Brewing Activities (2021)

Dry-hopped a pale ale with El Dorado and Azacca and bottled a cider- local raw juice fermented with BE-134 and Suburban Brett

 

I love dark mild and have done several inspired by the JZ recipe, so I paid attention and visited your blog. Nice! Sucks just a little bit that I found it during what is shaping up to be my version of dry January due to some pharmaceutical interaction concerns. The photos of crystal clear beer are mouthwatering. That Italian Pilsner makes me feel like I missed out on summer.

 

Bottling a GF Stout. Also had to save my NEIPA. Don't no why, but fermentation did not start after 48 hrs. So, I repitched and things took off after a few hours. Everything is looking good now. First time I've ever had zero activity.

 

Bottled my experimental throw everything in there imperial stout. Its a small 2.5 gallon batch, 9% stout with coffee beans, cacao nibs, vanilla beans, and dried candy cap mushrooms. Read the byo article about the candy cap adding maple flavors so had to give it a try. Its crazy how much they smell and taste like maple!

Will be my last brew until warmer weather returns. It was nice to do a few outdoor batches in my temporary home but I'm not hardy enough to brew out in the snow so waiting until spring or being in a new home to brew again.

 

Awesome I’ve been wanting to try the mushrooms after reading that as well. How much did you use?

 

Thanks man! Photography is one of my other passions, so they dovetail nicely. (And gelatin works wonders on those pale lagers.)

 

Talk of barrels in the 2021 Brewing Goals thread reminded me again of the 5-liter barrel that was gifted to me by a friend. He barreled clear liquor, then bourbon, then maple syrup. It’s been sitting dry for several months and leaks like hardware cloth. It'll soak in water until it either seals or becomes obvious that it won’t seal.

If it seals, plans are to fill it with a stout.
If it doesn’t seal, it’ll get cut up and reserved for oaking a stout and whatever other beer it might be good for. Might end up making a 2.5 liter hanging planter, too.

 

Just top cropped a pint of thick yeast off my ipa made with verdant. I don’t normally reuse yeast except liquid and some lager strains but this is too easy and I’ve had good success with it. Then dry hopped with 1oz citra, 1 oz strata, 1oz mosaic. Will get 1oz of each 3 days before kegging.

 

Tried to brew up a hoppy/bitter/semi-malty IPA today.
11# 2-row
1# flaked maize
.5# caramel #20
.25# caramel #40
.15# special B
.25# carapils
.25# rye malt
1# honey
Hops
2.5oz Cascade @60
1oz Citra @10
1oz Azzaca Cenntennial Citra each in the new hop rocket my wife got me Christmas. This thing filters the wort so well. Plan to dry hop with 4oz Mosaic and 2oz Cascade
Yeast well I had Bootleg Biology’s Classic New England “Conan” on hand and was gonna make a double starter to save some so I pitched it. May not be what I was going for but it will be beer and fun to see what happens.

 

Gravity reading on my Maibock brewed on 1/2... Still chugging along!

Currently at 1.038 ten days later (OG was 1.082). It's going at a rate of about 4-4.5 points per day. Should be getting it into the keg for spunding on Thursday night or so. Tasting completely epic!

 

Brewed a smash Bo Pils today. Barke Pils/ Czech Saaz @ 45/30/10/FO. Mash- 145/156/168F. Fermented with Imperial Urkel L28.

 

Added some amylase enzyme to the fermenter to try to get the gravity down a little on this rye wine.

 

Kegged Munich Lager for lagering, kegged the saison that I did end up Dry hopping with an ounce of barbe rouge. Cleaned draft lines. I stored the lager slurry in a boiled mason jar.

 

Spent the evening doing a census of my brewing supplies and lol I have way too much hops and malt: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZGkKAUW8z-kX91ri79qZVjhri4blf7FJRiZ5xwrS3mk/edit?usp=sharing

 

34 pounds of hops?!? Good lord. I think you have a better selection than my LHBS

 

Come get some whenever you want!

 

Utilized my closed transfer kit for the first time tonight with my house pale ale. It was a little nerve racking, but I worked a lot of the kinks out the night before trying it with a water batch. Fingers crossed it helps, because it was tasting stellar when I took a gravity reading.

 

Still in dry January, but I did a gravity check/took a sip of my rustic saison w/ Omega C2C and it's developing beautifully. Brett is already quite apparent on the tongue after just two weeks, if less so on the nose. Gravity dropping slowly but steadily.

 

Robust porter to clear out the specialty grain bin today.