What homebrew you drinking March Edition

I’ve got a Cherry Kettle Sour on tap at the moment. Kept it warm and Soured it with 4 bio Bio-Kult tablets for 24 hours, they were slowly working but I got impatient and added citric acid to get the ph down.

Turned out pretty well. Not super complex or anything but good for a ‘free’ beer considering all I had to do was carry on fly sparging and divert to another kettle. (Huge over pitch I know) but I threw it straight onto a fresh Citra and mosaic dry hopped IPA cake. Happy with the results for very little effort!

 

There's no shame in supplementing with a little acid when Lactobacillus gets you almost, but not quite, where you want. It may not make a huge difference, but I would recommend lactic acid rather than citric acid, only because lactic acid is the thing that the bacteria make anyway. OTOH, I see this was a fruit beer, so citric might work really well too.

 

@911CROFT

That looks great. I have a Raspberry one on tap and while the Lacto took it down to 3.2, which I think for Goodbelly is about where it goes, but I like it even more sour. Next time, I plan to use Lactic to push it down further at kegging. I spike my glass with Lactic now and it makes it pop how I’d like it to.

 

Thanks for the tips! I’ve been using citric for all adjustments as I’ve got loads left over after passivating stainless kettles. But lactic would give a more authentic sour taste?
The next one I brew with a proper Berliner grist I’ll give it a try for sure.

Damn! 3.2 that’s too sour for me! I roughly dropped mine with citric from 5.1 post mash to 4.5, added the laco and that took it to about 3.8 in 24 hours. From there I dropped it with more acid to 3.5 and called it a day. Cherry’s are adding some additional tartness probably.

 

Next iteration of Crow The Dawn for my church. Took it down to high table / low standard Saison strength. Pale malt, cane sugar, toasted flaked wheat, Polaris to bitter, Styrian Bobek and Aurora with a touch of Mandarins Bavaria in the WP. Peppercorns and Cardamom. Fermented hot with my Nectarine Blossoms blend. Damn tasty. Smells of lemon and peach, cardamom, lite funk, and spicy floral hops. Flavor is pepper, lemon, floral hops, toasted crackers, qnd peach, with a dry bitter finish, some astringency, and residual pepper warmth. Thick head stays and clings all the way down the glass. Great beer for after ripping 4 bushes out of the yard and planting a pear tree. Wish I would've gotten this pic earlier with a gorgeous sunset. Oh well.

 

Kegged version of latest NEIPA. Won’t bore you with predictable recipe details. Just focused on keeping cold side O2 the heck out. Best one yet for sure.

Also bottled a couple with extra left in the fermenter. Spot the NEIPA vs the American Strong Ale !

 

Tripel brewed summer 2016

 

6.2% IPA w/grain bill modeled after the UK beer Thornbridge Jaipur using all NW hops --- Mosaic/Citra/Columbus w/Citra and Mosaic Lupulin powder in the cask. I have reached the mountain top. And it is good.

 

Pretty happy with this iteration of my Bavarian Hefeweizen. Decided to bottle this one to achieve a bit higher carbonation, and I think it was worth it. Still want to tweak the recipe just a bit, but I think I'm onto something good here.

 

I'm gonna be at CBS Monday, you gonna bring it?

 

Sure, I'll bring a bottle---throwing it in the keezer now to chill.

 

Sweet. I'm bringing Best Bitter, Brown Porter, Toasted Wheat Pale, and Saison.

 

Pineapple Blueberry Berliner

 

Finishing drinking my CraftaBrew stout that I got as a kit for Christmas '16. Sat for an additional 3 weeks at ~71 degrees F (5 weeks fermenting). No head retention, smooth, a faint sourness. Not bad for my first try. Thinking Zombie Dirt next as my son likes Zombie Dust a lot. Brewing one gallon at a time as that's what the kit contained.

 

Got another hazy IPA on tap. First time attempting natural carbonation via spunding valve. There was a tiny leak that I eventually found was from the pressure relief valve on the keg, and by the time I realized where it was, it was too late. Only got to 17psi at room temp so it took a couple days hooked up to gas at 10 psi to get it to where I wanted it.

Galaxy, Vic Secret, and Enigma. Since it always takes a lot of time for hops to settle out and the fact that I was planning on racking into the keg 4 or so days in when the fermentation was near the end, I dry hopped using muslin bags 2 days in so racking/separation would be a little easier. It worked fine, pretty clean transfer.

Dry hopped again in the keg using pellets in a muslin bag weighted down with marbles and hung with unscented floss tied to the keg lid. Probably not the most effective use of hops for a dry hopping process but it got it where I was hoping it to go. Removed the hops at the end of fermentation prior to chilling the keg.

I think I'll try and keep a similar sort of process for kegging extremely hoppy beers because I really like the idea of minimizing oxygen intake by transferring it while there is still fermentation going on.

I'm brewing a pilsner and helles next and this was sort of a trial run with spunding/natural carbonation for these.

 

Just tapped a hoppy blonde ale. 4.6%: tasting, smelling, and looking great! Citra, Galaxy, and German Blanc for the hops and Golden Promise as my base malt with some C-10 and wheat malt peppered in. Cheers!

 

Meetup and homebrew drinking with @calir1 He's kind of a big deal

 

Scottish Ale 3.5% -- not bad for a yeast grower