November homebrewing

I'll be bottling my annual Xmas ale during Thanksgiving week.
It's a vatted Burton ale, done as a solera (as an homage to the one pictured in my avatar) and it's now in it's 25th year. This year's "top ups" were brewed in March and the combined brew(s) have been quietly aging and conditioning in a 10 gallon Spartanburg keg (with some hops and a small quantity of Hungarian Oak beans) at cellar temperature since May.
I just sampled some last night (for the first time since the blending) to make sure that it didn't acquire any undesirable 'funk" or oxidation (since a percentage of the beer in this year's blend is already 25+ years old)...it tasted fine, and once again had me wishing I had made twice as much.
My Xmas bottle gift list has grown quite a bit so I'm already making plans to have 20 gallons ready for December 2017.

 

Brewed my spicy holiday ale last Friday. I had a boil over the second I added the hops. Other than that things went well. The beer smelled very sweet but I'm hopeful that will be handled during fermentation. We'll see.......

 

It's been almost 4 months since my last 'brew day'. I quote that because I've made a few other fermented beverages that make for a much easier/faster day than beer

Getting back into it this month, and going to brew up the Saison d'Hiver featured HERE. Fermenting with Yeast Bay's Saison Blend II, which I've heard great things about

 

A 25 year old solera is very impressive, not to mention way ahead of the curve. You might have the oldest beer solera in existence, massive props to keeping that going.

You can add me to the xmas list

 

Finally getting around to my Three Way Stout this weekend...17 gallons of a hefty oatmeal milk stout fermented with 1098. 3 cornies, first getting coffee-vanilla, second cacoa nibs-vanilla-cinnamon-anchos, the third getting PB-cacoa-hazelnut.
Hill Farmstead Ann inspired clone is getting close to kegging time. Tasting...um...not quite Ann...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
1st try...

 

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. That's a great idea!

 

I'm liking it so far. Biggest issue is that it is basically a dish bottom so trying to get the trub/yeast and then hops/fining to collect in the arm underneath is difficult. I need to have someone help me get the tasting port on there better (my arm is too big to reach inside through the 4" TC port), then I can go to full on transfer from the port.

 

Did you build this from a plan, or kinda went with an idea? This definitely has me thinking.

 

There is a guy in town who builds them. My buddy opened a brewery and I got his when he did. He has 3 more that he uses as his yeast brinks at the brewery.

 

That's super cool! Mind PM'ing or posting some more pictures when you have a chance? The underneath and the top is what I am most interested in.

 

Change in plans: just going to step up my starter and brew the Quad. Which will then get transferred into recently acquired 5 gal Balcones whiskey barrel. My 1st barrel (pretty excited).

 

I have a 100% Brett Quad in my Balcones barrel right now, 2nd beer to go through it.

 

Brett Quad sounds tasty... I wanted to crank out 3 or 4 "clean" beers before moving on to the funky stuff.

 

Doing all Brett, I moved from single Brett strain on the Imperial Stout to the triple Brett blend on the Quad. Will do another Brett only beer into there next before doing a Sour Stout for the 4th batch.

 

Kegged a modified Boston lager that will be hopped and bottled for xmas. Doing two lagers this weekend and maybe another crazy ipa i'll post later.

 

Brewed an “International Bitter” last night with a buddy who I had worked with on collaborating on this recipe. The goal? A sessionable bitter base recipe that involves ingredients from all over the world.

The grist is comprised of Golden Promise (UK), Pilsner + Vienna (Ger), Patagonia Perla Negra (Chile) and then Red Wheat, Midnight Wheat, Carapils, Aromatic (all US).

Hops include German Magnum, Hallertau and Hersbrucker. Austrailian Galaxy. Magnum used for the bittering charge (FWH) and a 30min addition, while Galaxy was used at 15min and then in the whirlpool along with Hersbrucker. Hallertau will be used in the dry hop.

Yeast is English Ale, WLP002.

Expected specs: 3.5% ABV, SRM 11, 30 IBU

We are both really excited for this beer… Something more unique and experimental, flavor wise… I will admit, when I mixed the galaxy and hersbrucker together before adding to the whirlpool, it smelled unreal! The aromas at least, complimented each other so well. I am thinking I should start incorporating noble type hops in my IPA’s in the future.

 

Bottled my Chocolate Vanilla Porter today. had just the right smell of vanilla and just a hint of it's taste too. I think it needed more cocoa nibs then what I used as it was fairly light on the chocolate taste. Will know better after a few weeks in the bottle.

 

Brewed an AG English Bitter, hit all the numbers so far.
First time using Gigayeast English 1
Cheers all

 

Did the keg hopping alluded to earlier in this thread, 1 oz galaxy, 1 oz citra. Should be a nice pale ale IPA tweener.

However, my freezer gave a last gasp, and stopped working for good. so I'll need to get a replacement. I had held out for a while, watching the temp creep up, but she's done now. The thing was over 30 years old. I hadn't gone the full keezer route, with fancy taps and such. Maybe this time.

 

Brewed another batch of the AP NE IPA. Used Gigayeast Conan because the LHBS didn't have 1318 in stock. This batch is earmarked for the office holiday party.

Wanted to bottle a Trois IPA this weekend, but it still hasn't hit FG. It's already been at it for 3 weeks, looks like it's gonna be 4 before it's done. I'll definitely make a stepped starter next time I use Trois, a single 1.5L starter clearly doesn't cut it.