What's Brewing? (January Edition)

Brewed up a dry hopped kettle sour this weekend with a starter made from a Bio-K fermented milk shot. Has 3 Lacto strains. Held kettle at 98 degrees for 48 hrs, hit 3.3 pH. Boiled for 1 hour, whirlpooled 3 ounces total of citra mosaic amarillo at 175. Chilled and pitched hefty starter of wy1968.

9 lbs 2 row
2 lbs vienna
1 lbs flaked wheat
0.8 lbs acid malt.

Planning on dry hopping 3 more oz total of amarillo citra mosaic.

First attempt , was relieved that the wort did not smell offensive and the fermentation took off right away.

 

Re the 1848 Barclay Perkins porter:

Just took a gravity reading of this, and tasting the hydrometer sample was... interesting. Nice, rich, sweet, fruity, roasty and then whoosh, you get run over by a freight train full of bitterness that lasts for, well, I don't know how long it lasts for because I've had a cup of milky tea since and I'm still getting the aftertaste. So that's what 95 IBUs into 1.060 OG tastes like!

I'd expect this to be pretty great once the hops have faded with a bit of age. I'm also keen to brew the "running" version with the more sensible hopping at some point.

 

My fiancee and I bottled our 1 gallon batch (NEIPA) on Sunday. It's smelling very nice with fruity aromas. Hoping to open a bottle this weekend to see how it's doing.

 

Just bottled 10 gallons of a saison/cider hybrid with Brett B. One fermenter was dry hopped with 3 oz of Nelson 5 days before bottling, while the other was left 'as is'. Also, transferred a wild yeast wheat to a corny keg to condition until the oatmeal stout kicks.

Imperial oatmeal stout is getting racked to secondary in a few days on top of an American oak spiral soaked in 6ish oz of Heaven Hill. Aaand that'll be it for me for a while until all of this beer is consumed!

 

Racked 15g of Imperial stout into used bourbon barrel last night. Gonna let it sit for 4 mo then sample and see where it’s at. Time permitting will brew this weekend with temps expected above normal

 

Brewed a session stout weekend before last. Considering an imperial stout on the yeast cake when I rack it in a week or two.

 

Give it an extra week

 

The temptation is killing me

 

Your patience will be rewarded and your haste will be punished.

 

If anything it will be a good learning opportunity to see why week long carbed beer is never worth drinking

 

Kegged a Eureka single hopped IPA and then brewed up a Mosaic Wheat NE IPA this morning...very similar grain bill but different hopping techniques and yeast compared to the Mosaic Wheat IPA I brewed this past weekend.

Cheers!

 

Cream ale with a target of 5.5% abv and 20 ibus. 2 row and flaked corn.

My son helping me mash in.

 

Great sight to see. Can't wait for my daughter to help me mash in a few years

 

It’s great. He likes to light the burner, what boy doesn’t want to play with fire, mash in and do hop additions. Then asks me why I like to take pictures of my beer.

Now if only I could only get him to help clean.....

 

Took a gravity sample of the IIBA yesterday... 48 hours in and it dropped from 1.081 to 1.030... damn that was fast. Probably check the Session IBA tonight. Cleared the sample in the fridge to see if it is dark enough, and looks like I will need to add some more Sinamar to get it black.

 

Does it mean anything, good or bad, when gravity drops quickly like that? Or is it just the nature of the strain? (Assuming all other conditions are set properly for healthy fermentation).

 

My NEIPA got the yeast first and it took almost a week to drop that much. This beer got the cake from the NEIPA. I prefer to have a quick fermentation where I reach TG within 4-5 days. NEIPA was my first time using dry yeast. This beer was first time repitching dry yeast.

 

Just got into brewing a few months ago, and I brewed up my first sour (saison) today! So excited to start down this path, as mixed-ferm saisons are really what I'd like to focus on from here on out...

Batch Size: 2.5 gallons
OG: 1.050
ABV: 5.19%
IBU: 13.84
SRM: 5.48

Grains
3 lb - American - Pilsner (65.5%)
0.8 lb - American - White Wheat (17.5%)
0.32 lb - Canadian - Honey Malt (7%)
0.46 lb - Flaked Oats (10%)

Hops
60 min - 0.15 oz - East Kent Goldings
15 min - 0.20 oz - Saaz
10 min - 0.10 oz - East Kent Goldings
10 min - 0.12 oz - Motueka
5 min - 0.12 oz - Motueka

Yeast: TYB Saison/Brett Blend II, and 3F dregs

Water Profile: mash pH - 5.25, Ca - 53, Mg - 5, Na -31, SO4 - 79, Cl - 99

Infusion mashed at 154F for 90 min, with 90 min boil

Planning on slowly ramping up temp in primary from 68F to ~78F over the next 3-4 weeks, then racking onto oak cubes in secondary for a few months.

 

Sampling of 3 brews.

1. A quad with brett L and Chimay yeasts. Tasting like rotten flowers, kinda meh. I added the charred oak sticks that I have been soaking in Courvoisier. Will give this one a few more weeks before the next sample. 1.074 -> 1.010.

2. A braggot take on a "pirate strong ale". Really great flavors of oak, pineapple, honey, and a bit of malt. None of the cinnamon. Still need to add some vanilla and rum at bottling. Very excited for this one! 1.121 -> 1.012 and still going down.

3. A semi-spontaneous sour saison with passionfruit & guava puree. Smells amazing, taste is great for being flat. 1.060 -> 1.008, cold crashing and will bottle asap. Excited for this one too, my club is having a contest in Feb for fruited sour beers.

 

3rd time brewing this month. Brewing ten gallons of schwarzbier and splitting the wort with a buddy