What's Brewing? (February Edition)

Working on a NEIPA recipe to brew this weekend. I was considering using London III as my yeast but I also have some yeast that I harvested from a bottle of Sierra Nevada Holiday Haze that I was considering growing up and pitching. I tried reaching out to Sierra Nevada to identify if this was simply their house strain or if they used a different strain. Any thoughts?

 

I tried a London III yeast last year with a NEIPA extract attempt. Turned out quite tasty, had the soft mouthfeel and all, however I didn't quite hit the FG / ABV I was hoping for (came in at 5.8% and was hoping for a 6.5% brew based on the malt quantity I included. Heard that yeast is a little tempermental and sometimes 2 smack packs may be necessary. I stayed right in the temp range for fermentation, so that wasn't it.

 

I had a busy brew weekend this past weekend...

Friday: Kegged Satus single hop IPA, kegged house session Brett pale ale hopped with Equinox and Eukanot cryo hops and then brewed up an all Amarillo hopped version of the house session Brett pale ale and added back onto the yeast/bug cake from the Equinox version

Saturday: Kegged Sacc trois IPA with Citra, Simcoe, Centennial and El Dorado hop hash and then brewed up an all Mosaic hopped Wheat IPA that I added back onto the Sacc trois yeast cake I just racked off of

Sunday: Brewed up an IPA for my wife's department party at the end of February...Citra, Mosaic, Azacca, Experimental Grapefruit and Centennial

Over the next week I'm also putting together a 2 tap rolling cooler/keezer for a few upcoming parties using a 60 quart Igloo Ice Cube and a couple of 2.5 gallon kegs.

Cheers!

 

Brewed a pale ale last week, simple , two row a little caramel 60. Columbus for bittering, centennial, cascade and strata hops for flavor aroma. The always reliable US05 almost took it out of airlock. Not going to dryhop, prob just keg with spunding valve for a week then in the fridge.

 

Brewed the CYBI Shakespeare Stout clone but subbed in Centennial for Cascade IBU for IBU and used Wyeast 1272 as a twist.

 

Currently heating up the strike water on an all K&K Farms Vojvodina hopped ESB. After this one, I'm done trying out new hops for a while.

 

was checking the fermenters and in the Belgian blueberry I used s 33 yeast. YIKES that stuff really kicks, good thing I had put it in a 7 gal fermenter. looks promising, but did not use it before, so, we will see how it tastes.

 

Checking in on my pale ale. Was going to dryhop in the fermenter but it's already attenuated 80%. I don't think there will be much activity to scrub the introduced oxygen. Plan B -- keghop with some simcoe and centennial over the weekend, in a purged keg.

 

Just dry hopped 0.5 ounces citra into saison. Smells wonderful.

 

Transferred my IPA to a keg under pressure. Went very smoothly. After two rounds of dry hops in the fermenter I hung another dose from the keg lid. Just over 2 oz total of Mosaic, Vic Secret, and Exp. Green Machine for the last dose.

Finished up at 1.013 for around 5.3%. Sample shows promise. Looking forward to trying it in about 10 days.

 

Brewed a stout on Sunday: I used carafa II and Chocolate malt, caramel 80 and a little bit of special B. Hopped with horizon and nugget. Fermenting with White Labs 002.

Lots of stuff on the internet suggests that due to high flocculation of this yeast, it may be wise to either raise the temperature and/or swirl the fermenter to rouse the yeast, to ensure the beer finishes out and the yeast cleans up any diacetyl. Anyone with experience with this strain care to steer me in the right direction here? I pitched at 63F and let it rise to ~67F. Should i bump up the temp and when/how much is advisable? Cheers

 

I brewed a couple of different all Simcoe hopped pale ales yesterday, both recipes I've brewed before and was very pleased with. Same grist, different yeast (Conan and Chico), different water profile, and slightly different hopping rates.

One is more "west coast" style, inspired by Russian River's Row 2, Hill 56. One is more "New England" style.

I'm excited to bring back some of my favorite hoppy beers and it will be fun comparing them side by side! Hopefully I didn't screw up these batches and they come out as good as the first time.

 

Received this in the mail!... Spent a few hours doing two TSP soaks and then passivating with high strength Star-San. All set now for brew day Saturday! Quality is very nice. While I expected it to be, it actually exceeded my expectations. If anything, wish the handles were a bit bigger (my hands are large). I likely will just get some lifting straps though, so not a big deal!

The thermowell thermometer is +/- 0.3 degrees to my thermopen. Closer than I expected. I think I will end up just shoving the ink-bird probe into the thermowell anyway once I check/confirm it's accuracy.

Excited to try all the new 'toys' this weekend. Along with this fermenter, I have recently subbed out my bazooka tube in my mash tun with a false bottom, as well. Plus a new pickup tube in the boil kettle, as well.

 

My hoppy rye saison (Awry II) just got silver in the BOS round out of 341 entries this past weekend.



A sour dark saison that I entered also got silver in its category as a mixed fermentation sour beer.

Needless to say, I'm elated! Can't wait to get the score sheets back.

 

@Lukass congrats.

 

Brewing a hazy pale ale this weekend. Thinking citra, mandarina, ctz, and maybe a little Idaho 7. MO, oat malt, flaked oats, and golden naked.
Maiden voyage of my new Spike .5bbl unitank! This thing is a beast! I sold my 1bbl Chronical to get it and couldn’t be happier! Can’t wait to see how the beer turns out.

The kids helping unpacking.


I ordered a lot of the bells and whistles.


Assembled with a couple of mods.

 

Very nice.

 

I'm currently twiddling a recipe for a Burton Ale / winter warmer type thing to brew this weekend. Probably something like 75% Golden Promise, 5% medium crystal, 5% amber, 15% muscovado sugar, maybe a few grams of black patent for colour. 1.055, 35IBU, a hint of late hops (British, TBD), ferment with Windsor but mash low to get some sort of attenuation out of it.

 

I have used WLP002 many, many times. It's more or less my house yeast nowadays. I've fermented as low as 65F (maybe lower, I'd have to check) and haven't had it quit on me yet. That's with fermentation temperature control all the way through, i.e. not letting it fall below the target fermentation temp as the fermentation slows. It is definitely a fast floccer when the time comes though.

 

I've got an amber fermenting out right now from a 2/2 brewday. But what I'm really excited about is my addition of a glass carboy, which will lead to my first sour beer. I'm going to go real simple with the grist 70% pils and 30% flaked oats for some starches. I'll only be adding the oats at the mashout step. I've got a pitch coming from The Yeast Bay, their House Sour. But I plan on propping up any dregs from worthy beers as well. After it matures for a while I'll split it up for different fruiting additions. Anybody have any suggestions for different fruit combinations? Or should I just do singles and blend as I see fit?