Brewing Activity February 2016

Love the tap handles!

 

First time brewing since the weekend before Christmas. The new baby has put a crimp in the brewing plans. Brewed up an IPA, OG 1.060, 65 calculated IBUs. Will be featuring Azacca with a little Simcoe to balance it out. Will hit it with 5oz of Azacca in the DH.

 

Cooling an Imperial Red. Went outside to grab my hose to start running the chiller, discovered it was full of ice when it snapped in my hand. After 15 minutes of constant stirring in a snowbank, it's already down to 85F. Way better than expected. It probably also helps that it's 13 degrees outside right now...

 

Hooked up a gas manifold (again). Hopefully sealed all the leaks this time. If so, I'll have a pale ale, a saison, a mild, and a Dunkelish lager on tap soon. And then I'll hook up a secon manifold so I can get a sweet stout in play. And once that's set, I'll begin playing with the last straw bottle filler that I picked up last month

 

I've got a lot of active stuff going right now- I wanted to brew more but I'm out of ferm vessel/chamber room.

I transferred a Barleywine out of a Woodinville barrel and put a quad into the barrel after soaking with Larceny for 7 days.

I got a virgin french oak barrel to age Absynthe in and then it will be used to age something in- I haven''t decided yet- but I'm leaning towards an imerpial saison- I think it would go nice with absynthe barrel aging. Maybe I'll add some fresh wormwood, yarrow and fennel seed in the last few weeks of aging.

 

Does anyone know? I had the same thought would have brewed if I could have run my chiller. But it was 20 below just curious if anyone has left wort out in these conditions to chill.

 

I know this won't be exciting for you guys, but it's exciting for me. I brewed my first batch with an all extract kit last weekend. It is an Imperial IPA. Looking forward to see how it turns out. I ordered a Bourbon Barrel Porter kit as well as a Hoppy red Ale kit. Will probably brew the BB Porter this upcoming weekend after I bottle the Imperial IPA.

 

Brewed a session and the caramunich stout. Bottled a session ale and the cherrywood IPA. Cheery wood shows good potential. Put 3 oz hard maple and 1 oz oak on the black Porter. Smells super.

 

Absinthe barrel would be nice for an imperial stout too. Certainly an imperial something

 

Brewed my Belgian IPA yesterday and ended up with just a bit over 5 gallons as opposed to 6!! That wasn't the plan but oh well. I plan on adding 2x 1 pound of cane beet sugar since i forgot to add that to the boil. Dealing with 10 oz of hops at different times was a chore to keep up with! Overall, the day went by really smoothly. It has to be my fastest 5 gallon batch ever. Started mashing at 9 am and finished at 2 pm while still using my propane burner system.

 

I was finally able to get around to ordering my Last Straw bottle filler!! I should have a review on this in about two weeks, when I use it on my milk stout/IPA.

 

I was down to 75 F in just over two hours last night just ambient chilling at -1 to -5 F.

 

Any stirring involved lid on or lid off? 5 gallons?

 

Brewed an Amarillo IPA Saturday. First time using London III. There's something satisfying about a well-used blowoff tube.

 

Dude, let me know how that turns out. I have been wanting to make an IPA as well with nothing but Amarillo. Just haven't had the guts to pull the trigger.

 

Lid off, I did stir, but was also boiling a second batch so not as much as normal.

 

First 100% Brett beer. Rye saison brewed with Galaxy and Amarillo, fermenting with cultured Brett C from dregs and yeast bay's amalgamation blend. The little gallon fermenter behind it was a little wort that was left over (mostly hop trub) that I decided to hit with some harvested 3711 just for the hell of it and it's just starting to take off.

 

Went to a brewfest that we judged the homebrew comp for last weekend. I got first place for a Barleywine that was just over a year old. Also cleaned 4 kegs and just blew another one. Got some ingredients for next weeks brew.

 

Congrats man!!

 

After a little over 2 weeks in primary I racked my RIS over to the keg and put on the gas. I'll let it sleep there for couple of months before I sample and decide if and how I want to play around with it. Took one last gravity reading and it was down to 1.020 from 1.097 (78% app att). A little lower than I wanted but will see how it tastes. That's 10.1% or 11.1% depending on which calculator you believe. Big enough for me.