What's Brewing - April '17 Edition

Tommorrow, another attempt at a lager, if time permits, also, a citra IPA.

 

I'm in the middle of working on a (hopefully) spontaneously fermented beer. Plan to cool overnight with lows around 36 F in Columbus. Just finished up the psuedo-turbid mash; lautering as I type, and have a 4 hour boil to go after this. 65% Pilsner, 15% white wheat, 15% flaked oats and 5% aromatic, with some aged hops I've saved from previous batches.

 

Citra DIPA - Based on this recipe I collected ages ago - https://beerandbrewing.com/VvV1WCcAAFgR3g0e/article/lawsons-double-sunshine-ipa-recipe

 

Getting three starters going now for brewday next weekend. 50:50 Pils and wheat malt to 1.048.

15 gallons total
5 gallons of traditional Weissbier
5 gallons of Witbier with lemon & blueberry
5 gallons of Kolsch with habanero

 

Tomorrow is the Annual April Saison brew
Starter is established, using, Saaz, and Amirillo hops
with dried Kumquat in the whirlpool

Cheers

 

Just brewed a Galaxy & Simcoe NE IPA with 1318.

 

Currently brewing a pilsner (pilsner malt, perle hops, WLP800). I forgot to buy acid at the LHBS and I don't want to up the minerals too much, so my mash pH is going to be a little high. In a stroke of genius, or stupidity, I decided to crushed up a vitamin C tablet (1 gram) and throw it in to help lower the pH and for science. Time will tell whether I have a pilsner or shandy.

 

Kegged a Belgian pale ale today. The hydrometer sample suggested this is going to be deliciously balanced beer, with breadiness, and a touch of banana and spice. There is a little sweetness which I'm guessing will be tamed by carbonation.

 

Racking my pilsner over to secondary and an oz of saaz, bottling up my DDH juicy bits clone. Juicy bits aroma is out of control, 0.6 oz of mosaic citra and el dorado per addition, four additions. That's 7.2 oz total. Whoa.

 

Just bottled my IPA. Will be interesting to see how it turns out, first time doing the dry hop.

 

Brewed 10 gallons of Oatmeal Stout with a buddy this afternoon. Smooth brewday. Enjoyed a couple homebrews along with a 16' and 17' KBS. Cheers.

 

I've got a floral IPA fermenting in the primary, about to switch over to secondary for dryhopping and clearing.

 

Just brewed my take on the averagely perfect northeast IPA. Upped the honey malt to about 5.5%.

 

Modified Pale ale using Fawcett optic malt for the first time.

 

I have two beers working this month.

I have a single hop IPA/PA going with all Michigan Copper hops about 10oz in 6 gal. They seem like they will be very nice hops, I get tons of cantaloupe and honeydew and fruit punch from them so far.

I also have a flower powerish type ipa in the fermenter now that I brewed over the weekend.

 

Brewed up a nice hazy NE IPA on Saturday. Citra, CTZ, Simcoe, Vienna, dark Wheat, Flaked Oats, Carastan, Carapils, Acid malt, sugar, Calcium Chloride, and West Yorkshire 1469. Gravity sample was nice and hazy. 73 calculated IBUs (accounting for Whirlpool), 6.4% (estimated) ABV. Give her 1.5 weeks to get done, pull yeast, and then add the dryhops. Should be drinking by Easter.

Also kegged up the Saison from 2 weeks ago. Did half straight, force carbed overnight, drinking by Sunday. The other half got a hit of Orval dregs in a starter and will sit warm in the garage for a couple months before seeing the tap. Wife is really impressed with the taste of the straight and has requested a rebrew already. Will happen on Ntl Homebrew Day in May.

 

Despite being a moderate 1.063, the NE IPA I brewed on Saturday took off like a rocket and I needed to hook up a blow off tube on Sunday. When I got home late Monday night I found that the gallon of sanitizer it was blowing off into almost completely emptied into the large pot it was sitting in. Not sure exactly what happened but the walls, ceiling, and carpet were all dry, so no biggie.

 

I also did a new england IPA and the yeast took off like a rocket (Wyeast 1318). what did you use? I underfilled an 8 gallon bucket (about 4 gallons) so there was no huge risk of blowoff, but I was still surprised how much activity there was ~9 hours after pitching.

 

Also Wyeast 1318. I overfilled a 6.9 gallon bucket to about 5.75-6 gallons. But I used fermcap so I wasn't expecting to need a blowoff. When I took off the lid to drop in the first dry hops it occurred to me that the 3 piece airlock sticks down about an inch or 2 below the lid, so it didn't need much krausen before it started coming up the airlock.