September - Homebrewing Happenings

Just checking the gravity and tasted my first pale ale. Man it's good. Should be able to transfer in a couple days.

 

I've gone a few days before finally deciding to clean my mash tun before and let me tell ya... that was the last time I'll do that! the stench is unbelievable

 

Picked just over 1# of wet Chinook last night and tossed them into the fermentors with the 7 gallons of 100% 3# Columbus whirlpooled IPA. A few days on the hops and I will rack it all to a keg to carbonate.


Also picked 2+# of Blisk that is currently drying for a future batch of Single Hop IPA.

 

It's always nice seeing whole hops for some reason. Nice pic!
@jbakajust1 - Looks like that's dry hopping in the high 70s. Is that ok? My guess is that if fermentation is pretty much complete, it is fine and maybe even will promote better aromatic extraction from the hops. I'm completely guessing.

 

I always dry hop at that temp. My Brett strain likes it there...

 

I used the AG kit from Jaspers Homebrewing which you have to supply you own chocolate and coffee grounds so I used Ghirardelli Baking Chocolate and a Kenyen dark roast
Best tasting wort I've had and the smell while brewing it was awesome

 

Got back on the 5 gal horse after a break doing 1 gal batches.

Bottled a Hoppy red ale kit. Carbing as I type.

Hoping to get to a chinook pale ale this weekend.

 

lol, I brew a doctored Blue Moon clone for my wife and soon to be daughter in law, I add more citrus, more hops and a bit more fermentables to raise the abv. Now they both dink my IPA's so I'm only doing one more batch (maybe) of my Howl at the Moon

 

Do you sterilize those home grown hops before you throw them in.

 

100% Columbus. I'm always interested in how people do this? I had a 100% Columbus IPA from HF and almost died it was so good. I haven't been able to work with Columbus without an almost searing bitter note. Is it all late additions?

 

I have an IPA bottle conditioning now. Soon I will start a pepper IPA.

 

Just kegged another batch of my NE Style hoppy bear of deliciousness. 8oz of Mosaic and 8oz of Galaxy total for this batch, the color came out fantastic:

 

tomorrow, brewing the countess of Vermont, a double oatmeal stout best consumed with a juicy hamburger,,,,,,,,,at least that is what the countess says!!!

 

Have to make a starter tomorrow for a fresh hop ale this weekend. Have a couple bines of Cascade that are ready, rough guestimate is somewhere around 10+ oz wet.
I making a slightly amberish ale - 12lbs pale malt and a pound of C-40. expecting somewhere around 1.065 OG. an ounce of Magnum for bittering, and the fresh Cascade with maybe a couple minutes left in the boil, to make sure nothing nasty is getting in, then letting them whirlpool for 10 minutes or so before cooling.

 

This batch is Whirlpool only, all wet.

 

Nope, just like dry. They are anti-microbial in nature.

 

I've got a couple batches planned over the next few days: first up is a pretty standard Dubbel with WLP500, that I might try conditioning in keg with a little sugar (simulate bottling conditioning). The 2nd will be, what I'm calling a Farmhouse Harvest ale- basically a wet hopped (with cascade I think?) saison type beer. Might throw in a little Mandarina Bavaria too. Hoping for it to come out along the lines of Tank 7 maybe.

 

Tapped my Munich Dunkel and fresh/wet hop harvest IPA yesterday!

The Dunkel came out fantastic! Mixed with my Vienna Lager 50/50, it is a nice pseudo-Oktoberfest. On it's own, that bready/caramel type flavor note. Smooth, malty flavor. Delicious.

The IPA was fresh hopped with Chinook/Cascade and some Centennial in the dry hop. Intensely aromatic, that's for sure! Flavor is actually fairly mild, clean pine/citrus/floral. Tasty stuff!

 

Tapped my Aletoberfest last night and was tasting pretty good for having brewed in on labor day…should be ready for the HB club's oktoberfest party tomorrow.

Found a couple packets of old yeast in the bottom of my kegerator…a strain called Mt Adams from Wyeast. Popped both of them last night and made a starter, let's see if they come back to life. They expired this time last year…but since there are two of them, and it's a saison/brett mix, I'm feeling pretty confident I'll see something by tomorrow. Hoping to brew a basic saison with it...