Brewing Activities (2021)

Had a break in the afternoon with work yesterday, and finally got around to brewing a barleywine. A SMaSH with Marris Otter, Chinook and US-05. 90 min boil. 9% abv and 80 IBU. Usually my bigger beers are all over the place with malt and hops; looking forward to the simplicity of this batch.

 

Just a quick hydro check on the Dubbel. Currently at 1.028, should be ready to keg tomorrow if the yeast keeps it up at it's current pace for spunding/finishing. Tasting so damn good! Currently ramped up to 72-73F.

Fiesty yeast, though. Should have used a blowoff tube on this one. Been a minute since I used a yeast so active, slipped my mind. Used to those low-n-slow lager yeasts, haha.

 

Interesting. I'd like to see something like this compared with adding the 2oz citra at whirlpool. Obviously the idea is to get more extraction with more contact time @170 but I'd be curious to see how much difference it makes. Not trying to be a jerk, jason, just curious. Has Brulosophy done a test on this? I'd just be interested to see it.

 

I don’t think Brulosophy has done it but if he has I missed it. If I had the capability and time and money I’d certainly do both ways. I will post pics and my thoughts when it’s kegged and carbed. It certainly didn’t seems to alter the start of fermentation any. I did use Imperial Yeast “Juice” and made a starter so I could save some. It took right off in a few hours and formed a huge krausen. I just dry hopped last night and tried to use the yeast collection jar and purge it with CO2 and open the butterfly valve. Well the o-ring wouldn’t hold pressure and I didn’t have a spare, so it got dumped in from the top. I did have it fermenting under 5 psi so hopefully that helped.

 

@Merlyn and in no way did I think you was being a jerk. Thanks for the response to my post!

 

Just place the order for a sack of Bestmalz Red-X malts to try and do Stone’s Pataskala Red X IPA. I thought the BYO magazine recipe would be good for a mowing beer. Gonna have to sub the Magnum hops for Cascade and the WL007 Dry English yeast for WL090 San Diego super yeast. Hopefully it will turn out right.

 

Got in some cultures from Bootleg Biology earlier this week. Made a starter yesterday with the Saison Parfait blend to brew with tomorrow. Haven't used this one yet, maybe it will get me a bit closer to the perfect Saison. I also got a pack of the Mad Fermentationist blend which sounds like it could get me closer to my ideal Saison with the Brett and Lacto.

 

Too cold to golf this weekend so might as well brew! Today I picked up supplies for tomorrow's imperial amber brew session: 2-Row, C-40,C-120, Biscuit, and a touch of Honey malt with Cascade hops and a bit of Hallertau Blanc. This is a tweak of a recipe that I've barrel aged in the past, this time trying it with Hornidal Yeast and subbing the Blanc in for Perle. I'm tempted to add some oak to it but I think I will wait until I am ready to truly barrel age something again.

 

bottled the irish stout
tommorrow making a coco brown ale
brown ale and cococ nibs in the secondary

 

kegging up a red ale i'm pretty excited about. decided to stop trying to do NEIPA until I figured oput why i was getting oxiized. think i got that figured so so tmrw i'm brewing one up with idaho 7, vic secret, mosaic, and citra

 

Nice afternoon for a BIAB session on the back porch.

 

Kegged a Dark Mild and in the process of brewing a Saison today. Finally getting some lower abv beers back on tap!

 

Nice setup!

 

Another rainy day here, so it's time to replenish my GF Stout. This is always a tougher brew day due to the high amount of buckwheat (beta glucans ftw) and longer boil. But, it'll work out just fine.

Also dry hopping some NEIPAs, smoking a butt on the kamado and cooking up a batch of chili. Woot!

 

Got my score sheets back today and scored a 44. Very excited and happy about that score! I enjoy the beer and knew it was good but never expected any of my beers to score so well. The comments from the judges were very helpful and I do agree with most of the constructive comments made.

 

First brewday in a while, recreating a Vanilla Stout that accidentally (due to lockdown complications...) sat in the fermenter for 4 months last year. Turned out great, so we'll see what it is like with a normal fermentation process. Brewday went pretty well.

4-Liter small batch BIAB Vanilla Stout
56% Pale Ale Malt
11% Flaked Oats
11% Chocolate Malt
11% Abbey Malt
11% Melanoidin Malt
4g Chinook at the boil
1/2 pack Nottingham dry yeast
1 tsp vanilla extract at bottling

 

Brewed a Dark Mild today.
1.038 OG
60% Maris Otter
12% rye malt
10% Golden naked oats
7% Pale chocolate
2% Midnight wheat
9% Homade invert sugar (maybe #2 or #3 in darkness?)
Willamette and Fuggles, FWH, ~ 25 IBU
Lallemand Verdant (because it might be like 1318)

 

Kegged the Dubbel at approx. 1.017 (FG estimate is 1.011) to begin spunding. It's increasing in pressure so still moving along as expected. Still a very bright beer, surprising, even into the keg. With the floating tube in place and some conditioning, I think this will be a very bright beer!

Should have the final FG/ABV in a day or two.

In other news, just kicked my NZ Pale Lager yesterday and will be tapping my new German Pils this Wednesday. It is a classic Pils at 5.4% hopped to 30 IBU with Perle, Tradition, Saaz and Mittelfruh. WY2206.

 

just dry hopped the most recent attempt at NEIPA. Day 3 of fermentation. 1 oz Vic Secret, 1 oz Mosaic, 1 oz Centennial. I purged the headspace in the ferm by pumping CO2 into the racking arm for about 5 min. It's still bubbling so I'm hoping it won't oxidize. I'll dry hop again in the cold crash keg under 10 psi once primary is over, then rack it into serving keg.