Brewing Activities (2019)

Had a friend over to try out our contribution to the homebrew club's "pair brewing" theme - a sour cherry brut IPA (me) and a chocolate dry stout (him) brewed to be mixed (or ideally layered) as a Black Forest Black Velvet.

The blend tastes good, but the higher than expected gravity of the brut IPA (possibly due to extra carbs from the cherries) made layering a bit touch-and-go. We got pretty good separation by slowly dropping the stout in under the IPA in a shot glass using a wine thief, but that's not going to scale to jug-size very easily. Currently our best idea is to try using an aeropress as a giant pipette - stout in the upside-down aeropress, press the jug on top, invert, pour IPA over the top, gradually lift and plunge the aeropress to release stout and fill out underneath the IPA...

 

Sounds good! Just don't expect it to be super funky with kveik only.

 

It is about as funky as I can go...

 

3rd rendition of an all NZ hopped IPA. Riwaka, Moutere, Nelson, Kohatu.

 

In the process of kegging the Oslo toasted rice pseudo-lager. Tastes very good, super clean.

 

First brewing in like ten years. I did a Hefe Weizen batch. Pretty happy.
5# Wheat DME
Belgian Aromatic 2oz
Flared oats 4oz
Flaked wheat 4oz
Malted wheat 4oz

3AAU Bittering
.25 Oz Sorachi Ace for aroma at 2 minutes left of boil
2tbs Coriander at 5 minutes left

Came out at 1.040 SG.
Pitched at 70*.

Pretty straight forward batch just to get into the swing of things. I am thinking another Weiss, maybe a Berliner, then look at a Doppel Bock. I love Doppel Bocks. I want to do a full grain on that so I might hold off until spring. My boy wants to do a mead. That will get done soon.
I forgot how enjoyable creating these beers is. I love the figuring out of how things are going to work.

 

Been longer than I anticipated since my last brew, but I still love this hobby even when I'm not at the burner. Always some new technique, ingredient, literature or gadget to learn about and tinker with.

Glad your return to brewing went well.

 

Kegged my amber last night. Went a little more aggressive ABV wise compared to where I wanted it (7.1% actual vs 5.5% target). Still figuring out my boil off rate with the new burner and kettle. Lots of chocolate/caramel notes. Some citrus flavors from the hops. Even some delicate fruit esters from 1318. Can't wait for this to carb and have some rest time. This should be nice for Thanksgiving!.

 

For my club's Learn to Homebrew Day event today I brewed a smoked British imperial stout and co-pitched Imperial Darkness and White Labs Brett C. Gonna let it ride for a few months and see how it's doing.

Tomorrow I'm probably going to brew a hazy mid-strength IPA with Ebbegarden kveik and leaf Citra/pellet Cashmere at FO and dry hop only (so a short boil).

 

Brewing a gluten free NEIPA today. I've been brewing this style a hell of a lot and they are getting better and better. Today's brew will pump up the protein with 10% quinoa. I've also been dialing back my enzymes to finish ~1.020 for more body.

Bravo whirlpool (trying cheaper hops hot side)
Citra & Amarillo DH
M36 yeast

 

Trying to get two done today....

IPA
Rahr 2 row/Chit/Carahell/Acid
Warrior at 60
Amarillo @ 30
HBC586 @ 5
Cashmere Leaf in Hopback
HBC586/Cashmere DH
VT Ale yeast

Robust Porter... cold steeped some Belgian Black and British Roasted Barley last night. The Belgian black tastes great, the roast barley not so much. Probably gonna throw the liquid from the Belgian black in the kettle before KO. Rest will be Maris/ Flaked Barley/Caramalt/Chocolate/Dark Chocolate/DRC.

 

Just doughed in Penny Rye, an ordinary bitter with 58% muntons mild malt, 29% Briess rye, 7% muntons amber malt, 6% muntons c60. Will use homemade dark invert syrup late boil to get about 15% of the gravity points

 

Brewed a Dunkelweizen today. Hit my target OG of 1.051. The LHBS talked me into a local yeast called "The Window" by Community Cultures. $10.99 for 2B cells, how could I say no? Hopefully it'll be ready for Thanksgiving for the larger than expected crowd coming to our house.

 

and another spruce ale hits the fermenter.
brewing irish stout and whole hop #9 some time this week

 

Hopefully that's 200B cells. If so, that sounds like a great price, especially for an LHBS.

 

Yes, it is. I was tired after a long brew day and didn't notice the typo.

 

Banged out 8 gal of an El Dorado hopped IPA yesterday. I missed my OG by a bit. But as usual (for me) my mill gap slipped a bit so the crush wasn't as fine as it should have been. I have to start checking the gap before every brew.

 

Ebbegarden Citra/Cashmere hazy is bubbling away, but my fermwrap died so I wrapped it up in my girlfriend's heated blanket on the low setting. Hope that works out alright. :|

 

Doing my first real traditional lager fermentation. Using liquid form of 34/70 fermenting at 48, at 1.020 I started stepping it down 1* in the AM and 1* in the PM. Sitting at 42 now and gravity has dropped from 1.020 to 1.011 while the temp was slowly lowered. Gonna keep going to 39 then transfer to a keg and krausen with 10% fermenting Helles. Finally found a great article on this krausening process. Stoked to try it out.

 

Not doing a diacetyl rest @wasatchback?