Brewing Activities (2019)

Buds are out soo its spruce ale time brewing 1 this afternoon and another on sunday

 

So far this week, kegged up my lager and 5gal of brown ale with the rest of the brown ale filling a barrel. Was gifted a hoprocket, so finally got the connects needed to plug it into my system and plan to brew an IPA this weekend to give it a first spin...

 

Harvesting dregs from Scratch Brewing’s turmeric tonic, (which is supposedly their wild house culture) to use in a watermelon weiße.

50/50 pils/wheat. No boil, no hops. Will rack onto a few puréed watermelons for a month before kegging, should be a good summer crusher!

 

Transferred my big-ass stout off the coconut and vanilla last night. Tastes amaaaaazing but I'm gonna let it condition until the weather turns cold again.

 

Brewing a GF Kölsch tonight:
Pale Millet
Buckwheat Dextrin
Spalt & Tettenanger
K-97

Tomorrow I'll bottle the Raspberry Grisette.

 

Brewing an IPA today then a stout tomorrow using Black Walnut Syrup.

 

What is black walnut syrup?

 

We're having a party in a few weeks so I brewed up another IPA.

Pale Millet
Pale Rice (for lautering)
Light Roasted Millet
Crystal Buckwheat 20L (shouldn't actually add much color)
Citra & Apollo
S-04

On a side note, I hate hydrometers and bottling wands....both broke this weekend. I've already replaced them multiple times.

 

Have you thought about going with a refractometer? I switched a few years ago and I love it.

 

I have one, but always thought it wasn't as accurate. Do you use it for post fermentation?

 

Yeah, I use it for everything. You have to adjust the readings with a calculator (there's one in BrewCipher, and there are a lot online as well), but beyond that I don't think it's inaccurate. Maybe a little imprecise sometimes, but for homebrewing purposes I think it's precise enough. Whenever I've bothered to compare it to my hydrometer it's given essentially identical readings (again, after adjusting with a calculator).

The big two advantages are (A) it's a lot harder to break than a hydrometer, and (B) it only takes a couple of drops of wort or beer. It is more expensive though.

 

I'll give it a go, tx!

 

Brewing up an imperial Irish stout tomorrow to be the last beer in my 10 gallon barrel. Want to have a little lower Abv barrel aged beer so aiming for 7.5%. As good as the beers have been coming out of the barrel I will be happy to not have to do double batches for awhile not to mention bottling 10 gallons of beer.

Will add that @VikeMan you were right about my "pastry" stout. Had my first bottle yesterday and carbonation was decent. Maybe a bit low but it's not a style that needs much and it tasted great!

 

Still pretty chilly where I live so I think I’m going to try something along the lines of what Jolly Pumpkin does to make their beers.

Let the wort cool outside overnight and pitch yeast tomorrow morning.

Still trying to figure out if I should pre acidify to 4.5 and how many IBUs I should shoot for. Plan on giving it 9 months to a year if it’s not tasting to odd after primary is done.

 

Brewing chocolate stout with new coco nibs.

 

There are about 22 species of trees one can tap for making syrup. I happen to have a bunch on the property. My family likes it better than Maple syrup, much nuttier.

 

Just brewed 5 gallons of an oatmeal stout and fermenting with us-05

 

Love the delayed heating on my grainfather. I brew most Friday nights cuz it's so easy!