a little added carefully to a glass to see if it adds anything to the beer.

Anything goes...

So, in the interest of science I added a capful of hazelnut syrup to a glass of the Irish/German brown lager and it tastes very similar to Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar.

 

I'm going to be brewing another fairly low-ABV pale ale for my second batch. Is it possible to add fruit to this one? If so, any recommendations on a good guide on how to do this?

 

Of course! You can pasteurize fruit at 170 degrees in a half gallon or so of water to add to the bucket (you have to really pulverize it if you're using a carboy). Apricot would probably be good, or peaches, just make sure they're really ripe.
I've made a lager with honey and kiwis a couple of times, they pair well. In fact, I might just revisit that in a couple of weeks.

I find that 1/2 - 3/4# per gallon is enough fruit for my taste, just looking for a subtle addition and not a cider/beer end product.

 

Brewed an ESB today, it was a sunny 70 degree day here and a perfect day for brewing.
OG 1.056, 35 ibu's, 14 srm

 

Building a stir plate so I can kick this Brett starter up a notch!

 

It was an amazing weekend here in central Texas and I was supposed to brew, but my LHBS didn't receive all my ingredients for my Belgian DIPA.

 

Just brewed my first ESB and sticking with tradition it's time to enjoy a pour of the last beer I brewed.

 

Out of curiosity, what's all taped up on there?

 

Is it wrong that I'm aroused from the duct tape job on that fermentor?

 

If all goes according to plans, February will see:

1--Kegging my Nut Brown Ale (tonight hopefully!)

2--Kegging my 4G hop NE IPA "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" (Galaxy/Galena/Glacier/Green Bullet w/ WY1318)

3--Brewing a NE Red IPA (codename: "Belmosa IPA"); Plan to play off the color and go for big berry-type aromas by using Belma & Mosaic hops. Will be using Conan from HT dregs as this apparently reported to accentuate the berry aroma from Belma hops: http://www.bear-flavored.com/2012/12/recipe-and-tasting-notes-belma-single.html

4--Brewing a NE IPA (codename: Underdog IPA) done with all dwarf hops (Azacca/Jarrylo/Summit)

 

I have a fermwrap around the fermenter to raise the temp of the wort and use duct tape to keep it there. Then I have a digital temp probe that I tape to the outside. To keep the cold ambient temp from impacting the probe i cover it with bubble wrap and more duct tape. I always make sure I have a roll of duct on hand.