Brewing Activities (2022)

Finally got a. Free weekend, so

Friday Irish stout
Saturday Hawaiian King IRS and burton Ale
Sunday double batch whole hop IPA using Foundry Hops.
Monday Chocolate stout agedon sugar maple and white oak.

 

Yeah, I think I might do something similar in a month or so… planning for a Bitter, then English Barleywine.

 

How's that knee doing? You still hauling buckets up/down stairs, or did you find a grunt who'll take it out in trade?

 

Dam grunt quit brewing,,,,, so far I’ve been fermenting in the woodshed but this weekend I’m close ing up the cellar this weekend so it’s time to start doing stairs,,,again.

the knee is much better ,thanks for askin, but to those interested in a total replacement I’ll let you know it’s going to take 1 year at least to get near normal unless your in better shape than myself or are younger. I can work, but now it’s carefully due to the soft tissues healing around the replacement.

nothing to be scared of, just think of it when your planning the surgery date. Mine was done in March.

 

Double brew day. Fall Saison w/ rye and applewood smoked malt. Planning on aging it on apples and pears. Also, brewing up a Super Saison that I’ll be blending with last years batch that has been aging with a mixed culture/oak spiral.

 

Smoking a couple of pounds of malt (along with some ribs, red lentils, and butternut squash) that will eventually go into an Imperial Porter sometime later this year.

 

Completed a massive imperial stout over the weekend; maxed out the 20 gallon Spike Solo plus two 10 gallon igloo mash tuns to yield approximately 16 gallons of 1.13 OG stout destined for a long rest in a spirit barrel; hopefully ready by next winter!

 

I'm finally getting around to using Omega Star Party on a pale ale of sorts this weekend. It's been a busy past few months, looking forward to brewing again.

I'm going with 2-row, with a smidge of special roast and english crystal (cleaning out the freezer)

Cascade pellets and homegrown Chinook in the mash.

Mosaic and Nelson on the hot side. No dry hop. I'm expecting good things with this batch – the starter smells amazing!

 

Staying on the NEIPA train:

4L Rice
Pale Oat Malt
Caramel Millet 5L

Citra T90
Citra Incognito
Citra Lupomax

Verdant

 

Just brewed a Maine Beer Zoe clone (hoppy amber)

Made a 2.5-gallon batch. Pale, Maris Otter, amber, crystal light and med. and a smidge of chocolate malt with massive amounts of Simcoe, Centennial and Columbus. Tried to follow the recipe to the T, but the boil was too aggressive and came out at 1090 instead of the target 1074.
(.7 gallons low).

I had to dilute it, and now I can only be reasonably sure of how strong it will be. My FGs tend to always be lower than what I calculate, so I am hoping I end up at around the real beer's 7.2% ABV and not more towards 8%.

In any case, paid more attention to water chemistry, and it looks and tastes great so far.

 

I should clarify that I did take a reading after using a dilution calculator and it came out at 1076. That, coupled with the FG discrepancies of the grain bill calculator that I normally use could make this anywhere from 7% to 8% ABV.

 

1) Bottling the Dubbel

2) Transferring the all Citra NEIPA to serving keg

3) Brewing yet another NEIPA:

4L Rice
Pale Oat Malt
Ivory Teff
Goldfinch Millet

Galaxy
Amarillo Lupomax
Columbus

Verdant

 

Brewing a rye IPA today
OG 1.075
IBU: 83

GP 82.5%
Rye malt 12.7%
Crystal Rye 3.2%
Honey malt 1.6%

Columbus to bitter, Chinook, Columbus, Simcoe to finish and DH at 2:1:1 ratio

Voss Kveik

Also smoking another couple of pounds of malt while I got the ribs and chicken going

 

In memory of the 3 little bastid mice that chewed thru a sack to help themselves.
Brewing a bitter. Calling it Snap Trap ale.

 

Brewed up a Barleywine this morning. This is a clone of Kings Court Number two Barleywine. I tweaked it quite a bit. I emailed them after someone shared a bottle with me. The plan is to stick this in a barrel that a friend has against some whisky in. Finished at 1.092 which Kings Court said their FG is 10.090
Will post the recipe later, too busy watching the VOLS beat Bama right now

 

Brewed a Wheat Pale Ale hopped exclusively with Simcoe. Pale, flaked wheat, acid, smidge of C-20. Omega DIPA to ferment. Hefty dry hop of Simcoe in 10 days. I love Simcoe. Really looking forward to this brew.

 

Bottled the Hawaiian King imperial stout but,,,, decided I’d try using the leftover grains to make a Hawaiian Prince.
Drain pour, never tasted a more astringent beer in my life total waste of time.

brewed Irish stout today, hole hop pale tomorrow,

 

Brewed the annual cranberry beer. After doing a sour last year, I went back to the saison.

Pilsner, Vienna, flaked wheat, a little Munich and light crystal, with freezer-cleaning doses of
Hallertauer Mittelfrüh, Mandarina Bavaria and Hull Melon @ 60 and 5. I pitched some Lallemand Farmhouse Saison hybrid yeast and will add frozen whole cranberries after a chop in the blender.

I am very happy with this brewday: I calculated the boil-off perfectly and hit 75% efficiency for the first time.

After a pumpkin beer and this one, I only have the bourbon cocoa nib stout left on the holiday brewing schedule.

 

Second attempt at a triple yesterday. It did not go as planned, sadly. My first attempt gave me a 13% ABV alcohol bomb that was hard to drink and stay awake... LOL.

I was shooting for a more sensible OG of 1.078 with this one, but wound up 10 points short. I screwed up my batch sparging. I normally split my sparge into two equal sparges and have been getting about 71% efficiency. This time, I didn't. I put the entire volume into the mash tun because it fit. I think this was a big mistake and I left a lot of sugar behind.

So, lesson learned: don't mess with the process unless you have a really good reason. I've decided to let it ride. I know, I could add some DME to try to salvage it, but in the end decided against it. My DME has been sitting in the freezer for a while, and aside from using it for starters, didn't want to put it in my beer.

So, anyway, I made beer. 80% pilsner, 8% wheat, 8% sucrose and 3% aromatic using WLP550. Not quite sure what it is at this point. A little on the dark side, too. It'll be a Belgian, and maybe it'll be a really good beer. Style be damned at this point.

Life goes on, and maybe the third time's the charm with a tripel! Not going to give up at all. By the way, the name of this, before brewing, was "The Trouble with Tripels". Who knew? LOL

 

Wow... WLP550 is a monster. 4 gallons of wort in a 6.5 gallon fermentor, and it's VERY close to blowing out. This is for my Belgian "A beer has no name" brew.