December Homebrewing

Brewed an oatmeal raisin cookie amber ale today and it is in the fermenter. Just racked over my chocolate coffee stout into my bourbon barrel a few days ago also. Nothing else on tap at the moment.

 

Fixed my foam issue w/ the tap (needed a longer line). Now building an updated recipe for my NEIPA... I keep telling myself I'll brew something new, but I'm just not satisfied with this one yet.

Hope to have photos of the brew day up next weekend. Cheers and happy brewing!

 

Tomorrow is the AHA "two-Hearted" clone recipe. I dabbled with the idea of subbing-in some Golden Promise, but I'll try it as documented this time.

My Christmas RIS was moved into secondary to make room in a larger fermenter. It's at 1.022 and my recollection was that it had to get to 1.017 or so. It was at 63F for the last few weeks, so the heater was turned on and ambient temp is about 70F. The joke is on me though- beersmith says FG should be 1.021. Still, other than needing the 6g carboy - I've got plenty of time.

I have another decision to make. Both kegs are empty - but I am thinking of bottling the RIS anyway. Mostly to share and to cellar a few.

 

Finally (yeah!) I'm kegging my oatmeal-milk stout. After 45 days in the fermenter it should be nice and clear (were it not for all the darkness). Cheers!

 

Yesterday, 1 gallon Belgian Tripel, today, 5 gallon Holiday Ale, both Brewers Best Extract kits

 

Kegged my paw prince Porter today (modeled after great lakes Eddie Fitz) and am drinking toe chaser brown (a cigar city maduro clone) which has been in the keg for almost 2 weeks and getting better and better

 

Hopefully I'll get something in during the first few days of the new year; I'm nominally off. Been working 70-80hr weeks since August (half the staff left because of some shit the owner pulled). So far as December is concerned, all I'll probably do is dump the extract Belgian Amber that's been sitting in primary since September when I still wasn't so ground down to think that I'd have energy to bottle in a couple of weeks.

 

Finally got around to making 5 gallons of the average NEIPA! Also brewed 7 gallons of a ??? beer. Used a bunch of random grains and hops that I had laying around. We shall see how that one turns out!

 

How is the NEIPA tasting?

 

Wort sample tasted great and hoppy. That sucker is already going crazy. 3 cans of heady topper cultured yeast for the win on this one.

 

Riffing off a smoked session I made this summer with a few tweaks to make it a smoked session red. Just gotta get the oomph to say "mash in" and hope I can get it turned around before christmas.
My Imperial mole porter is getting into its sweet spot from condition. The dark saison is tasting great, and the blend of the two is moving along for a January bottling. Still have the artwork to layout and design to make them a holiday package.

 

I took first place in a local comp last night with a Double Chocolate Coconut Porter based off of @JackHorzempa 's Hillstead Farms Everett Clone recipe here on this forum! Thanks Jack for such a solid recipe! Now I'm about to mash in on a clean-out-the-freezer-of-hops DIPA and I'm kegging a Double Sunshine clone during the mash too.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...stead-everett-clone.92531/page-3#post-3696074

 

Very nice! Have you made this beer with 1318 before? Curious to hear what the difference is like between the two.

 

I actually did buy a pack of 1318 to use just in case I wasn't able to get the Conan going. This was my first time making a NEIPA so I don't have any further experience. I did however, make a barley wine with 1318 with 9 ounces of Columbus and it absolutely amazing.

 

Congratulations on your win!!

Cheers to you!

 

How long are you boiling the DME. I did a porter with it but wasn't sure when to throw it in so i boiled it for 15 mins.

 

I added it in before the boil because I wasn't concerned about any effects on the SRM.

 

I have the next four batches planned, but realistically will only brew two in December, a Belgian braggot and a Baltic porter. I'll be receiving a freezer this week and will have keezer to build. It will be a nice end to the year if I can get all this done.

 

Brewed up an ESB and have all the grains set up to go for a split batch NEIPA...10gal of base wort, break into two 5gal boils; one will get Centennial-Chinook-Citra, the other one a mix of 2-3 NZ/AUS hops TBD from the following candidates: Meridian, Rakau, Wakatu, Kohatu, Galaxy...thoughts/suggestions?