What's Brewing? (July 2018)

Brewing a quad using kveik yeast, and bottled up an Azacca & pale ale SMASH NEIPA.

 

NEIPA... yes, the wife loves them. 2-Row + Flaked oats, Galaxy, Mosaic & Vic Secret, Juice(1318) Brewing it for my boys 3rd B-day party. Can’t go wrong beings they’re all the rage.

 

My buddy and I will be brewing 20 gal of saison next weekend. We just settled on the recipe specifics tonight! Pilsner, white wheat, some Vienna and oats. 20 IBU with Southern cross as a flameout addition.

This will be a fun one, since the saison wort will be split into 4, 5-gal carboys and will get 4 different strains of yeast and varying dry hops

1. WY3726 with Lemon drop dry hop
2. YB saison blend II with Amarillo dry hop
3. CMY-01/Brett Brux Trois vrai blend with Mandarina Bavaria Dry hop
4. YB saison blend I with hallertau blanc dry hop

 

Brewed what I'm calling a granola brown ale today very early in the morning to beat the heat here in upstate NY.

Pale Ale malt, flaked oats, malted oats, Munich, c120, brown malt and touch of black malt. Bittered with chinook, fuggles and ctz from 47 hops for flavor. Us05.

Brew day went smooth other than missing my target og by a few points. Two beers in a row using great Western pale ale malt where my efficiency was a bit lower than usual.

 

Brewed a Mexican lager of sorts today.

Rahr 2 Row
Flaked Corn
Omega Mexican Lager yeast
Motueka

Hopefully krausen my last Pilsner with a quart or two of this Mexican lager in a few days.

Boiling some of the leftover wort in two starters for some Saisons I’m gonna brew tomorrow.

80% Mecca Grade Lamonta Pale
20% Mecca Grade Shaniko Wheat
Magnum/Styrian Goldings

Split 6 gallons between 3726 and TYB Saison Blend II. Ferment em warm and compare. I’m actually gonna lager then for a little while before bottle conditioning them. My last saison has been lagering for two weeks, gotta bottle it hopefully Tuesday.

 

Well my brew plans for yesterday got shot down by mother nature. Having a heat index of 103 degrees kept me from brewing and since I brew outside that was definitely out
of the question. So I plan to brew on the 4th of July and its going to be my house neipa.

 

I was in that boat yesterday. High 90’s here in Nor Cal. Ground water with a pre- chiller got to only about mid 70’s. Luckily the keezer kicks ass and got it down to temp! Oh but don’t have the humidity like you guys.

 

Its been pretty brutal here man lol looks like I wont be brewing on the 4th of July either as that will be out hottest day yet.

 

So I racked the remaining 2.5 gallons of my sour on to prickly pear and man is the color amazing.

 

So 6 months off apparently requires that I make up for lost time. On Friday (June, I know!) I brewed a modified version of Northern Brewer's Alpha Leonis. I brewed this last year, and while I liked it quite a bit, I thought that it was a bit on the bitter and roasty side for the style they said it was nod to: tropical stout. So this time around I made some adjustments. The hops were 17% AA. They originally called for 1 oz. at 60, and 1 oz. at 30. I didn't think it needed quite that much for the 30 minute addition, so I went with .25 oz. I also lowered the amount of roasted barley, and did away with the (standard) carafa III, and made up for both in carafa III special. Also used wlp007, 'cause I love that stuff, and wanted it to finish on the drier end of the scale for the style. Fermented vigorously, and has slowed down a bit. I took a quick sample today, and my initial impression is that it is what I was looking for. Much smoother in both roast and bitterness. Still has about 15 points to get to where I want it, but coming along nicely.

And today I brewed a saison that I've been wanting to do for a while. Mostly Belgian pilsner, with some white wheat, flaked wheat and Vienna. .5 oz of Warrior at 60, 1 oz. Hallertau Blanc at 10, and 1 oz. Hallertau Blanc after flame out at around 180 through whirlpool. 1.5l starter of Wyeast 3726. It started showing signs of life after about 5 hours, and now cruising along nicely. Fermenting at a high-ish temperature for the first time; starting in the high 70s, and I'll be ramping up to the low 80s over the next couple of days (using a Ferm Wrap). Fermenting at these temps feels wrong! Ha ha! Everything I've heard suggests it'll be just fine. Wish me luck?

 

Pre-chillers (i.e. an immersion chiller in a cooler of ice water) pretty much suck. OTOH, pumping ice water through an immersion chiller works a lot better.

 

Trying out some Cryo hops

OG: 1.068

10% Wheat
2,5% Flaked Oats
2,5% CaraPils

Mosaic @ 60 IBU, 60 min

2 g/L Cryo Citra & Mosaic @ 5, 0 min & dry (12 g/L)

 

Today I'm bottling a case of GF Citra/Galaxy Pale Ale. Beer looks, smells and tastes great. I'm really starting to get a feel for these GF grains and the process.

Also, hoping to brew a Mosaic Pale Ale on Friday. I will tweak the grist just a bit by increasing the caramel malt and adding 2.5% quinoa which is supposed to help head retention....we'll see. This will also be the first time I will treat my water (got my Ward Labs info).

 

I agree. Better to use a pump direct with ice water. I have been doing my last few with just tap water and a pre-chiller in ice water, but it takes a lot longer as it can't reduce the temp enough. With ice water, your getting 33-38F water or whatever in that immersion coil direct versus maybe 50-60F by the time the warm ground water gets through the pre-chiller.

Doing a Helles in a week and a half, which requires a hearty chill to about 48F, with my ground water in the 70's now... Need to start prepping a LOT of ice!

I typically use ground water to reduce the first bulk of temperature to about 120-140F or so, but then switch to the ice water. That why I don't waste the cooler temp.

For the topic:

Just moved my Rauchbier into holding in my keezer waiting for whatever next to kick (likely my Hefe or Festbier). Also have my experimental pale in the keg at 34F and my barrel aged stout... Three kegs on deck, just waiting for places to put them! Got a 1/6th of Prima Pils in the meantime on one of my taps, as my Pils ran out and I didn't have one in the pipeline. Prima is one of my absolute favorites, so it's been awesome. Need a great Pils on for these summer months!

 

Brewed yesterday. Didn’t get started until 7 because I’m apparently a masochist.

Double decoction Helles that I finished up sometime after midnight. Sitting in the mid-40s now and just starting to see some activity.

Pils and CaraHell, Tettnanger, WY2206. 10.4°SG. I’m shooting for 4.6%-4.9%ABV, 19 IBU, 3.6 SRM.

 

Also, the last batch came out pretty damn tasty! The aroma is nuts! Someone cracks a can and you can smell it from across the room.

I’m done with you kids’ hazies for the year, though! All classic styles from here on out!

 

That's exactly what I do. In San Diego, our ground water is almost never cold enough to get my wort to pitching temp. I chill with ground water down to about 110-120, and then pump ice water through the chiller to reach my desired temp.

 

Ya. I’m starting to be a believer that pre-chillers suck. F’n ice melts almost instantly. Might have to invest in an aquarium pump.

 

That's been a "no regrets" investment for everyone I know of that has made it. But you're really looking for a "pond" pump. The ones labelled "aquarium" are often very low volume/low HP (and more suited to fermentation jackets than wort chilling).