Brewing Activities (2020)

Brewed a basic beer to use up some ingredients that have been sitting around for a while - something between an amber and a red. Have to do something soon with the quad in the fermenter - 11% abv and the sample doesn't taste hot at all, I'm excited for this one. Up next in no particular order Scottish Ale, Wee Heavy on top of that yeast, saison to be ready for spring, and a one or two pale ales or IPAs to balance all of the malty and or roasty beers currently being served.
(Certainly won't be doing them all in one week like Gorm! - that is impressive).

Working on simplifying where possible, and shortening days where I can, so that I can sneak in a brew day here or there after there is a new baby in May (and building up inventory in case it is a while). It's also starting to get cold and I'm trying to get as much done as I can before brewing in a couple feet of snow. I suppose that this would have been a good year to get my garage set up or to get a system for use in the basement - hindsight isn't very useful.

 

That sounds awesome

 

Not just you

 

Annual breakdown of all my draft equipment and beer line replacement. Soak/clean of all faucets and disconnects and such in BLC, gasket replacement (where needed), etc...

 

Replaced racking cane tube, soaked 6 milk crates of pint bottles in bleach solution and 3 crates of 22 oz bottles.
3 brews made , one to go.
Last but not least, making more toasted wood for the future. Sugar maple, white oak and hickory.

 

New post on the blog about my dearly departed smoked Red X lager. Really want to make this one again.

 

Nope I just brewed up a brown ale on my new setup. All electric now also bottled the rest of the NEIPA I brewed from the keg so I can have my keezer as a fermentation station got about 20 bottles out of it. My son wanted me to label them for some of my friends and this is his idea. He’s 9yrs old. I thought he had a good idea

 

Love it! Spaceshark needs to meet up with Landshark next.

 

Brewing up an IPA this weekend, hopped with mostly Idaho 7 and a little CTZ.

 

- Dry hopping a Nelson, Riwaka & Citra NEIPA

- Making a (light dosage) cacao nib, vanilla bean & coffee bean tincture that I will add to my milk stout at bottling. I usually dry bean, but I thought I'd try this instead.

- Crashing the yeast before dry hopping an american amber.

 

Kegging day for me. Already transferred a chocolate porter and a perhaps I'll keg a mead that I made using a chardonnay wine kit, depending on what it tells me when I sample it.

The porter received Dutch process cocoa at the end of the boil, and cacao nibs in secondary. I used S-04 for the first time in several years. It was very fruity towards the end of fermentation but cleaned up with a little more time. However, attenuation feels a little low, OG 1.058 --> FG 1.019. The hydrometer sample reminded me of chocolate liqueur and made me think of vanilla ice cream pairing. I've never made a beer milkshake but this could be the one.

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-drinking-now-2020.630916/page-3#post-6849604

And a couple follow-ups on the above:

 

This weekend bottled the quad, and brewed up the Scottish export. The Wee Heavy is supposed to go on the yeast from the export. I'm hoping that I can get the export packaged and squeeze in the wee heavy before Christmas. Overbuilt and harvested extra from the starter just in case, since I am fairly confident that there will be enough other things to do. I'll hold off packaging if I have to, but I will not wait forever.

Weather was weird today and a planned 90 minute boil turned into about a 2 hour boil, boil off rates were quite different than normal. Pretty simple 5 gallon batch for the export. 7 lbs TF golden promise, 1 lb of which I toasted in the oven at 350° for 30 minutes, 1 lb Munich, 10 oz Muntons Medium (60L) Crystal, 3 oz Bairds chocolate. Hopping was Willamette only: 90 minutes and 20 minutes. The 90 minute was supposed to be 60 minutes, but it is what it is. I realized my boil off was different after this point. OG 1052 and 5.7 gallons into the fermenter. Wyeast 1728.

 

Very interested in the Dutch processed cocoa. How much did you add?

 

Took FG on the split batch Citra, Rakua, Sabro IPA:


OG: 1.083

London Ale III: FG = 1.026

S-04: FG = 1.014


LAIII: Sample aroma was strong pineapple, mango, peach, orange, and a very subtle coconut. Tasted of all of the above and again a slight coconut finish.


S-04: smelled of dark fruits. Tasted of bubble gum and an unsweetened plum and bitter.


I tried to keep the two batches under the same conditions but I have to admitt I was not very scientific about this one. I will post my discrepancies in a separate thread.

 

Of course you would ask about the one thing I didn’t write down. But my memory is close enough. It was a 2.5 gallon batch with 3.5 oz of cocoa at the end of boil, steeped for 20 minutes, with the heat off but before I started the chiller, and 5.5 oz of nibs in secondary for I think 10 days (OK, two things that I didn't write down). Both came from a natural food store that buys in bulk and packages and resells ~ 8 oz bags with generic labels, so I have no brand or point of origin info.

The grist is a little bit all over the place, which is how I tend to roll on porters:
67 % muntons Maris otter
6.6% flakes oats
5.7% carafa special 1
4% Briess black malt
4% Briess chocolate malt,
2.7% Fawcett pale chocolate,
10% Mecca grade opal 20 crystal malt

1 oz US Perle (4.9% AA) at 60 min (est 30 ibu)

S-04

The high % of specialty malts maybe factors into the high finishing gravity (apparent attenuation 67% compared to manufacturer quote for S-04 of 75%.

 

Brewing up a simple single hop GF Pale Ale today. I've have an unopened 8oz bag of 2019 Azacca that needs to be used up.

Biscuit Rice 4l
Quinoa
Caramillet
Azacca
US-05