Brewing Activities (April edition)

Brewing the TH3 light, or a session pale.

 

Doing my first milkshake today per my sisters request for her graduation party.

Strawberry vanilla. Using lactose. I am not proud of myself

 

Making another saison with grist of 90%pilsner and 10% flaked rye. Hopped with willamette and 8 ounces of table sugar during boil. Is there a more forgiving style? Fermenting with Imperial organic “rustic”.”

I make this beer about every other month because it is literally almost impossible to mess up. Love it although I’m skipping the Munich today to get a lighter color with the rye.

 

What's the pH/TA of this beer? Have you used the yeast in question to package a sour beer before? The reason that I ask is because if you haven't, you might want to acclimate your yeast to the pH of your beer, 'cause it would suck if your yeast experienced terminal acid shock and didn't carbonate your beer.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740002016301605

 

I use the CBC-1 to carbonate my sours. Works great, no flavor impact, quick, cleans up any off flavors like THP or Diacetyl from O2 pickup during packaging. I also have a fresh pitch of my Nectarine Blossom yeast I could use as well which I have used for a Gose.

 

When you gonna send me some of this nectarine blossom yeast?

 

Lactose is a useful tool. Stand proud, Soldier.

 

I may have to embrace lactose myself. Body/mouth feel are a big problem in gluten free brewing (I wasn't Glutarded until June...yay me!). I've found that u can make pretty damned good hop forward GF beers, but they're thin. I'm already using maltodextrin a bit, but will try lactose as well (something that I was adverse to before becoming GF).

BTW, cheers to all of u making those long aged sours/BA stouts. I hope to get there someday. Impressive.

 

Soonish. I've got like 5 I need to send out, including someone who is DNA testing it. I should pull some off when the i pitch Saturday.

 

For these classic styles, try Windsor yeast some time. Good flavor and body for lower gravity ales, though you may want a clarifier if cold crashing does not give you a beer as clear as you like.

For liquid yeasts: Wyeast 1332 (Northwest) and 1469 (West Yorkshire) are also excellent.

 

+1 to Windsor yeast

 

Brewing a Cascadian Dark Ale this weekend with Centennial simcoe and eureka. Blended Wlp013 and 1056 from my fridge
For 1 starter and got some imperial juice going for the other. Contemplating milkshaking half with vanilla and strawberries. Has anyone tried strawberries in a dark beer? Also ordered some comet rhizomes!

 

Received my pump and other misc. components the other day and have been doing "wet" runs with water to practice with the pump and how I will operate it on brew day. A few things to work through, but for my Hefe this weekend I will likely just use the pump to recirculate the mash. I may end up buying quick disconnects to be better able to isolate tubing and move around what I need to various kettles/locations. So I will continue to utilize gravity a bit along with the pump for the next few brew days until I figure out the best way to set this thing up and operate it.

My main problem is air getting into the line from where the tubing connects to the barb. Granted, I just slid the tubing over the barb, no clamp just for this run, so that may take care of that completely and be non-issue. Otherwise, all went good.

On a side note, the 10lbs of Weyermann Rauch Malt I bought looks like wheat. Not sure what is going on there, but it definitely looks huskless which I am questioning, but it does smell great (so at least it's smoked...) Anybody else experience this with that malt? The bag/order is for the traditional beechwood rauch malt, so I dunno... I emailed MoreBeer about it to see if it was a potential packaging issue or something, because I am 95% sure it's wheat of some sort.

 

Working on my new control panel for my new system.



New panel on right, old on left.

 

Finally trying my hand at making a Braggot tomorrow. Not going as hardcore as @Beerswimmer right off the bat but taking a lot of the tips given in that Braggot thread. Going for a SG around 1.08 and finishing around 1.005 using Wyeast Belgian Strong. Trying to keep it simple for the first time so just using equal parts Golden promise and Wildflower honey (added during fermentation) with a little bit of hops at the end of the boil. Also have some raspberries that were on sale to add to it.

 

Decided to step up the game and upgrading from 1 gallon extract brewing to BIAB! Got in touch with a mutual friend whos been brewing for a few years and will be doing A Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone for my sisters upcoming baby shower.. if things go well might make a another batch for my wedding in October.

 

I brewed a NEIPA this afternoon. Things went well until it was time to oxygenate. I ran out of oxygen from the tank within 30 seconds, was planning on 90 seconds. I thought I had a spare tank but turns out I didn’t. Any detrimental effects if I’m low on oxygen concentration? Should I try and hit it again after I buy a new tank tomorrow morning?

 

The issue with inadequate O2 is that the yeast may not be able to reproduce in the wort as much as they should, because they use O2 to make sterols, which are used in building cell walls. Inadequate cell wall material means limited budding, and thus less cells. This can cause slower and/or incomplete attenuation. My guess though is that 30 seconds of pure O2 (0.5 micron stone, disposable hardware store O2 cylinder?) in a mid-gravity wort (5 gallons?) is probably enough that the negative effects would be little to none.

Regarding adding O2 a day later...personally I wouldn't do that even if I hadn't aerated at all on the brew day. The yeast will have already figured out the original O2 levels and proceeded accordingly. Adding more O2 would risk oxidizing compounds in the wort.

 

Good call on the "if things go well." Personally, I wouldn't do a beer for an important event that I hadn't tested at least twice before.

 

Did my first run at cork and cage, 38 500ml bottles. 4 year old "Solera" Belgian Blonde, then Sour Stout, then Amber Saison. Very Flanders Red like. Also blended it 80/20 with a nicely oxidized Brett primary Bourbon Quad, and 40/60 with the same (both kegged). 40/60 is going to get Roasted Cacao powder.