Brewing Activities (2019)

Small experimental batch today.

IPA of sorts with a blend of QA23 wine yeast and a few Brett strains. Really test out this whole biotransformation thing.

 

My plans are always fluid, so instead of the Pils I planned to brew this weekend, I am starting my Apricot and Mango Sour today… Pils/Wheat grist to OG of 1.045 or so. Will sour with Goodbelly until Sunday, in which I will do the boil/chill and ferment out with US-05. Will also have 1# of Lactose in this one, added during the boil. Will add about 1-2 IBU worth of Exp. Stonefruit (1/2oz at flameout).

Before it reaches FG, will move into a keg on top of 3# of Apricot and 2-3# of Champagne Mango puree, additional lactic acid to reach my desired pH and allow to ferment (and spund) in the keg before chilling/serving.

Excited to see how this one turns out. Did one sour before (Raspberry) and was quite awesome.

 

Brewing an AG ESB, if all works
4.4% using Fuggles and 1318 yeast
Cheers all

 

Pushing my Porter brew to next week. Instead, today I'm gonna brew up a classic Cascade Pale Ale. Also, bottling the passion fruit Wit.

 

Heating the strike water and crushed the grains: 60% Golden Promise and 40% pilsner malt. Will split the batch, half saison and half blonde.

 

Dunkel Weisse using pils,wheat malt,spelt,carabohemian,carawheat and choc wheat. The Mangrove M-20 looks good so far.

 

Here's my latest IIPA, first double I've made. Came out really, really good. Columbus to bitter. Centennial/Amarillo in kettle. Mosaic/Centennial/Amarillo cryo in WP and DH. Couple things I'd change is mix the cryo with T90 pellets. They're almost too clean for my taste. It was also 90% 2-row/10% vienna. I think I'd bump up the vienna up to 20%-ish. Not really getting many miles out of it.

As for new brews, it is my dad's birthday this week. So Saturday we brewed an amber which is his favor beer. 2-row, carastan, British 77L, and some biscuit. We pulled about 2 quarts and boiled it down for increase complexity. The boiled down wort tasted like malty caramel. Pretty amazing and really excited to get this one in the keg. Should come in right around 5.3% abv so perfect!

 

Another homespun recipe I brewed this weekend.


I used the grain bill from my favorite local, La Cumbres Elevated.
I was expecting a bit higher on the OG, but it came in at 1.068

• Wlp001 Yeast
• 14 lbs canadian superior malt
• 1 rahr white wheat
• 1 Briess Caracrystal Wheat Malt
• 1 Weyermann Caramunich I Malt
• 1 Bairds Carastan Malt

6.5 Gallon water to mash
14 grams gypsum on mash
9 grams gypsum in sparge
7 gallon boil size
Carrageenan tab at 5 minutes
Whirl pool 25 minutes

• Extract 5ml at 90 mins
• .5 mosiac cryo at 90 mins
• 2 oz strata and medusa at 5 min
• 2 oz strata Medusa at flame out
• 1 oz whole cone Simcoe at flame out
• .5 oz Amarillo at 200 deg
• .5 oz centennial at 200
• .5 oz Chinook at 200
• 1oz Simcoe at 180
• 1oz strata at 180
• .5 Chinook at 180
• 1.5 strata at 10 days
• 1.5 Medusa at 10 days
• .5 mosiac cryo at 14 days
• 1 oz columbus at 14 days
• 1 oz Nelson at 14

Yes I like big hoppy beers!
I have a Heady Topper clone that I just added my 2nd dry hop to. Ill bottle that on day 25 I believe.
Ordered the labels too

 

While technically not homebrewing, I had a great brew day today. I was invited by my friends at TailGate Brewery to do a Pro-Am collab. I planned the recipe with their head brewer a few weeks ago. We brewed a West Coast IPA (2 turns) on their 8 bbl system and made a game-time decision to ferment with Kveik, pitching at 85 (!). Standard grain bill plus some Carapils Copper Malt for color. Hops included Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra. Damn that was fun.

Really cool to see how they pitch yeast using a completely closed system.

 

Just a quick update on the Kveik. OG was 13 P and it's now at 2.3 P after 24 hours. Amazing.

 

Now that you have experience would you start a Brewery.

 

If I were younger, maybe. Definitely would be a LOT of work and a huge commitment with little payoff at least at first.
I'm content with my current job and enjoy the hobby immensely, so no.

 

Got my sour into a keg this morning about 10 days after brewing it, still about 4 points from FG. All fruit went right into the keg so it will be spunding/carbonating the next week or so. I used three pounds of Apricot puree and then about 7 fresh mangos juiced.

Sour had a pH of 3.3, give or take into the keg. 5.1% ABV. Has a pound of lactose in it, as well. FG of 1.015 (result of FFT).

Should be on within 2 or 3 weeks. Looking forward to this one. It's been too long since I have done a sour!

 

I brewed a cherry wit last weekend for a club event. I used Mahlab late in the boil which was a total unknown as I've had zero exposure to it in the past. I'm planning to add cherry concentrate at some point, but I took a sample today and was pleasantly surprised. It smelled and tasted a bit like a cherry flavored cookie, dare I say a pastry wit. Anyway, brewed this with the intent of a low abv, red wine looking beer to get crushed at an outdoor club event I can't even attend and am now looking forward to drinking some myself.

 

Last day of vacation, so brew time...

Today is a GF NEIPA with a blend of Galaxy, Amarillo & Simcoe. In a few weeks, I'll have 3 beers in which I changed one ingredient in the grain bill in hopes of seeing what each contributes to flavor, body and head retention.

 

Brewed a gose over the long weekend. Mashed on Thursday night, hit it with Goodbelly juice and let it stew for 48 hours. Did a 30 minute boil on Saturday night. Plan was to produce 6 gals at 1.047 OG. Ended up with 5 gals at 1.054 OG

Anyway, split it into two carboys and added WyEast German Ale yeast (1007). After primary is about finished, I'll add a few pounds of blackberries and blueberries to one, and give the other a "lemon meringue" treatment -- meyer lemon juice & zest, lactose, and maybe a lil vanilla?

 

A search suggests you're coming up on two years since wrangling that yeast
What generation is this, or did you snag some more in 2018?

 

Bottleing brown ale and a west coast ipa