What's a brewin. December (2018)

A pilsner using a pseudo-decoction method. Boiled 1/2 of the grain with about 1/3 of the water for 30 minutes, then joined it with the rest of the water and grain, followed by a regular mash. Half 2-row, half pilsner malt, Perle and Premiant hops for 50 minutes, Saaz for 5 minutes. Ferment at 48 F until 4 points from FG, keg it and use a spunding valve to carbonate it naturally. It just reached peak fermentation and the krausen is starting to drop. Will keg in about a day, but leave it at 48 F for at least a week before dropping to near freezing temperature. First time using pseudo-decoction (I have done regular decoction several times) and first time using a spunding valve. Why decoction? I'm one of the few who still believe it makes a significant difference in taste, and actually gives me the key taste that I like most in lagers.

 

Brewing a California Common today. Standard recipe, NB hops, and WLP 810. Nothing fancy.

 

last night brewed a dry Irish Stout. Still waiting for WLP004 to take off

 

Getting ready to mash in overnight for a rye porter.

 

Kolsch V5
70% Weyermann Pale
30% Best Heidelberg
Touch of Acidulated
130 -> 145 -> Decoction -> 162 -> 168
Magnum/Tett/Spalt

Imperial Tartan @ 58

Yeast is odd I know but I can’t figure out the traditional Kolsch yeasts

 

Good luck with the stout. I just wanted to say your avatar made me laugh! Cheers!

 

You last statement is interesting. Care to elaborate? I've only made two Kolsch style beers. The first, with the Wyeast version, came out quite nice: clean with a bit of frutiness after some cold conditioning. The second, made with the White Labs Kolsch yeast, I overhopped with Belma, but aside for too much bitterness, it was also quite clean with a hint of frutiness. Cheers!

 

Bottled a strong ale today, continued my habit of combining german and english malts.

92.3% Crisp Extra Pale MO
7.7% IREKS Teak ( this is a dark crystal, 140ebc0 Not used it before)

hops- Admiral bittering 50g@ 60mins
25g admiral 15 mins
25g Admiral 5 mins
20g Homegrown hallertau mittelfruh 5 mins.

about 50ibus in total

og 1.062 fg1.016

just s04yeast, two packets for 24 litres or so

managed to **** up the temp control, it rose to 27c after two days thanks to a probe falling out thankfully tasted and smelled fine when bottling. in fact,very promising.

last 100ml or so of bottling bucket

 

Brewing a witbier in a couple days. Changing things up a little, as I have not been totally happy with my past wits. Using orange extract in place of peels/ zest, hopping with a little Amarillo at the end of boil, going light on coriander, adding a little Carahell, and might throw a little citric acid in the boil.

 

Kolsch right now, using Hallertau Blanc as late and whirlpool hopping. Recipe otherwise the same as my first Kolsch, which was incredible. Never used this hop before, excited to see what it offers. Smooth brewday, chilling down to 58F at the moment.

 

With a little help of the cold temps in my garage I’m gonna try brewing up extract lagers and cold fermented ales. Kinda a throwback of when I first started but with a little help from an insulated brew bag and a ferm wrap. I’ve got a Pils DME/Pale DME fermenting away with T-58 yeast/ Idaho 7 hops.

Brewing up a Red Rye DIPA w/ Centennial/Chinook/Cryo Simcoe. Using MJ New World Strong Ale yeast.

 

Update: I racked it into a keg last night, and attached the spunding valve. It was quite murky, since a lot of the yeast was still in suspension. The Gravity was at 1.016, or about 7 points before FG, rather than 4 points, but I didn't want to risk it going too low by the morning, and I wasn't sure that the FG would drop to 1.009. I pressurized the keg somewhat to get rid of any O2, and today the pressure is holding rather steady at about 17 psi. I'm planning to leave it at 48 F for perhaps another week before lowering the temperature very slowly to about 40 F. Then I plan to crash it to just over freezing and leave it to lager for another couple of weeks. Using this spunding process, there will be a LOT of sediment, but it will almost be entirely yeast. Thus I will toss the first liter or so after it has lagered enough. What is enough? I'll likely try it long before it is ready lagering . Human nature!

 

Ordinary bitter today

MO, medium and dark crystals, target fwh, ekg at 10 and flameout. Wyeast 1968

Cheers

 

10 gal of 1.065 OG New England Style IPA burblin' away with some Conan yeast. First time with the Conan, it seems to be ripping through quick. 1oz citra dh as gravity is now at 1.020. Might add the rest in the morning (2oz mosaic, 2 oz citra 1 oz amarillo to each fermenter) to ensure I have some yeast activity to scrub O2 before a slow temp ramp down...

Need a win in the IPA department - have had some duffers lately!

 

Ordinary bitter became a best bitter. Still trying to dial in everything now that I'm milling my own grain and getting killer efficiency. Really smooth brew day today.

 

Was able to get a 10 gallon bourbon barrel from a local distillery on short notice so had to brew up a double batch of an imperial stout. 2-row, marris otter, uk extra dark crystal, uk roasted barley and uk black malt with a some flaked barley as well. Hopped with Centennial, Willamette, and UK Fuggles and fermenting with some harvested 1056 from a brown ale. Brewing two batches in a day is a lot of work! Everything went pretty well with some efficient mashes so should be between 12.5-13% abv.

 

I used wlp029 or its Imperial equivalent for the first two gos. Just really didn’t like the esters I got from it. I used 2565 a few times last summer and could never get it to clear regardless of how long I lagered it. I don’t feel like fining my beers so I stopped using it. Would love to try 2575 one of these days. Interested to see what Scottish Ale brings st low temps. The fact that it clears quickly is also a big plus.

 

thanks man. the yeast has taken off like a rocket!

 

Threw a American Amber together.2row caraamber c-60 choc rye vienna