Brewing Activities (May edition)

Moved the spent grain and hops from my last 7 batches to the compost bin. The bin was inaccessible all winter, so I stored spent grain and hops it in totes in the garage. It was a long winter, and the cold kept things in check, but it has been unseasonably hot for the last two weeks. That stuff was super-stinky. The grain never had a chance to dry so, anaerobic processes were in their full glory. The liquid in those totes redefined ropey.

 

Drinking my homebrew

 

CO2

 

Got a new fridge for fermentation, and a new vessel for fermenting in, trying to re-vamp what I have now.. Just trying to figure out how to get everything the way I want it before taking it out for the maiden voyage.. hoping to do a Gose... a style I haven't tried yet, and I'm feeling good about it coming off 4 brews that I think are just dynamite.

 

I could be reading this wrong, but it sounds like you have some new equipment to dial-in and you're going to do that with a style you've never brewed. My advice would be to dial-in with a very familiar recipe. Either way, good luck! What's the new fermenter?

 

Bottling this today. LHBS was out of Brett C last week, so I dry hopped it with more Fuggles and Vojvodina and will drink sooner rather than later.
It's interesting: not as much toastiness as I expected to be given the grainbill, but it's there. Nice mouthfeel.
The BE-134 is very fruity, but different than other dry saison yeasts I've used- banana and pear esters for sure. Nice cinnamon note as well.

 

Not too concerned about it, seeing as how the old gear was very similar. Had a modified LME Barrel for a fermentation vessel, and a beverage cooler fridge for a fermentation chamber.. the new fridge is the same make, just newer, and the new barrel is similar shape and size, but open top (debating what I want to do with the lid). Mash, boil, chill, and are all the same, and fermentation is still same temp control with ability to maintain temp within 1 degree. I think the main difference will be that it is easier to clean, and will respond to cooler temperature changes a wee faster.

 

Need help testing?

 

Brewed for the first time in 2 months due to back injury and multiple rainouts. Bought a Robobrew to circumvent rainouts in the future hopefully,

 

Brewed a trippel today, need to replenish a couple of very light kegs (also a trippel and a helles bock). May have to do another helles bock next weekend.

 

Added a 2.4kw LDW stainless element and thermowell to my mash tun. Should be able to auto heat and hold strike water borrowing the inkbird ITC-308 I use for fermentation temperature control.

Automating step mashes would be nice, but worried even with fast recirculation there’s a risk of denaturing enzymes without a proper PID. The bottom of the basket sits very close the element so grain scorching may also be a problem. Small batch test required.

 

Brewing up a saison for a party in a few weeks. Pilsner, white wheat, table sugar. Hopped with hallertau blanc and mandarina Bavaria, fermenting with ECY saison blend.

 

A smoked American wheat beer sounds pretty damned good.

 

My wife just informed me that we don’t need two kegs for my daughters party... we need four. She apologized that I would have to brew the next 2 weekends in a row lol. Poor me having to have the weekends clogged with brewing activities. So on already brewers are pineapple cream ale, mandarina saison today, strawberry oat next weekend, and than a hefe the following weekend. Life is good .

 

Tough situation

 

Hold still, this won’t hurt a bit...

 

Made 10 gallons of my tweaked IPA today. Started at 5:30 this morning to beat this Texas heat (100+ degrees in the garage). Still learning some new features to my brewery, such as a grant that I plant on automating in the near future. Went ahead and used US-04 due to LHBS not having any liquid yeast.

 

That’s sweet! I had my US-04 looking like that today.

 

Some of these set ups are so cool looking but must be a PITA to clean

 

Last brew of May... Did my Rauchbier yesterday. Gravity came up a little shorter than expected (1.049-1.050 vs. 1.052) but otherwise went well. Ran out of ice for my pre-chiller for the wort to cool to my desired temp for pitching, so had to carefully transfer to my fermenter and allow to drop from 58F or so down to 48F before oxygenating and pitching yeast. I usually prep more ice, but forgot... oops!

Tested out all my new tubing/pump quick disconnects as well which was awesome. I just need to pickup some heat resistant gloves now...