What's Brewing - April '17 Edition

brewed my first berliner weisse last week - will be adding fruit in ~2 weeks. i won't bore all of you with the details (again), I went into a bit of depth in another thread. Don't know how tart it will be but I didn't get any nasty smells during the souring, boiling, or fermenting steps of the process.

 

Not sure what i made. Put together a batch with 7 grains plus rice/corn and 3 different Ale yeasts. Also used hopshot for the first time.

 

Took a page out of Gorm's book and called in sick friday to brew my first attempt at a n.e. style ipa and then brewed my apa on saturday before family fun on Easter.

 

Going to do my first Berliner in the next few brews... Hoping it goes smoothly as well! I plan on using OMEGA's lacto that can "work" at room temp well... Which strain did you use and how did you hold temps?

 

Nothing brewing at the moment, but I just cold-crashed a large starter of Brett B. The Wyeast pack I had was getting old, so I had to do something with it before the cell counts became dismal. It'll eventually go into a Tripel when my life slows down enough that I can brew it.

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/please-critique-my-fruited-berliner.501900/

you can see the genesis of the process in that thread. I used goodbelly mango and kept it at ~90-95 degrees for 36 hours with a sous vide wand and a larger bucket full of water to house the brew kettle. I don't have a ph meter so Im not sure how tart it got yet

 

No brewing stuff yesterday, but I did do a "re-model" of my keezer. Since I built it originally, I had my 4-way secondary regulator inside along the back collar, with 1-main CO2 line coming in from the primary regulator on my 20# tank through the side to feed it.

The four regulators inside made it a little tricky to move the kegs in/out, along with the top of the kegs hitting the valves under the regulators and such. Decided to move the regulators outside of the keezer on the side, running 4-CO2 lines into the keezer vs. just the 1 primary line.

I like it a lot better now… More room to fit the 5 kegs on the main floor, plus it’s easier to see/adjust the regulators.

 

Got an optic IPA on tap right now with summit eureka and chinook. Great for a single malt. I'm buying another sack of it for sure. Tastes like Bissells substance

 

Hope you get better, hahahahahahaha

 

Picked up wort from my local brewery, Independent Brewing in Bel Air, MD, for their latest "Wort Challenge". The idea is the brewery makes the wort and the homebrewers take it home and make it beer. They then bring it back at a later date for tasting and judging. The last two of these were competitions with judges and prizes. This one is going to be a taste and compare type thing centered on dry hopping. The base wort is their take on a NEIPA with 35 IBU and a 1.060 O.G. The 60 tickets were divided into 6 groups of 10 with each of the groups having a different list of hops to use. We can do whatever dry hop schedule we want using some or all of the hops we were assigned. Hops are on us to buy and the LHBS down the street had the lists in advance to be able to have enough in stock. Also we can use whatever yeast we want to use. Participation in the rules and the tasting is totally voluntary, you don't have to bring finished beer back for the tasting but I think most will. Tickets are for 5 gallons and I bought 2 so I have 2 batches to play with. Now I just have to figure out my hop schedule and quantities.
Batch #1 Admiral, Delta Ekuanot, Calypso
Batch #2 Azacca, Mandarina, Huell Melon, Meridian

 

Columbus you say? I also am a Homebrewer in Columbus! Let's collaborate!

 

Sour Program Tasting Update:
8 kegs total

Burgundy Cadillac
Fermented: ECY Flanders primary pitch
Keg: 8-27-16
Sample: 4-19-17
Aroma: tart, light malt right behind
Taste: deep gold, lightly tart, not complex, but smooth
Notes: give it 3 more months, if it hasn't changed, keg it up (bottle condition a few)

Badger
F: transferred 3711 primary onto 2016 Mal (Melange) keg dregs
K: 1-28-17
S: 4-19-17
A: unmalted grain, much less tart aroma, very very light phenolic at the end
T: cloudy (probably sediment), blonde, clean lactic, light fruit in back, unsweetened pineapple, very very light funk, little Brett expression
Notes: taste again in 6 months, melange took a year

Niska
F: transferred 1318 primary onto 2016 Jayne (Amalgamation) keg dregs
K: 1-28-17
S: 4-19-17
A: HUGE!, big juicy fruit gum and light Brett funk (more complex + less funk), light spiciness at end, same aroma that was in Wild Sunshine
T: clear/straw gold, Brett beginning to express strongly, clean, smooth, no tartness at all, amalgamation fruitiness beginning to show/still detectable in the finish, 1318 fruitiness barely detectable, Pilsner malt still detectable, hop fruitiness/bitterness in finish from dryhop
Notes: taste again in 3 months, if stable, bottle some straight, and try blending some with Burgundy Cadilac

Shepard
F: 3522 primary then pitched Yeast Bay House Sour (beta release)
K: 2-4-17
S: 4-19-17
A: more traditional brett funk (funky pineapple), unmalted malt at the end, very light THP
T: very tart but not fully sour, more lemony than pineapple, dif but similar to Melange (more complex), clean lactic, very smooth and rounded flavors, but still not complex yet
Notes: taste again in 6 months, could def be used now to add tartness

Kaylee
F: 3942 primary then pitched Yeast Bay Lochristi
K: 2-10-17
S: 4-19-17
A: big fruity brett aromatics already, unsweetened fruit cocktail with light clean brett funk, almost melon, very very light clove/cinnamon at the end, very light hop grassiness
T: light cloudiness, light fruitiness, very low funk, just vaguely tart in finish, Belgian esters, light hop bitterness from dryhop
Notes: taste again in 3 months, could possibly be a stand alone beer

Too early to sample:

Simon (DME/1968/1728 primary with ECY Bug County keg pitch)

River (DME/3724 primary with ECY Senne Vally keg pitch)

Bohios 3.0 (kolsch primary with Fantôme of the Hopra blend keg pitch)'

 

Prickly Pear Wheat mash'in

 

DIPA measured at 1.014 today, 20 days after brewing. I'll check again next Wednesday.

In the meantime, I'm plotting to make a new RIS and call it "Dark Times" to mirror my work situation.

 

Brewing an IPA 6%er in the morning with 1/4 pearl 1/4 pilsner 1/4 optic 1/4 2row Citra mosaic and eureka for hops targeting 30 ibus

 

Sunday, making a centennial lager. 3rd lager of my homebrew career and after drinking a citra pills, well I had to try.

 

Heading to a local brewery now who is supplying my club with 1.055 second runnings. It's like an Iron Chef thing where you have to do something creative/extreme with it and then submit it into a club comp. Can't add any fermentables. I'm going to boil the fucker down to 3 gallons and see what happens.

 

I have session saison and a neipa bottled up, and a pils lagering now. I am toying with doing a wheatwine with some big american hops for the fall, or possibly a dunkelweizenbock. Maybe schwartz more than dunkel. Anyone work with midnight wheat in a weizenbock before?

 

Currently 10mins into my boil of my new NE IPA (congress street clone, if you will). Picture perfect brewday so far, which is a nice change of pace from my last one which was a mess lol. Time to pour a glass of Pils now that the intensive stuff is done!