Brewing Activities (2020)

+1 to morebeer and or local shops or brewerys willing to sell at a fair rate. 85 for a sack of base malt is robbery

 

Those are my "local" stores, 110 miles, and 130 miles away(and both in relative Covid hotspots). I hadn't thought of morebeer.com for grain, but I've bought from them for decades. Thanks for the tip, I may be brewing very soon.

 

That's what I told him. Basically he charges his per pound rate. But he also told me he rarely has full sacks so I would have to order a moth or 2 in advance. I used to buy from a nearby brewery at their cost +10%, but they changed brewers and the new brewer was never a homebrewer and didn't want to be bothered by us. And then I moved.

 

Starting some kveik slurry that's been in my fridge for a while. Pitching into a lactic starter for a fruit beer (mango). Or else I'm dumping it if it arouses my suspicions.

 

Ended up going with this riff on Drew Beechum's Triple Wish for the barrel. First batch is already fermenting, second batch tomorrow.

Got gifted a ton of Nelson Sauvin hops, and this will be my first time using 'em.

 

Decided to check the gravity of the IPA I brewed on Wednesday. Looks like it finished already. This Oslo Kveik yeast is a monster. From my fridge where it’s been for a month straight to the fermentor after sitting out for 5hrs to outside temps to done in 2.5 days. Well I’ll sample tomorrow and see if it’s stable and if it is I’ll check it again and keg on Monday. It’s my first day off. Our temps here have been 90/85° during the day and mid 60’s to 70° at night. Was surprised it finished so fast. The sample smell awesome from the dry hops- 1oz Warrior and 1oz Palisade and 1oz Cascade. Taste was super sweet and I’m surprised at that??? And it had strong alcohol smell but not taste. Maybe hops hiding the taste?

 

Actually the math doesn't work out much better. 10 pounds of the cheapest base malt comes to $15. 5 times that is still $75 for 50 pounds. Slightly cheaper than paying the $40 per sack shipping but not enough. I foresee a trip to Tuscon in the near future.

 

Brewed a low abv sour ale yesterday using WildBrew Philly Sour yeast. Excited to work with this yeast. Holding it at ~75F with my super prof setup. Plan to condition on raspberries with lemon and vanilla tinctures added at packaging.

 

It’s free shipping btw. www.homebrewfinds.com is a good site for grain deals.

 

Whenever I can clear enough time on my day off to brew the past couple of months, it's either been raining or too damn hot. Might have to look into brewing a batch of mead just so that I can have something going.

 

The Hefeweizen didn’t turn out like I hoped. I kegged it after 8 days when it hit FG but maybe should have waited because it has a bad sulfur smell in the glass. After degassing multiple times it has gotten better but not by much. Today I added 3lb of frozen pineapple to the keg and removed from the kegerator and added a spunding valve. I’m hoping the refermentation will kill the remaining sulfur and I’ll end up with a pineapple wheat beer my wife and neighbors will help me kill. I normally dump beer like this but it feels wrong when so many are suffering financially during COVID. 10 dollar Hail Mary I suppose.
Kegging my Lallemand Verdant IPA tomorrow and starting to lager my centennial and summit lager.
Man summit is dank. I smelled orange when I threw them in but I am definitely getting some onion. Good thing I love onion.

 

Brewed an amber, 1.047, with late addition ginger & Huell melon, pitched kveik. Plan to add mango. Sweet caramelly wort with ginger tastes like it could have been the basis for some sort of old-fashioned candy. If I am really productive, I will keg the averagely perfect Kolsch tonight after I finish brew day clean up.

 

Chances are it would have cleaned itself up in the keg anyway, unless there was no dissolved oxygen or copper in the beer to react with. But I think the re-fermentation might help. Yeast don't clean up H2S, but the steady flow of CO2 could possibly help scrub some H2S.

As a last resort (or if in a hurry), you could do the copper rod stirring trick.

 

Never had luck with copper (2 attempts). This seemed like the easiest way to get a drinkable beer and as a person of Jewish descent I find this as a giant fuck you to german tradition(jk). We shall see as I am now 10 dollars more invested now.

 

The California Common is chugging along nicely, however there is no brewing going on here. My Grainfather is not heating. It seems that it has suffered from the melted plug issue that has plagued these units. I am out of warranty, but it looks like GF is going to replace it...still waiting on the official word.

In the meantime, I just did a deep clean on my fridge in order to convert it into a proper kegerator. Goodbye picnic taps!

 

Verdant sample was fantastic. Can’t wait for this to carb.

 

Nice! I have 4 packs of this in the fridge.

 

Definitely replacing so4 for me.

 

Haven't brewed in about 6 weeks, wasn't motivated to stand over my propane burner in the daily 100 degree July we just had.

Brewing a dark mild today, slightly modified from my last version. Should come in slightly under 4% if all goes as planned.

 

Brewing a pale ale this week.
1.053, 40 IBU, Golden promise/ C-40/ Carafoam.
Primarily hopped with Cashmere and a little Mosaic on the hot side. Fermented with OYL016, which appears to be the Fuller’s strain. Might try to squeeze in a 2nd batch this week, but not sure yet.