Brewing Activities (2020)

70 SRM computed. But at some point, it's really hard to see differences.

 

Holy diabeetus that's a high FG! Crazy to think that more than half of my beers don't even have an OG of 1.050.

How was the sample tasting? The additions sound like they will make a great fall/winter beer.

 

Just looks like a creamy chocolate rather than used car oil to me.

 

It sounds high, but I think it it has become fairly common for big "pastry" stouts.

The sample was fine. Basically what you might expect; big, sweet, and roasty. It hides the 9.5% ABV pretty well. This is a base I have been using for 2-3 years now for various beers made for festivals. It's funny you mentioned diabeetus...one brewfest beer using this base was called "The Beetus."

 

RIP Sir Wilford Brimley

 

Grabbed a gallon of unpasteurized cider from a local orchard this weekend. Letting it naturally ferment for a week with 4oz wildflower honey. Planning on pitching dregs from last years cider after a week. Considering doing a light dry hop with mosaic before bottling.

 

Day 4 gravity check on the Marzen. Down to 1.020 from 1.056. My ice-filled 50 quart cooler is keeping the freezer steady at 57, a little high for a lager but not a bad temp for 34/70. Perhaps I'll pull it from the freezer tomorrow night and allow it to warm up 5-10 degrees to finish fermentation and take care of the diacetyl -- tasted the beer and there currently is an overt presence of it.

 

Kegged my Chocolate Pumpkin Porter last night to open up my fermentation chamber for the NEIPA I am brewing now. Changing up my process today a bit to play around with some new equipment I bought.

43% Golden Promise
43% Rahr 2-Row
14% Rahr White Wheat

Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic, Idaho 7

OYL-011

 

Brewing my gf Stout. Putting on the big boy pants and bumping it up from 6.5% to 8%+. This one is a long laborious brew day due to the slow sparge (lots of buckwheat) and 90 minute boil. Should be a nice one.

 

Bottled this today. OG was actually 1.054. Went with 4%GNO. 2oz El Dorado at flame-out. Before dry hop, very tasty, fruit character from yeast and hops went well, bone dry but with an impression of sweetness, slightly spicy. A bit too bitter. Finished at 1.000

After dry hopping (3oz), a bit more potent on the nose, a bit more overt yellow stonefruit, and a touch of coconut flavor. It'll be interesting to see how it develops over time with the brett.

Also, went and used some Lyle's Golden Syrup as the priming sugar, just to keep with the theme.

 

Bottled a mango wheat today. Nice color. Mango came through and seems to pair nicely with the Azacca. Finished at 1.010, which gave it an ABV of 6%.

Was my first experience with a fruit beer.

 

love to see other homebrewers do the style right. You’d be surprised how you much you can push the FG before it becomes “beetus”

 

Prepping for my first lager sometime later this week, an Oktoberfest that I want to be ready for Christmas. Oktoberfest for Christmas? Why not? 2020 is plenty screwed up as it is... LOL

Adding some new gear for this: an oxygen regulator and diffusion stone will be here in a day or two. I will be making my yeast starter tomorrow.

40% Pilsner
31% Munich
23% Vienna
7% Caramunich III

Using WLP830
Hallertau for 20 IBU

I'm excited to try my hand at a lager but not too excited about an extended lagering period. But hey, I look at it as a Christmas gift to myself. Now I can dream about filling a couple of Maß my son brought home from Oktoberfest for a proper Prost!

 

Brewing another gf NEIPA:

Biscuit Rice 4L
Vienna Millet
Flaked Quinoa
Flaked Oats
Columbus @ 10
Brewers Gold whirlpool
Nelson Sauvin & Enigma dry hop
Lalbrew Verdant

Also dry hopping an IPA with Galaxy & Simcoe

 

Bottled a biere de coupage last weekend. 1/3 solera sour blonde, 2/3 cascade fresh hop saison. Packaged a portion in heavy gauge green Belgian 750’s. Really excited to do a side by side with a brown bottle.

I was also able to get a gallon of fresh pressed pear juice from my dads tree to make my first naturally fermented Perry. Pretty pumped.

 

I recently bottled up my own biere de coupage, which was more of a 9:1 ratio of hoppy saison to extremely acidic sour ale. Each bottle I've tried so far has varied a bit on the funky/peppery/sour/hoppy side of things. Interesting stuff, that I'd like to attempt again in the future.

 

Awesome! How long has it been in bottles? The last time I blended one it took a solid 6-8 months to really come together. I think I still have one or two bottles left. It’s been one of my favorite home brews so far.

 

Ha, a lot shorter than that! It's been a bit longer than three weeks at this point. I kinda wanted to see how the character would change from the fresh, just carbonated beer, to the aged bottles where brett has taken over a bit more. Even at three weeks you can see the influence of the brett and the souring bacteria. I will definitely be saving a portion for aging, but it's already pretty interesting.

 

All the talk of Dark Milds has gotten me to brew my first one up this weekend too. Going with MO, UK Light Crystal, Double Roasted Crystal, and Pale Chocolate for mine, hopping with Willamette, and ferment with wyeast 1318. Hoping for a nice low abv beer to drink over the fall and winter.

Also need to bottle up my strata session ipa from two weeks ago. First outdoor brew session went pretty well with some temp troubles with the mash so it didn't ferment as dry as I wanted. I should have a better handle on that this time.