What's Brewing November Edition!

I don't know how many hydrometers I broke before I bought one of these:

 

Picking up grain today to make some kind of amber malty goodness. No set recipe or style. Going to be some 2-row, Dark Munich, crystal 120, Special B, and Aromatic. Aiming for 1.065 OG. Magnum at 60 min then Hallertau at flameout targeting 30 IBU.
I can't decide on a yeast. It's going to be either WLP013 or WLP500.

 

Making a old style, for me, IPA with multipal hop additions and a small DH.

 

Made yeast starter for holiday brew I'll be doing this weekend. For some reason I had some issues with keeping the stir plate going. This beer will have an OG of 1.090 so I made a starter with 8.5 oz of DME. I don't know if I've ever made a yeast starter that large before.

 

Brewing a strawberry oatmeal ale for my wife. Any recommendations for adding some sweetness for her. Want to keep the color light so I was thinking 8oz lactose/5 gallons. Her favorite beer is sam smiths strawberry ale

 

First off, make sure those berries are super ripe. Under developed fruit can really dull a fruit beer.

I like some Munich L10 and marris otter. Along with crystal 10.
Folks tell me the Belgian blueberry I make is sweet so there ya go.
Another think is to use a yeast that leaves Suger behind. t-58 does that for me .

Good luck

 

I fermented a triple with t-58 and it fermented dry but perhaps that's cause it was 100 percent pilsner malt.

 

Yeah, more specialty malts more potential residual sweetness, especially as the mash temp increases.

Mashes the Belgian blueberry at 157. Gotta make more for Christmas, too many want it.

Be sure to filter out as much fruit pulp as possible or you'll have super fermented bottles. Kegs, I don't know.

Looking at my records I made a hot berry stout a while back using standard muntons ale.
Regular stout recipe then added 1 habanyero at the 10 min mark of boil, and 3 lbs blueberries.

Hot and sweet

 

What about Windsor?

 

Think I'm gonna use k-97 with wheat and oats. Here is the base. Probably will secondary into 7 pounds of froze every strawberries.

 

Saturday, I made my second attempt at a dark beer using my new mash tun for the first time. How about this for a bootleg three-tier gravity system? A combination of patio furniture, cinder blocks, and a spare counter-height stool I had laying around.

Beer was a semi-clone of Black Butte Porter, but instead of Hellertau, I used Willamette because, well, Oregon.

Grain
- 9# 2-row
- 13 oz chocolate
- 8 oz Crystal 80*
- 5 oz Carapils
Hops
- .5 oz Galena - 90 min
- .25 oz Cascade - 15 min
- .25 oz Willamette - 5 min
Yeast
- WLP 002 - English Ale

Firsts
- Mash tun use (Morebeer.com 10-gal cooler w/false bottom) -- got about 60% efficiency :-/
- 90 min boil...we'll see

My first dark beer was an extract porter about a year ago. The recipe started with the all grain version and then gave the extract conversion afterward. The big miss was where it said "replace the base malt with..." All roasty-toasty special grains, so not so good. A year afterward, and I still have 5 20 oz-ers. I drink them at the end of the night when I just want something beery but I know I'm not really all that hung up on having a great beer.

No pics of the beer in the fermenter. It's dark and bubbling away.

 

I have no experience with those volumes of oats, flaked wheat and k-97.
I would also have a tough time getting 7 abv out of that grain bill unless you are figuring in the strawberries. Otherwise I will be very interested in the results.

 

Ya beer smith wasn't very accurate with that much wheat and oats. I ended up mashing at 152. Got an OG of 1.050 for slightly more than 6 gallons. I think with the strawberries this beer will end up 6%. I've never gone this heavy on wheat and oats but the sparge went surprisingly well cause I used a whole bag of rice hulls. Also never used k-97 so that should be different for me as well. Of course I will post the results in what homebrew are you drinking December.
Cheers!

 

Dunkel currently in process. About to collect first runnings and get the boil going here shortly. Mostly all Munich II with a balance of Pilsner and a touch of Carafa III to bring the SRM to 13 (going a little lighter on color this time around). Will be pitching WY2206. Expected ABV of 5% and 22 IBU.

 

Since I can't edit the previous post, here is a final photo of the Dunkel...



Color turned out exactly as I had hoped, rich ruby brown. Can't wait to see this one in a glass when complete, cold conditioned and fined! Currently fermenting away this morning at 50F.

 

First brew day in 2 months. Old-school West Coast IPA with Pliny-like hops - Simcoe, Columbus, Amarillo, Centennial.

 

Kegged up my Oyster Stout and Milk Stout today. Added about an ounce of Sinimar to each keg to get a little more roast and darken the beers some. Second runnings beers don't always carry through the malt bill well. Should be ready to drink tomorrow.

 

Today, brewing another old school IPA this time with victory and L40, all c hops added ever 10 minutes