What's Brewing? (July 2018)

Brewing a marzen this weekend, probably an IPA the week after that.

 

You can always do a FFT and know where it’s gonna finish you can transfer with the appropriate gravity and there’s no need for a spunding device. Generally all you need is .5 Plato to get to 28 PSI. Sometimes a dry hop charge will create that on its own #hopcreep

 

Brewed a somewhat traditional IPA yesterday with the Seasonal A30 Corporate. Interested to see how it comes out, might even fine it (gasp). Used Brewers Crystals for the first time too.

Rahr 2row/Mecca Pale/Honey
Nugget/Bravo/Nelson/Galaxy

Brut IPA was down to 1.000 today, dropped it to 58 while I’m gone for the week to see if the yeast will flocc (which I doubt it will).

Started the second step up from some Trillium Stumpy Duck dregs. Depending on how the last step of the starter goes might try to brew a beer with it.

 

Trying out the Mangrove Jack M31 Belgian yeast in a Pils /Wheat base. Went off like crazy on 12 hrs! Started at 65 and after 3 days let it free rise, currently at 78f. Hopped with Magnum, Simcoe and Amarillo dry hop. Was inspired by tasting a Tank 7 for the first time.

 

Have all the stuff ready to go for my Helles this Sunday. Stepped my starter up from 1.25L to 2.5L and the WLP830 German Lager yeast is fierce stuff… Compared to the 2206 I was using the past 8 or so lagers, starter action is quite aggressive. I used this yeast before, but 2206 has been my go to for a while now.


This Helles is something like 93% Barke Pils, 5% Carahell and 2% Acidulated if I recall. Will use Mittelfrueh as the bittering hop. Expect 5.2% ABV and 18 IBU. First time using the Barke malt, excited to see how it tastes. Will ferment it out for a few days and get it spunded/kegged shortly after. Probably tap it in 4-5 weeks from now depending on how my beers on tap go.

Speaking of, my current taplist:

Rauchbier
Prima Pils (Victory guest tap!)
Festbier
Experimental Pale

As soon as the Festbier kicks, as soon as this weekend as that keg is reallllly light, my whiskey barrel aged stout will go on tap. I have not had a stout/porter on in quite some time, so I’m excited. This was a beer that came out at 12% ABV and aged in the whiskey barrel for 4 months. The barrel and kegged samples of this one were just crazy… Can’t wait.

When the Rauchbier kicks, what I’m calling my “Imperial Barrel Aged Grodziskie” will go on tap. Currently in a barrel the past 2-3 weeks or so, but will be racked to a keg real soon as I only wanted some faint/minor oak notes to go along with all the smoke. This was the same barrel the imperial stout was in, so second use, and rinsed of any residual beer and/or spirit flavor. Should just pick up some oak at this point i'd imagine. This one was in the mid 6’s ABV wise, brewed with 10# of Weyermann Smoked Wheat and some small character malt additions (Caramunich & Munich). Fermented with Cali Ale.

Prima will be replaced by my Pils I brew in two weeks and a new IPA/DIPA to follow the Experimental Pale.

 

Just brewed @FATC1TY oatmeal porter recipe. I will be split batching it. Half with coffee and maple and the other half with peanut butter.

 

Got lots of free stuff at HomebrewCon. I happened to be at YCH when they were tearing down for the night and were going to get rid of like 2-3 pounds each of Mosaic and Citra CRYO pellets that had been open and on display. They asked if I had a bag, and I did, so they gave it all to me. At the end of HomebrewCon they walked up to Denny Conn and Drew Beechum and offered them open 11# boxes of Mosaic and Citra whole leaf. They both declined, then Denny looks over and says give it to him, he'll make something awesome with them. I got the Mosaic and another club member got the Citra. 2 weeks out now and I have to brew with them!!! So I will be doing 20 gallons tmro. 1st mash has Pale, Raw Wheat, Oat Malt, and Munich 2. All Mosaic whole leaf hops. After WP pull off 5 gallons to fermenter with Imperial Independence and add coriander and orange peel to the remainder before fermenting with my nectarine blossom yeast for a Hazy IPA and White IPA. 2nd mash Pale, Munich 2, Carapils, Carastan, Demera, Mosaic and Citra Cryo blend. Ferment with Imperial Independence. Post ferment keg 5 gallons straight, and add Passion Fruit puree and Ghost Pepper to the other 5 gallons. After kegging I will bottle up some to send up the YCH as a thanks for sharing!

 

I brewed a best bitter today. I had some Bramling Cross and Challenger that I've been wanting to use for a while, and this seemed like a good opportunity. Maris Otter, crystal 75, and a little blackprinz for color adjustment. Challenger at 60, Bramling Cross at 10. 1L starter of Wyeast 1469. At a projected 4.6%, this will be the lowest ABV I've brewed. I'm going to have to drink a LOT of it

 

Brewing again after a 7month break or so. Maybe longer. Turbo cider doesn't count

Making a 100% pils saison , step mash, well bittered and hopped with homegrown centennial and some olicana which I have not used before.

 

Forgot to pour out the starsan in the fermenter, so it's a saison star san there was about a litre in there, anyone know what 5% star san solution will do to a beers pH and taste? I'm not too worried but it was a bit annoying

 

Just finished my Helles brewday. Into the fermenter at 48F and on it's way. Will pull my FFT tomorrow. OG of 1.045 and expected FG of 1.009.

 

Had a few issues making the Averagely Dubbel recipe like high ph(added some lactic) at first and low OG probably from adding the syrup to the fermentor instead of the boil.Also did the low oxygen technique and going to open ferment. Got it close enough but it will be about a month before i can try it.Taste great so far.

 

Started brewing an American amber yesterday. Still trying to dial in my BIAB process. Got pretty close with the numbers. Tried for a 5 gal batch ended up with 4.75. OG was 1.058. 91% 2 row and 9% Carmel 60. Centennial at 45, cascade at 5 min and Amarillo at 1 min. Trying to keep it simple. Just got a used fridge and temp controller for fermentation. Hopefully it’ll make a big difference in my outcome.

 

Took my shot at an Ayinger inspired marzen. Mostly Vienna, some munich, boho pils, and melanoidan malts, fermenting at 50 degrees with a 4l starter of wlp833. My starter tasted hella malty, I am pretty stoked for this one.

 

Well, it would have lowered the wort pH. How much would depend on the buffering capacity of the wort and of the starsan solution. (And that's also going to depend on the profile of the water in the starsan solution.) I don't think I've ever seen where anyone has measured that for starsan solution.

But I'm ~100% confident you'll still make beer, i.e. the pH would not be so low that the yeast don't work. I'd bet the biggest impact to the beer's taste will be due to the wort being diluted by about 5% (by water) and not due to pH.

 

I've been dipping my toes into the world of LODO brewing. I have a pretty primitive set up at the moment so doing all that they suggest just isn't in the cards. If nothing more, it's really helped me refocus on process and what I'm doing. I've done two beers this way so far and have been very, very happy.

First is a citra, amarillo, simcoe hoppy blonde. Poor lighting for a picture...



The second was an iteration of the wheat beer beerery posted. Used his grain bill, subbed in honey malt for carahell, and hopped with Idaho 7 and a bit of amarillo. Took that to a family picnic and it was a hit. Killed the keg too quickly.

 

That Hop combination takes me back. The only black IPA I ever really liked was Sublimely Self Righteous from Stone.

 

Cleaning three dirty kegs tonight, currently in process and soaking. Filling one with my Helles tomorrow along with my barrel aged smoked wheat that is ready to come out of the barrel.

 

Starting brewing an imperial stout that I will be adding some oak and bourbon to. Supposed to be the recipe for dragons milk so we'll see how it turns out. Of course after starting I realized I didn't have a large enough fermentor open for it so had to bottle my neipa I brewed a couple weeks ago. Smells and tastes great so can't wait for it to carbonate