Brewing Activities (2019)

If you can gather more tips it might be worth a shot to throw some in the fermentor after a few days, or in the secondary if you follow that practice.
@GormBrewhouse and @JackHorzempa have posted about brewing with spruce tips. Maybe they'll chime in. Seems like the process would be similar, if not the quantities.

ETA: found this thread when searching "Spruce" in thread titles:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/jack-horzempa-zymurgy-article-on-spruce-beer.571308/

 

That's really a great idea. I was gonna do just a primary only and could easily toss some more in there. I think I'll go for that!

 

With spruce I use1 quart at 10 minutes for 5-6 gallon batch. Love the beer for sure, gonna make 4 batches this year. Seems to b popular with the clan this year.

 

So you use a quart of volume? That's a lot more than I used. I wonder how much that weighs? @GormBewHouse

 

I brewed another batch of Spruce Ale a few weeks ago. As with past batches I used a total of 4 ounces of freshly picked Blue Spruce fresh tips (about 1 inch in length) which I added at the end of boil and let stand for 30 minutes. When I harvested these tips I used a bowl. I would guess from eye balling that they would have been less than a 1 quart container. I prefer to use weight to measure my spruce tips.

Cheers!

 

Never weighed it, just pick them fresh after the boil starts till the quart is full, but not packed. It's not heavy when picking the new growth, the spruce tips are more like ferns than branches when young

 

Jack is more accurate, but then again, I am the run an gun Brewer. Oh look there's another woodchuck, gotta go

 

Looks like you will be eating good tonight?

Cheers!

 

Brewing a Kolsch today and live streaming it.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=id%3D2735930569814250%3Btype%3Dvideo%3Buser%3Dthebeerery

 

You probably know this but it's worth mentioning anyway. To get rid of any nasties, the redwood tips should probably be sanitized before going in the fermentor.

 

They have a waxy coating so would you recommend soaking them in a light iodophor solution or would that taint the flavor?

Also, do you cut them before putting them in the boil or fermentor?

 

If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious shit.

 

Puréed 2 whole watermelons the other day and racked a Berliner weiss onto them. Ended up with around 3 gal of juice so split the beer between two carboys. Little bit of extra headspace that I didn’t want, but whatever. This batch will be consumed quickly. Now if I could just finish this keg of cryo mosaic NEIPA, I can get this one on tap. The agony!

 

Would love to try this. Brewing my first Berliner or maybe a gose soon. After the first run I want to add fruit and I love watermelon. Have you tried this before? Also, thinking of doing one with pineapple. Does doing a purée work the best? I’ve only used frozen fruit before in an ipa.

 

Just started the second brew of the day

Brew 1 All NZ IPA
Admiral Gallagher’s Best
Briess Aromatic
Acid Malt
Riwaka @60
Nelson/Motueka @20
Riwaka @5
Nelson/Motueka/Wai-iti WP @ 170
1.064
TYB Midwest

Brew 2 IIPA
Admiral Gallagher’s/Rahr 2 Row
Flaked Oats
Briess Aromatic
Acid
Hopshot @ 90
Zeus @ 60/20
Citra @ 5
Nelson/Galaxy/Strata WP
Conan/644/Metschnikowia Reukaufii

Smoked some chicken and ribs and make some smoked tomatillo Salsa at the same time... big day!

 

I’ve been wanting to try watermelon for a while now, but this is my first time actually. I have, however, fermented a Berliner on pineapple in secondary. I chopped up a whole pineapple, and blended with an immersion blender. Only reasoning for doing this was to make pouring into narrow necked carboy much easier. It infused pineapple flavors nicely!

Will let you know how this watermelon version turns out

 

Just finished kegging this Kveik IPA and the closed transfer went well. I was worried about clogs as I put 5 oz of free hop pellets in the fermenter but things went well after a 2 day cold crash. Stayed at 2-3 PSI. It's tasting very clean even just 8 days after brewing.

 

First a disclaimer: I haven’t messed with redwood tips and I don’t use iodophor. My comments about sanitizing were general in nature and intended to convey the mindset that one might get unexpected or undesirable results when adding something wild to the fermentor if there are unknowns about what the wild thang might harbor.
So, just some thoughts as a result of ruminating rather than experience.

That said, if my boil was done and I decided after the fact to add redwood tips, I’d probably boil some water, drop the temp to about 180°, add the tips and hold the temp above 165° for about 15 minutes, drain and add the tips to the fermentor.
Chopping them up; not sure. I guess that’d be a judgement call depending on how strong they are.
Waxy coating; not sure about that either, nor how it could affect mouthfeel and head retention.

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.


Additional disclaimer: I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

@riptorn ,,,,yeah,,,,, me neither

 

Brewed a request, birthday beer.

Old school using lbs of specialty malts and whole hops only. While hops for dry hop as well.

Love old school brew.