Brewing Activities June 2016

My Kindergartner got sent home today and asked that we not bring him tomorrow. Looks like I am going to be home watching him do nothing instead of going to work tomorrow. For sure going to clean some kegs and such, might get in an IPA brewday. When life hands you lemons you make a Radler I guess.

 

If only it was coloring in the lines that was the problem...

 

Tapped my blueberry gose tonight, and will be tapping my macaroon imperial milk stout tomorrow night. Good times!

 

Last night I kegged a 10 gallon batch of Conan-1318 fermented NEIPA with Simcoe/Mosaic/Citra. Initial impressions are very positive, although it seems like the Conan (GigaYeast Vermont IPA) dominated. Really juicy-fruity-bright, hops are really integrated. One keg will be coming with me to NHC, so I've got them at 20 PSI for a couple days to get carbonated quickly.

 

I'm trying to find time to squeeze brew days in with a 1-month old. It's been damn near impossible!

 

Took a sample of my Honey Blonde fermented with 1318 and dry hopped with Citra and Comet (because why not?). Really awesome! The dry hops added a nice mango and peach aroma while the blonde itself isn't too sweet and finishes rather dry. The 1318 got it down to 1.006, I was shooting for 1.008 so I'm happy!

Going to be a great beer to drink since it's warming up.

 

Kegged 10 gallons of my strawberry beer yesterday, kegged a witbier, and going to keg a cherry cider this weekend. I also ordered a set-up to convert a fridge into a kegerator. It will have 4 Perlick faucets possibly mounted on the side of the fridge. Really excited and looking forward to that. Can't wait for the supplies to be here.

 

brewing my first "hoppy blonde" this weekend. transfered my dipa into keg on Tuesday.

 

I have two beers lined up for a people's choice competition: Imperial Pilsner and a Mosiac IPA
I'm cold crashing a Belgian Pal Ale. I'm drinking a hefeweizen and a doppelbock on tap. The doppelbock is three months old now, and it is really developing into a tasty beer!

 

I need some inspiration. Last months IPA (2x 5gallon) disappeared too quickly. I will have a day I can ignore the much-needed lawn care and brew instead. I might want to make two batches, but I'm not sure what. I have about 20 recipes in my queue and 3 empty kegs (Truth be told - I can only fit 2 in the kegerator).

What I am thinking is this:

• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone. Or maybe take the base recipe add a little UK amber malt and swap in Citra for Cascade (St Boniface Paideia is one of my favorites)
  
• An all-grain version of a recent "boring" amber ale which folks raved about.

My Citra-Mosaic IPA last month was something I really liked. I think I want to try the same recipe with a Mosaic-Galaxy combo. No time for a starter, these will be Chico dry yeast. But I'm thinking summertime, more sessionable beers may be in order.

Other ideas are welcome, I expect to hit the local homebrew shop tomorrow evening.

 

@StupidlyBrave Mosaic Galaxy APA with a touch of Carastan and CaraPils on a Vienna base should do the trick. I'm not a fan of SNPA at all (to caramelly and floral). I have a 6.1% ABV Vienna, Carastan, CaraPils, Mosaic, 100% Brett on tap right now I can't stop drinking.

 

That hops combo has gradually become my new favorite. I use the Simcoe in the boil and use the Mosaic and Citra for flameout/whirlpool and dry hopping. Really like the balance they strike. Still haven't settled on a yeast yet though. May try that combo next. This weekend I plan on doing 1318 with S-O4.

 

I've had a windfall of good brewing deals lately... so I've upgraded my pot to 15 gallon, with ball valve, and just modified a free LME barrel to work as a primary fermenter, then found a super cheap 2 tier setup. Need to add some casters to make it really groove, but I'm pretty excited about getting all this rolling. Moving up to 10 gallon batches!

 

Doing a half batch to experiment with. Less volume to boil so thought I would brew inside, which I will never do again because it makes the house so hot and the space is too small.



Cooled and racked into the fermenter outside, ahhh much better.

 

Brewed an extract imperial IPA on Tuesday... it is my third batch so far and my first self created recipe. Not sure how it will turn out.

5.5 gallons total
3.0 gallon boil @ 90 minutes

1.0lb Crystal 40 Steep
1.0lb Carapils Steep
3.3 lbs munich LME
3.3 lbs golden light LME
5 lbs light DME late additon
0.5 lb cane sugar late additon

1.0oz Magnum FWH
2.0oz Amarillo @ 30, 20, 10, flame out (0.5oz each addition)
2.0oz Galaxy @ 30, 20, 10, flame out (0.5oz each addition)
2.0oz Simcoe @ 30, 20, 10, flame out (0.5oz each addition)

Undecided on how many ounces to dry hop... still debating that one while it ferments.

2x packs S-04 dry yeast

I didn't think that a blow-off setup was necessary and that turned out to be an inaccurate assumption. It backed up into my 3-piece a bit and I was able to rig the blow-off setup before it got any worse. It was fermenting like mad.

 

I had to shut the home brewery down for a month+ while I'm over here in Italy...so I finished 5 of 6 kegs off (left a Berliner Weisse on just to have a little something to come home to without having to buy beer), cleaned all of the kegs, lines, both kegerators and all of my brewing equipment after I brewed 3 clean beers to be ready when I get back (I already have 4 sour and Brett beers in fermenters ready to be kegged when I get back). I brewed up a single hopped Polaris GIPA (German IPA...German hops and German Ale Yeast) to keep the Euro vibe going when I get back, a Pliny clone (because I havent done one in a couple of years) and a Citra and Nelson session IPA. I also went ahead and stocked up on ingredients to brew up the next 6 batches when I get...a Wookey Jack clone, a Huell Melon GIPA, another HBC 438 session IPA, a Wild (WLP 644) Imperial IPA, a Brett Saison and a Blueberry Berliner Weisse.

In Rome for my second day now and about to head out to a few of the local craft beer pubs to get inspiration for future batches!

 

I'm sure you already planned to, but go to Ma Che.