Brewing Activities (2020)

Brewing another whole hop pale, this time using Columbus cascade and chinook.

 

Checked the final gravity of my Averagely Perfect Kolsch. It came out at 1.008 as planned. Pale and quite cloudy. Flavor of the hydro sample is Kolschy. . I think I will keg this weekend, fine, and chill.

 

Just mashed in for a 3 gallon batch. 50% pils 50% Vienna. Hopping with centennial and summit. Pitching weistephaner liquid slurry.

 

Chocolate coffee coconut stout tommorrow

 

Getting ready for my first brew in the new house. Things are still a little wonky, but should go fine.

Gluten free California Common:
Biscuit rice 4L
Biscuit rice 18L
Roasted goldfinch millet
Flaked quinoa
Northern brewer
M54 California Lager

 

Near disaster today. Was transferring a small sweet stout from conical to keg. Apparently I had opened the sampling/racking valve just a bit too far, and midway through transfer the valve's shaft decided to detach. A copious amount of beer hit the fridge and basement floor before I could process what had happened, reduce pressure, and get the shaft reinstalled. Since the shaft wound up on the bottom of the fridge and there was obviously no time to sanitize it before reinstalling, I do wonder what the bacterial inoculation rate was. But no sense stressing over it.

 

That was my attitude this past Sunday when I disconnected the feed and discharge lines from my immersion chiller and moved it out of the way, and about a teaspoon of water fell into the kettle of cooled wort. The water source was an ice bath that had who knows what kind of nasties in it from the frozen water bottles and ice packs from the freezer, and especially from some saved ice from a recent defrosting.

Lesson learned; don't place or move anything over or across the top of the kettle that you don't want in the kettle.

 

@VikeMan ,
Bacterial infection rate, interesting thought,,,, till I think of that dog slobber in my beer.

 

About a decade ago, a buddy of mine was using his chill coil when the connector to the hose went kablooie -- he ended up with about a quart of water from a corroded, nasty old hose spewing right into the brew . . . and it ended up being one of the best things he's ever made. You'll still have beer in the end, bud -- all shall be well!

 

I'm getting a low ABV (~5%) hoppy saison into 750ml bottles this weekend. I've got a very large batch of natural-yeast Gamay cold-crashed in one of my fridges; may dribble a half-cup into one or two bottles of the saison just to see what happens . . .

 

Brewed a smoked Red X lager today with 50% home cherrywood-smoked Red X malt, 40% unsmoked Red X, and 10% pils. Loral hops all the way and a big starter of W-34/70 (4th gen).

This will be my first time fermenting in a keg with the Clear Beer Draught System and a spunding valve. Excited to see how it turns out.

Might brew a Voss kveik IPA of some sort tomorrow, not sure yet.

 

Brewed Viking Ridge ver#2 today
10# 2 Row pale
.5# Breiss caramel 20L
.5# Breiss cars pile
.5# Flaked wheat
.5# Flaked corn
Hops
2oz Cascade at 60min
1oz Cascade at 20min
1oz Warrior
1oz Palaside
1oz Cascade whirlpool at 180° for 20-30 minutes
Gonna dry hop with
1oz Warrior
1oz palisade
For 3 days after halfway through fermentation.
Used the Bootleg Biology’s Oslo Kveik yeast cake from version#1 from a month or so ago. It has been in the fridge since keg day i took it out last night. No starter and it only took it about 2hrs to take off. I had 20 psi in the fermentor in that time had to adjust the spuding valve to keep the psi down. This stuff is a savage. According to my numbers I should have hit 1.071 but I only hit 1.060 so I know I mashed in with too much water. Wasn’t paying attention also I bought grains from Northern brewer so who k it’s how old they were.

 

Had to post a short video of how quick and violent this yeast is. Straight from the fridge and 12hrs later in the same collection jar to this. WOW

 

For to add the 16oz of honey I added at 15 min.

 

Gotta brew something this weekend to fill a barrel that's currently housing a Belgian golden strong that I want to package.

Who's got ideas?

Please note: This barrel intentionally contains Brett and some Belgian sacc strains, but it apparently also has pedio and other bugs since this golden strong got ropey.

 

I've got yeast and hops. Now I just need to buy bulk grain. Las Cruces is a little closer and I know where the shop is, but it's too expensive-$85 for a sack of 2 row pale and they don't always have whole sacks in stock. Tuscon is a little further but much cheaper.
I've almost got my shed built so I can move some of my other hobbies out there. So really I'm waiting for cooler weather in September to start brewing for the first time in 2 years.

 

@rocdoc1 jesus that’s expensive. Order from more beer in ten pound bags and get free shipping. I buy from my local Homebrew store but he only charges 50 a sack or less for bulk buys.