Brewing Activities (2020)

What year is the galaxy? I thought the 2017 was great, but I get a lot harshness out of 2018/2019 crops. Could be a personal palette thing though.

what % do you plan on for the galaxy/rakau?

next time I use galaxy, I was thinking about dryhopping only for 24-48 hours and then kegging after that to limit the exposure...

 

Got a starter going for a Belgian pale ale. Dingemans 2 row, Maris Otter, Biscuit malt, and medium English crystal. Went with WLP550, and plan to ferment on the cool side.

 

Most recent crop of Galaxy. I've used them once late last year in a hazy and picked up some of what you're talking about. Pulled it off the keezer to sit for another 2 weeks which helped a small bit.

With Rakau seemingly more mild than Galaxy, I was thinking of going 2:1 but open to suggestions. Have you used that combo before? The Rakau were a freebie over the holidays.

 

After nearly 6 months of not brewing (moving / storage) problems we are finally back at it.

We made a Citra/Simcoe Pale Ale that we bottled and it came out ok, think our mash pH was off a bit. Also inconsistently carbed. Bummer.

Currently fermenting a boysenberry and lavender gose. Excited for this one. Also have a hazy IPA with Sabro and HBC586, got one more dry hop addition to go and it's canning time.

It feels so good to get back at it.

 

Got amazing flavor/aroma from the 2019 YVH Galaxy I used on Sunday, though I guess I wouldn't get much bitterness since it was all FO/DH.

 

What % of the hops were galaxy? And how many oz of hops in a 5gal batch?

 

I heard a podcast that Hop Butcher said they use 15-25% galaxy. They said if they go higher than 25%, they get that harsh bitterness (vegetal flavor?)

ive never done rakau at all. What’s the AA% ?

 

It was 5.5 gal.

FO/whirlpool: 60g pellet Galaxy to 70g leaf Citra
DH: 80g Galaxy to 120g Citra
No boil hops at all.

This is in a 100% pils beer, around 5.5%, with lager yeast.

 

Is that what happened to Galaxy Bowl?

10.3%

I've enjoyed them in a saison. Bigger aromatics than flavor which I feel could lead to disappointment in an IPA if used as a feature hop.

 

Trying to revive some 4.5 year old Brettanomyces from ECY (Dirty Dozen)... worst case I'm out a few oz of DME.

 

I have fermentation! Love this ECY stuff.

 

How much of the beer did you use with the DME? Just curious to your method?

 

I'm sure @OddNotion will answer, but I assumed he had an old bottle of the ECY brett blend, i.e. he wasn't growing this up from beer bottle dregs, if that's what you were thinking.

 

@Jasonja1474,
@VikeMan is correct, I had a jar from October 2015 that I just never got around to using but wanted to give it a go now

 

Yes I thought he was growing it. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Setting up Anvil Forge burner to make sure it works. Also bought DME and yeast for a quick batch tomorrow to work the kinks out from not brewing for over a year if it's not raining all day. Session IPA- 3# Pils DME 3# Wheat DME, Centennial, Amarillo, Simcoe, Imperial Loki.
Up next, hoppy saison- TFGP, GNO, all El Dorado hops, BE-134 primary, Imperial Suburban Brett at bottling.
Gotta work through a bunch of 2 year old hops and grain over the summer. Not too worried about staleness, chalking it all up to a learning experience. Same as learning the water at the new house through taste. One day I'll get there.

 

Perhaps went a little overboard kitting out the SS brewbucket here... I was strongly considering blowing a wad of cash on a Spike Flex+ but it wouldn't fit in my chest freezer with the butterfly valve/ closed transfer kit, and it really is rather expensive. I decided to see if I could get my Brew bucket to do what I wanted.

It still wont hold pressure like the Flex or any conical obviously, but with this rig i can easily put a bit of gas on during cold crash (just enough to hear the gas in the regulator) and I can push beer into kegs completely closed without lifting the fermenter, and I can jumper fermentation gas to a keg for purging very easily.

The domed lid is much more rigid than the flat version. It is extremely solid. I could only find a 1.5" tc gas post accessory so I had to get a 3"-1.5" reducer as well. I realize that a blowoff (which come to think of it, I've never had even with the flat lid) I could clog the post, but eventually the pressure would just leak from the lid gasket anyway - I don't think it will blow up. Pressure tested it tonight and it holds great !

 

Nice work! I assume you're going to attach a spunding valve to that gas post. Right? Also, with one of these (assuming you have the clearance)...

...you can attache both a tri-clampable thermowell and your post fitting. (Imagine this flipped 90 degrees, so the thermowell (not shown) is perpendicular.)

 

@VikeMan , I have a thermowell on the brew bucket - but I have started thinking of all the gizmos I could add.. unfortunately I am at max height right now with the gas post once a QD is on. Spunding valve, not so sure, because the brew bucket can really only take 1-2 psi...

 

Without a spunding valve or something similar, how will you let most of the fermentation pressure escape? Also, when it's time to pressure transfer, a spunding valve can be moved to the (purged) keg's gas in post, for a true closed xfer.