Brewing Activities (2019)

Bottled my Bourbon Oaked Maple Stout today


(OG: 1.095)

 

Another IPA today.... yawn right?

Going to start messing with cheaper hop varieties on the hotside and save the expensive/sexy shit for the DH. After tasting so many gravity samples and then tasting after DH it just doesn’t seem worth it to use the good stuff on the hotside when a large DH just smothers everything.

Warrior @ 60 and 20
Nugget WP
Galena leaf in hopback
Citra with a touch of nugget DH

Found some Galena leaf for $2/lb and it smells amazing. It’s a hop that’s always interested me but never used it.

 

What's your prefered dh oz/gallon ratio?

 

Don’t really have a set amount and I’ve been going lower and lower on a few recently

4-4.8% hoppy beer 2-3oz in 6 gallons
5-5.8% hoppy beer 4-5oz in 6 gallons
6-7.4% hoppy beer 6-9oz in 6 gallons

Rarely do I make a double IPA.

 

Brewed a fresh/wet hop IPA on Saturday using mystery hops I harvested from the yard of some guy on NextDoor. They smelled good—probably classic C-hops like Centennial or Cascade. Ended up with enough extra for 2lb dried, lol.

Anyway, grain bill was 10lb Mecca Grade Lamonta (2-row), 1lb Vanora (Vienna), 1lb Metolius (Munich). Bittered to 26 IBU with Magnum and added 170g of the mystery hops at 15 and FO. Fermented with a kveik blend (Raftevold/Simonaitis) at 85F and it was done in 36 hours (1.061 -> 1.010). Going to keg it in a day or two and dry-hop with the same mystery hops (dried) in the keg.

 

After many requests from my non-craft beer drinking friends, I’m giving in and brewing a Blue Moon clone (only better):
1.054 OG, 22 IBU
6 lbs Rahr pale malt
5 lbs wheat malt
.5 lb flaked oats
.25 lb honey malt
.25 lb Carahell
Mandarina Bavaria @ 30 and 5.
1 oz dried Valencia orange peel & .5 oz Indian Coriander @ FO.
US05

 

Crap, the kveik rye IPA kicked just as I got the blog post about it up. Time to keg my Jovaru farmhouse with Sorachi Ace.

 

Have a WLP007 starter going for a red ale this weekend. Never brewed a red before, so we shall see! Just having fun with this one.

Grist is 2-row base malt, Pilsner, Carared, Biscuit and Carafa Special II. Hopped to about 35 IBU with Warrior, Willamette and Crystal.

Final ABV around 5.5%.

 

Made a starter with my dried Jovaru to see if it will survive drying. Turns out it will!

Also dried about a cup of Opshaug slurry.

 

Kegged my wet hop IPA made with Raftevold/Simonaitis and pulled out a few cups of slurry for drying.

 

Another IPA today.... yawn

Again messing with some cheaper hops on the hotside and focusing on Galaxy in the dry hop this time instead of Citra.

Pahto @ 90
Warrior @ 20
Nugget @ 180 WP
Chinook leaf in Hopback

WLP030... been loving this yeast!

Got a ton of leaf hops from Hops Direct. $2-$3/lb and they send 1.5lbs for the price of 1 usually. Gotta love it.

 

Brewing the last 2018 while hop ale.

 

3 days in a row...

Pils this time though. “Italian” style Pils or inspired by Pivo, Bibo, Luppulo Pils.

Barke Pils/Acid malt
Magnum/Tett/Sterling in Boil
Hersbrucker/Sterling leaf in hopback

60 theoretical IBUs

Used a little AG300 in the mash to see if I could get a little more attenuation from German Lager X, 835.

Overshot my OG slightly. Hit 1.048, hoping for 1.045/1.046.

Dry hop with a touch of Sterling and something else.

 

Tasting my barrel-aged barleywine. Mighty fine—plenty of oak, a little vanilla, strong bitterness (and high ABV). Gotta brew the strong American Brown that's going to replace it.

 

Brewed up my first red today!

OG - 1.053
Around 40 IBU

63.5% Briess 2-Row
15% Weyermann Carared
15% Pilsner
4% Victory
2.5% Carafa Special II

Hop additions:

60min Nugget addition (30 IBU)
.25oz each of Crystal and Willamette at 30min (3.5 IBU)
.75oz each of Crystal and Willamette at 15min (7 IBU)

WLP007 pitched at 64F... Will ferment at 67-68F.

 

Annual Wet hopped Saison

6 pounds MI 2-row

2 plants worth of Cascade and Centennial wet hops(all of them) at flame out steep 30 minutes.

WLP Saison II
3 packs of expired bretts

Cheers

 

Brewed two batches of a big-ish American Brown for my clean barrel yesterday and today.

For each 4 gal batch:

7# Mecca Grade Lamonta
2.25# Mecca Grade Metolius
1# Mecca Grade Opal 44
0.75# Mecca Grade Shaniko
0.5# Briess Chocolate

15g Magnum at 60
40g Willamette at 20
40g Willamette at 5

Fermenting with Oslo kveik.

 

Brewing an Oktoberfest that i’ll Use the quick lager method then cold condition/lager for a month. Having an Oktoberfest event at my house at the end of October.

65% 2 row
25% Munich
10% Vienna

My assistant brewer helping me mash in.

 

Got some new tap handles, thanks to the girlfriend! So I got them installed and updated my on tap menu, which was a little out of date, haha. Need to tidy up my coaster magnets though on the front of the keezer...

 

Awesome set up man!!