Brewing Activities (2019)

Dry Beaned an Imperial Sweet Stout today, for upcoming festival.

 

Talk us through it:
2 types of vanilla?
Why this coffee roast?

Apologies if this forum has already seen the Vikeman beaning strategies.

 

I'm planning to do a dry-beaned imperial cream ale soon, so following as well.

 

I recently brewed the AP Brown ale. Unfortunately I undershot the gravity by a lot (1.042), but I guess I can have bigger glasses of it now :-)

 

Coffee: I had tried several blends in an attempt to maximize dark, roasty coffee flavors while avoiding harshness and any hint of the dreaded green pepper flavor after some aging. The two blends that seem to do the trick for me are Jittery Joe's Wake-n-Bake blend and Little Amps Dark Star. I'm not sure I have a strong preference between the two, but Little Amps is within driving distance and is slightly cheaper. I don't know why these two work best for me. I do note that they both have Ethiopian beans in the blend, but outside of beer I'm not much of a coffee drinker, so I dunno.

Vanilla: Last time I made this beer, I realized too late that I only had one Tahitian bean, and not the two I needed. I did have an extra Madagascar bean from another project, so I used that along with the Tahitian. I liked the result better than previous Tahitian-only additions, so I stuck with the formula this time around. The combo seemed a little less fruity, but with more "basic vanilla" flavor. But it was not a huge difference, and I was not able to A/B, so it could just be in my head.

 

Just cleaned some kegs, one of which will receive this. Hydrometer check showed and FG at 1.008, the rye and oats (presumably) give it the body that a 1.040 might otherwise lack. The dry hops have left a subtle fruitiness, melon, perhaps. Looking forward to this one.

 

Packaging Saison so far so good
Cheers all

 

Have my WLP833 starter stepped up to 3L from 1.5L, along with a little yeast stashed away for future brews. This will be used for my Rauchbier Marzen brewing this Sunday. That grist is basically just over 60% smoked dark munich malt with a balance of Barke Pils and a touch of Carafa Special II. German Magnum at 60min for about 20 IBU.

My Pils brewed last Sunday is chugging along, hoping to get it into a keg by tomorrow night or Sunday for spunding/lagering. My FFT came back in at 1.008 which is right where I wanted it, finishing ABV of 5.5%.

 

Doughing in now.

 

Brewing another Rye PA this time with extra cascade and Columbus. Gotta use up last years crop. This one is a lookin gooooooood

 

Dark lager, shooting for schwarzbier with 2 row, carafa 2 special, Crystal, and chocolate malt. Fermenting with 34/70

 

Just bought around 6 pounds of fresh and very ripe montmorency cherries from a local farm. I was going back and forth over freezing them, thawing and adding them to the beer based on what a lot of people say on the matter. I ended up just throwing them in as is after a cold water rinse, pits included. I felt if I bought them in the most ripe and prime point, I might as well just put them in as such. Also I don't like the idea of using a modern way (freezing) to use a seasonal product like a fruit. They were lightly crushed since the funnel required consistently pushing down with a butter knife to get each cherry down.

I threw the cherries in a clean 5 gallon carboy and racked 3 gallons of a "house" mixed culture pale beer onto it. So far they are pretty much all just hanging on the bottom of the carboy. Consistent airlock activity.

 

Life has been crazy lately between work, kids, and travel. Finally getting a chance to brew for the first time in 6 months! Mashing now on my take on a milkshake IPA (using lactose but no fruit or vanilla bean). All Mosaic hops for this, including kettle and dry hops.

 

Dumping a batch cuz I suck. My basement is usually a nice 58 degrees which usually allows me to dial in temps with a ferm wrap, however we had a big heat wave out of nowhere and my IPA is a fusel bomb. It’s awful. Moral of the story is that I now have a chest freezer.

To replace that beer in time for vacation I’m brewing up another ipa atm.

 

Just got some 2019 Nelson and Riwaka in, and they actually smell great, minimal diesel. Going to make a 4.5% beer tomorrow with just Riwaka. Trying something different this time, going to use Cali Common yeast at elevated temps to see how it goes for hoppy beers.

Rare Pale Ale/Rahr 2 Row
10% Briess Aromatic
2% Acid Malt
Riwaka @ 60, 10, WP
Imperial Cable Car @67/68
2-3oz Riwaka dry hop.

Most likely going to try to transfer a gallon of it to krausen another beer two days later. I’ve krausened for carbonation but never done it as a yeast pitch into new wort. Interested to see how it turns out.

 

Where did you get 2019 Nelson?
TIA

 

Was supposed to brew up my Rauchbier on Sunday, but my Pils took a little longer in primary than expected. It just hit my spund target last night, so into the keg it went freeing up my fermenter and chamber. So now that the Pils is all set, tonight right after work I will be knocking the Rauchbier out.

 

Yesterday I made 50%pils 50% pale malt beer hopped with 1oz sterling at 60 and 15 min. Pitched at 90 with Hornindal Kveik and it’s sitting in my hot garage. Kegging thursday. Needs to be drinkable by Saturday to show the homebrew club it can be done. Will cold crash tomorrow if it’s finished and add gelatin to drop some of the undesirables out.

 

Bawls!

 

Dialing in my equipment. *Brewing Activities