Brewing Activities (2020)

My new year is tiding up from a busy week after Christmas. Just transferred a smoked amber off dry hops to a fresh keg. Took gravity reading of a Bière de Mars, (Historical) and it came in on the money. Just put the gas on two (count 'em) kegs of Rauchbier that's been lagering all of Dec. Raised the temp on a Pale ale that's swimming in Galaxy and Mosiac. Probably won't brew again until next week.

 

Found a way to know exactly what my fermenting temp is. Helps when i need to raise or lower the temp a little. https://www.thermoworks.com/RT610B-24

 

@Brewday how did you seal around the probe? I don't see a grommet. Looks like it'd be good for mash temps, too.

 

Drilled a hole so that the probe goes in very tight then used this flexible sealer.
https://www.hardwarestore.com/664056-caulk-bath-ge-clear-28-oz.html

 

How do you clean well without that probe coming out? U should look into a smaller rubber grommet.

 

I just reach in and wipe the probe and inside walls/bottom with hot water and a soft sponge. Yeast comes off easy. Then a rinse of hot water/star san. A grommet is a good ideal. If you find one for a speidel let me know. Their almost a 1/4" thick.

 

MacMaster-Carr might have one that will fit. They have more grommet sizes and configurations than you can shake two sticks at. FWIW, I remember seeing Buna-N rubber recommended when replacing diptube and QD post O-rings.
https://www.mcmaster.com/grommets

 

First brews of the year whole hop ipa and a smoky brown ale with habanyero.

 

I'm going to brew a pale weizenbock this week--I'm aiming for something roughly in the territory of Vitus. Later in the month I'll be bottling a baltic porter that I brewed in December.

 

Kegged and primed a batch of Saison using ECY40 Nouveau Farmhouse. Will know how it came out in a couple of weeks. Excited to try this yeast for the first time!

 

Today I picked up ingredients to brew a Dunkelweizen. Gonna do a protein rest and underpitch my yeast to try and bring some of out those esters and clove.

 

To bring out the clove, a ferulic acid rest (rather than a protein rest) is the ticket. About 110F.

 

Yes, you are correct, I said that wrong. I plan on about a 30 minute rest at 114F.

 

First brew of the year planned for this weekend. Kveik IPA (previous thread https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/kveik-strain-recommendation.630497/)

I plan to do a 8 gal batch and split the ferment.
Underpitch both with Kveik Omega Voss at 86F (30C)
Hold one fermenter at 85F for 4-5 days
Let the other go uncontrolled at RT ~70F
See if there is any perceptible difference between the two.

Using a basic NEIPA malt profile with citra/amarillo hops.

 

Any specific reason you didn't go in through the lid? I've been thinking of doing something similar with my Speidels and was leaning lid as it seems easier to replace if I screw something up.

 

Not sure what part of the lid your talking about but i close transfer through the top. If i put it on the other part it would be close to the airlock. It would work but i didn't like it.