What's Brewing November Edition!

I have been brewing nothing but sours for a few years now. I'm also fortunate enough to have access to NE juice anytime I want. But I think it's time for me to brew up a New England IPA.

 

I kegged an all locally grown Cascade hopped Brett session pale ale Friday while I was mashing and brewing up an all Centennial hopped Brett NE IPA to add back onto the Sacc trois and Brett brux cake. Yesterday I brewed up a CDA/Black IPA with a bunch of Centennial and the same local Cascade. Part of this batch is a gift to a good friend for Xmas, which he in turn plans on giving to his family members in new stainless steel growlers...regifting at its best!!!

 

What an awesome brew weekend!

Got crazy efficiency with the Dopple Bock! Pretty cool grain bill - I guess these adjuncts had more sugar in them then I (or beersmith) though!

NEIPA went well but forgot to put in the bazooka. Looooong transfer into the carboy.

Dark sour base brew went well. Pitched dregs from Avery, Kindred, and our house culture.

Decided to brew up 5 gallons of golden sour base from extract laying around as well because why not. Pitched house culture and an old bag of Omega "Bit of Funk."

Fermentation is visible in all - however the power has been out for the last 12 hours... So fermentation control is a little spotty. Added my backup frozen Arizona ice tea jugs to keep chambers cold and went to work this AM.

 

I just keep brewing the same beer over and over again, a Fort Point clone that always seems to turn out really well. It's become the official beer whenever there's a big get together in my girlfriend's family, so this batch will be coming with us when we go visit them for Christmas. It's been on dry hops for about a week, so I should probably keg it today or tomorrow. It'll be ready about two weeks before Christmas - just in time to do a little quality control!

I've gotta say, I'm getting to be pretty happy with where my brewing is at; I don't have time to brew very often (about once every 3 months right now), but I haven't had a bad batch in something like 2 years. I do need to branch out a bit, hopefully I'll have the time to take another stab at my black IPA in January.

 

About to brew a second 25 gallon batch of an Old English Barley wine tomorrow with friends. Once we have about 55 gallons it will go through primary than be placed into a freshly emptied Jack Daniel's barrel where it will age for about 6 months. 5 gallons will be brewed and set aside for toping off.

 

brewed a barleywine on sunday. Now we just play the waiting game..............for months.

 

Brewed a small 4% Grisette with Spelt a month or so ago and split it after primary. Used 3522 for primary, started at 72 went to 78. I mashed pretty high as I wanted to leave a little body in such a small beer. For whatever reason attenuation was a little shy and finished around 1.010. Been drinking half of it and enjoying it but just tried a sample of the half I split that has been sitting with HF mixed fermentation dregs from Anna and Clara and some Brett Brux from TYB that has expired. Wow was it amazing. I was shocked at the amount of character I had already. Gravity had only dropped 1 point and there was barely anything resembling a pellicle. It’s my first experiment with mixed fermentation. Interested to see where a few more months takes it.

 

How long has it been since you pitched those dregs & brett? Three weeks, give or take? If so, I'd let it go another 5 and then package if the gravity is stable.

BTW, pellicles aren't something that you want to show up.

 

Brewing 2017’s last batch of the year this weekend. Well, last batch of homebrew, that is.
Belgian ‘Noel’ beer. BSDA base with spices that will be bottled, waxed, labeled and given away as Christmas presents.
I’m using 12% dextrose, dark candy syrup and Simpson’s DRC, is a pretty badass malt. I’ll buy some commercial examples tomorrow and try to figure out what spices to throw in.

Batch 21 on the year, which isn’t too bad considering my system was down until summer. Got lots of ideas for 2018!

 

I think you're joking, but just in case... Generally speaking, you'll never increase the ABV of a mid/high gravity beer by adding fruit. The added sugar (-> alcohol) is more than offset by the water in the fruit.

 

What is Simpsons DRC?

 

Double roasted crystal. Unique alternative to special B. It adds a ton of dark fruit character and color. Really nice in English and Belgian dark beers.

 

Just racked the wife's wheat oat beer to strawberries and a bit of raspberries. I can say that unless beer is incredible I will never use this K97 again. Disgustingly thick Krausen stuck to everything and I had a blow out after my blowoff got clogged. I could spackel holes in the wall with it. Nasty. Will keg in a week.

 

How much oats and wheat? If it is a high % that could be your culprit for sticky thick krausen. They both have a lot of protiens.

 

20% oats and 25% wheat. I've made beer with half wheat before and a beer with 30 percent oats and I've never had ANYTHING like this.

 

Brewing up a Chocolate Rye Porter tomorrow morning! Never used rye before so excited to see how it turns out. Will also add Blackberries to the wheat ale I brewed last week and possibly bottle a batch. Figure with a 4 day weekend I should get some brew work done!

 

Just grabbed a bunch of the DRC last time at LHBS. Never used it but wow it tastes amazing compared to anything else around that Lovibond.

 

Took Monday off since Sunday is my B-Day. Have a huge starter of my Nectarine Blossom yeast that was left to sit for over a month and has a nice bubbly pellicle. Crashed that yesterday. Will be brewing a spiced Belgian beer, pale in color, around 7% ABV and 30 IBUs. Using Grains of Paradise, Cardamom, Peppercorns, and Ginger. The yeast has a ton of wonderful esters but only throws vanilla phenols. Hoping to get some spiciness from the additions to compliment the esters and round the beer out some more. Also using about 20% sugar to try to cut back the heavy glycerol production and dry it completely out. Will keg half fresh and allow the other half to age for a while and see what the wild pellicle forming yeast does.