What's Brewing? (August 2018)

Yeah, after 48 hrs you might to think about pitching more yeast. How did you go about harvesting said yeast?
Yeah, there is plenty of lacto on the grains. That’s how I used to sour my Berliner’s before Goodbelly. Except most lacto likes warm temps (around 90F). So I don’t know how much you’ll get at fermentation temperatures.

 

I have a Brew Bucket, so once I racked the beer, I added sterilized water to the fermenter; swirled to mix; dumped the mixture into a large mason jar, and shook really well. Once that settled out--and it settled in a strange way; yeast at the bottom, below the trub--I racked off the layers above the yeast. Then I added a bit more sterilized water to the yeast layer; shook; and put it in a separatory funnel to settle out again. Then drained off the tiny amount of trub (which, this time, had settled at the bottom) and drained the yeast into a couple of small erlenmeyer flasks. Then into the fridge.

It turns out, of course, that I unnecessarily freaked out - which certainly has never happened before The yeast kicked in at about 36 hours, and now it's going strong.

The lacto thing is just experimental for me. The author's intent--at least the way I understood it--was to give just a small hint of sour to the beer. He mentioned he ferments this beer in the low 60s to mid/high 60s range, and it works for him, so we'll see, I suppose. If it doesn't work, I won't be super disappointed; it's a beer I would like, regardless of its sourness. But it would be a nice touch if it does work.

 

First Decoction brew today! Keeping it simple with just a single.

German Pils (sort of)

Barke Pils / Acid Malt
Magnum/Saaz 40 IBUs

15 @ 130
Step to 145
45 @ 145
Pull decoction and heat to 162 rest
Boil for 10
Return to mash to get to 162
30 @ 162
Step to 168

Gigantic pitch of Imperial Global @ 44

Ferment at 47.5

Can’t decide if I’m going to go real traditional and step the temp down at a certain attenuation or just leave it at 47.5 for the entire time.

Probably krausen instead of spund but we’ll see.

 

Brewing up a gluten free Milk Stout atm. I've only brewed with the dark roasted GF grains once before and it was not a success. Color was light and flavor was sweet, but not roasty. It was also very thin That was also back when I was getting shit efficiency on my stove top and before ever treating my water. This is just a 2 gallon batch to test things out. I'm using the Left Hand clone as a base. Hope it works out, cuz I loooove darker beers .

 

Brewing up a Belgian single this weekend. Belgian Pils, wheat, and cane sugar. Hopped with Styrian Celeia and Saaz and fermenting with T-58.

Cheers

 

Threw nibs into the chocolate stout. Also 3 oz of sugar maple wood.

Chocolate maple stout anyone???

 

Belgian Golden Strong racking sample from this morning. The batch is now kegged along with enough corn sugar to reach about 4 volumes CO2.

 

Brewed a simple Pale Ale last night

Dingemans Pale/Mecca Pale
Barke Pils
Carahell
Acidulated

Bravo at 60 and 10, WP
Triumph at 5 and WP

Conan I stepped up from three cans of Holy Cow.

Interested to see what Triumph tastes like. YVH has no info on them other than Alpha/Beta/Total Oil. Found a recent article stating it’s a new public domain hop that can be grown by anyone. Aroma notes from the article are “pink bazooka bubblegum” “peach, stone fruit ”. Pellets are super oily and crumbly and I definitely get the Bubblegum aspect from just rubbing the pellets. I’ve got about 4oz left for the DH.

 

Any tips for brewing with wet hops in general? I've got three pounds of fresh Nugget arriving tomorrow and have never used them before. Is 3# crazy for a 5g batch?

Right now I'm planning a pale ale or IPA with Golden Promise and flaked rye. I'll probably bitter with some pellets and use the wet hops as hopstand additions and dry hops at yeast pitch. Pitching Imperial A01 House.

 

I use fresh hops Lat addition like 15 to 5 min. 60. Minite additions can be a bit vegetal.

 

I never know the acid content, and don't care seeing I grow the hops. Also use large amounts like 1-1.5 lbs per batch. Beware squeezing the hops tho. Me and a pal didiyour that with 2 lbs of cascade, chinook and Columbus really hard in a hop bag. The very yellow fluid, lupilin, made us really crush the bag and the resulting brew was very veggies and bitter.



It is possible we hadalot while brewing

 

Simcoe mosaic ipa today, bit higher og then I like, 1.065, this one isn't for me, but rather for a friend. Not our first time with this hop combo, it tends to be quite popular. To be fair though, its hard to screw up mosaic hops.

 

Fermenting day 2.5 for a HM (Huell Melon) Sterling Nelson IPA...only 1 oz Sterling for bittering...this should be a little off the beaten path

 

I kegged my AP Dubbel and discovered a leaky liquid post poppet 12 hrs later . At least the pint on the bottom of the keezer smells nice

 

IPA tomorrow! Hops are 4:2:1 Azzaca:Simcoeenali. Grist is 86% GP, 8.75% toasted flaked wheat, 3.25% toasted flaked oats, 1% light carastan, 1% honey malt. Yeast is HotHead.

 

Brewed an American wheat ale with centennial and Amarillo. Came in at .043. Used a London ESB starter for both halves of the 10 gal. I think I’ll Dryhop half with centennial and Amarillo and the other half with cashmere and eureka. Third time using this roughly half wheat half marris otter grain bill and it’s a pretty great combo