Brewing Activities (2021)

Filled 3 bottles from the keg of my Bourbon Barrel Barleywine tonight to submit to a homebrew competition. Gotta make progress towards checking off one of my 2021 goals!

Happy with how the beer turned out, though some of the Barleywine character is overshadowed by the barrel but that seems pretty common to me in many commercial examples.

Haven't entered a competition in a few years so this is pretty exciting!

 

Pretty standard APA
OG 1.054
95.7% GP
4.3% English Crystal 55L
47IBUs
Columbus to bitter, Finishing and DH 3:1 Cascade:Willamette
Verdant IPA

 

Using starsan and purging with CO2.

SS Brewtech Chronical BME 7 gal

My buddy said he hooks up CO2 to the racking arm and pushes CO2 through for a while after he dry hops to purge the headspace. I'm going to try that next time. I'm also not going to do hop bags, just dump pellets in gently and close it *really* quick.

 

Awesome! That's a darn nice fermenter. Some day you could get real crazy and build a dry hopper that works with the SS Brewtech tri clamp - https://hazyandhoppy.com/my-diy-dry-hopper-for-homebrewing/

What you described is how I've read a lot of breweries dry hop - pushing CO2 up through the fermenter before and during the lid opening so CO2 is rushing out as the lid is cracked & hops dumped in. I may try that too in the near future and see how it goes.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the link. I'm sure eventually I will build one of those.

I'm hopeful that purging CO2 during dry hop addition will fix it. Thank you so much for your help!

 

I brew a lot of Rauchbier (I actually just tapped one this past weekend, a Bamberg-Helles Rauchbier with 90% Weyermann Rauch malt). I have varied from percentages from about 40% up through 90%. Various commercial malts (Weyermann, Briess) and smoked my own. They are easily my favorite beers to brew and drink. We blast through those kegs more quickly than any other!

Even in my latest 90% Weyermann batch, it's smokey but not near Schlenkerla. I'd say maybe 50% of that intensity? Even at 90% in a Helles.But I will say this, I have found smoke malt often likes a bit of 'balance' with caramel malts to push the richness of the smoke. Caramunich or other "C" malts will work in a small percentage to compliment.

Below 50% with Weyermann will be fairly light, even in something like a Helles/Kolsch, IMO at least. But I am a sucker for intense Rauchbier. If you want a 'whisp' of smoke, I'd run with like 10-25% with that malt. I'd use the higher end of that range if using in something more rich, like a Marzen, Porter, etc... Depending on intensity. Once you start adding more specialty/character malts, I push up the smoked malt percentage to ensure the smoke is not lost.

Briess makes some various smoked offerings, such as Mesquite, Apple and Cherry wood smoked. I have used all three blended in a Rauchbier at ~90% total grist (using Kolsch yeast). It was fantastic and offered a bit more 'punch' than say all the Weyermann Beechwood smoked variant at the same percentage.Could simply be due to freshness, but those came across a bit stronger for the % used.

My best, most "Schlenkerla" Rauchbiers came from when smoking my own malt a few hours... Doesn't matter the wood. I've used a bunch and don't notice a difference, honestly. Usually just a blend of Oak, Hickory, fruit woods, etc...

But this offers the most depth of flavor, the most rich, smokey depth compared to commercial malts. I've smoked Weyermann Munich II for example at 60% of the grist in a Marzen Rauchbier, and the smoke was really intense and delicious. Stepped it up to 85% in my second iteration and it was probably the most "Schlenkerla" Rauch I have brewed. So good!

That being said, I have done quite a few in the 40-60% range between commercial and my own smoked malt and that is a really nice, balanced range. Sometimes I find them a little 'weak', other times they drink fantastic for my taste. But again, I think that is influenced by the rest of the grist, such as the "C" malts noted above and accenting the smoke with some richness of munich or other types of character malts.



Long story short... I'd run with these %'s:

5-10% - If you want the faintest smoke character. Might even be hard pressed to 'find' it.
10-25% - A light smoke you should notice in most beers. Lower end of spectrum for light, upper for darker beer styles with more specialty malts if wanting a light note.
25-50% - Good middle ground of being prevalent in smoke, but not over-the-top. Definitely becomes a smoke focused beer here.
50-75% - Must be a smoke fan!
75-100% - Now you're talking.

 

@invertalon thanks for the input. You mention some differences in smokiness of the malt could be due to freshness, and that's somewhat supported by you getting the more intense smoke from home-smoked grain. My Wyermann has been stored air tight at home but I'm not sure how old it was before buying or how it was stored at the LHBS. I won't be smoking my own in the near future, so I'll get some new(er) to be safe.

 

Packaging a West Coast Red Ale.
Cheers all

 

bottled whole hop ipa, added sugar maple wood to smoked magik

 

Bottled west coast red ale, hit all the numbers.
So now it’s up to the bottles to stay tight.
FG 1.016, pleasant sample taste
Cheers

 

Brewed a "landbier" yesterday:

43% Mecca Grade Lamonta
29% Skagit Valley Obsidian Malt
14% Mecca Grade Metolius
14% Mecca Grade Vanora

30 IBU of Sterling at 70 and 10.
OG 1.053

Put it on the cake of Omega Augustiner from the Helles I brewed back at the end of December (in a keg, floating dip tube).

 

I made up a huge (relatively) batch of starter last night to see about reviving a bunch of yeasts I had in the fridge.
2 I'm pretty sure will come back, a California Ale from a brew a couple months ago, and high-gravity trappist from November / December.
2 I'm hopeful - Imperial Yeasts |Tartan and Dieter, both from December '19 ./ January '20.
2 more i'm not as hopeful, Irish Ale and Abbey Ale from at least a year before that.
plus a couple dregs of sours - both harvested within 6 months or so, but the beers were much older. One I;m not sure of (Hardywood Full Color, don't know when I got it) , and one was the Sierra Nevada / Russian River collab Brux from what, 10 years ago?
Those are wildcards, being sours. If I get something, great, if not, I'm just out some starter.
They were all in the back of the fridge, as close to the fan as I could get.

 

brewing a burton light for #1 son

 

English IPA
OG 1.066
52IBUs
92.9% TFGP
3.6% Carastan
1.8% Simpsons Dark Crystal
1.8% Crisp Amber
Pacific Gem, Ariana, Elixir
Verdant IPA

 

That looks mighty pale for that grist.

 

Tapped a Waimea, Topaz, and Whole cone Centennial WCIPA that is just about perfect. 50/50 base of Pils/Two Row, w/ about 3% carapils, 45 ibu, 6.5%. Janish WCIPA water profile, DH around 1.020.

Was able to post photos on here and can't manage it anymore? What is the common way everyone does that?

 

Imgur works for me. Host your pics there for free, and paste the images' "Direct Links" URLs into the "Image" dialog from the BA message editor's tool bar.

 

Brewing a barleywine this weekend - 100% marris otter, 70 IBU with Chinook. US-05 ferment. 9.5% abv. Haven’t bottled a lot of batches lately. This one should be perfect come fall!

 

First lager. Was going to do all Pilsner malt but I fell short about 3lbs. I used 3 lbs Heidelberg as a replacement. Then when I went to weigh out my grain I realized I was short another .90 lbs so I used .90 carapils to fill in.

6.10# Pilsner
3# Heidelberg
.90# carapils
.20# melanoidin

90min boil
6oz Hallertau Mittlefruh throughout (starting at 60mins) 44 IBUs

L28 Urkel