Brewing Activities (2019)

What do you plan on tweaking? Sounds good so far. I hope to use this yeast this summer.

 

Not much. I might back off the Simcoe just a bit and bump the Amarillo as the piney notes seemed to clash with the Citra and the Kveik esters. Also, the sparge on their system was less efficient than expected so the OG was only 1.054 - I'd like to have it around 1.064. I'm also debating what to do with the water profile - it had a relatively high SO4/Cl ratio - I might try it with more of a NEIPA profile.

 

Right now it's hard to say, samples are full of sediment and yeast. I'll let you know once it's kegged and carbed. I think it'll be nice though.

 

Tonight I'm going to rack my pastry stout out of the whiskey barrel it's in and onto 2lb of toasted coconut in a keg, let it sit for a week or so, then pressure transfer to a second keg. Meanwhile I'm going to rack the Britfoot barleywine into the now vacant barrel.

 

Well, that was successful. Got a nearly full keg out of the barrel, which had plenty of headspace, so apparently the barrel is >5gal. Filled it all the way to the top with barleywine and now it's overflowing out of the airlock because physics. (I put it in there at like 33F and as it warms, liquid expands! And also CO2 comes out of solution!)

 

- Racking the GF Grisette onto Raspberries.

- Brewing an IPA with Citra & Mosaic. Grain bill is pale millet with 10% red colopils millet. We'll see what comes of that combo...

 

Gonna attempt 5 gallons of Munich Helles this evening. Will also be my first attempt at a Hochkurz mash.

 

Just brewed ten gallons of a mash with pils,wheat, and aromatic. Hopped with goldings throughout the boil. Half will get westmalle, the other half will get east coast saison.

 

Checking in on this beer after 1 week spent at 81F. I had the fermenter wrapped with a heat mat / Ronco temp controller contraption, covered with a trash bag, wrapped in blankets, during fermentation to help keep the heat in. I removed 1x and witnessed very slow, quiet airlock activity. When I removed the wraps and opened the fermenter, I was really nervous. There was no evidence of krausen, no braun hefe residues on the top of the fermenter.

I dipped a sanitized cup in and pulled a sample from the top and took a gravity reading. With 1 gram of yeast and a very small, short starter, I fermented 2.75 gallons of 1.056 to 1.008 (6.3% ABV) in under a week (not sure of the exact time, as this is the only time I checked gravity). The hydrometer sample was crystal clear. I have never had a beer look this clear in this short amount of time. (FWIW, I did use half a whirlfloc tablet with 15 min left in the boil).

Taste? I was surprised that this is pretty clean. Some people think US-05 has a peachy character to it (I'm not sure I agree). This has a peachy-cantaloupe character, pleasant. My beer is very lightly hopped with US Tettnang, no real hop character noticed, which is what I was aiming for because I wanted to taste the yeast impact. I think the yeast character would be obscured by highly aromatic new world hops. Perhaps if I fermented warmer than 81F, the fruit notes would be more obvious, but 81 was based off something I read at Milk the Funk for this strain.

I have to decide how I want to drink these 2.75 gallons, dry hopped or straight. Straight, it will be like a rather strong blonde or cream ale. I actually think this would be a great yeast for cream ale. I think will keep it as is rather than dry hop, because I think I will use the yeast cake to make an IPA, next weekend.

All in all, I am pretty impressed with what I was able to do with 1 g of this kveik.

 

Prepped to brew my English Porter tomorrow, which is probably one of my favorite beers I have done.

This time though, subbing in some chocolate rye VS chocolate malt, replacing carapils with flaked rye and also added about 10oz of smoked malt.

Easily one of the most complex grain bills, for sure.

My last brew day until after our vacation, so over a month until I get back at it!

 

I couldn’t wait. I just finished brewing the APA American brown (even though the thread is not finished). Hit all the numbers, except FG I adjusted slightly with water. Wanted to ensure I nailed it.

 

Brewing a tripel tomorrow. Somebody gave me a couple pounds of honey, so I’m going to use that instead of Belgian candi syrup or sugar. Fermenting with Omega Belgian W strain, which appears to be the same as WY3787.

 

Kolsch V9 yesterday

Weyermann Pilsner
3% Carahell
5% Chit Malt
Spalt @ 90
Sterling @ 20
2oz Wai-iti @ WP

Gy021

Been trying a few of the low alpha “aroma” hops at the end of the boil for the last few just to add a little different twist. Last one was Calista, probably do the next few with some NZ varieties.

For V8 I followed the Kolsch tips from Matthew Steinberg from a CB&B article this spring. Namely the really slow cooling and leaving it at 48 for a while before lagering for a few weeks. Will try it again this time around.

 

How did the Calista turn out?

 

Meh. Probably should have used a bit more of it.

Pretty straight up Pilsner today.

Czech Pils malt
133/145/162
Maybe Decoction to bring up to 170
Spalt/Hersbrucker 90/40/10
German Lager X
Pitch at 44, ferment at 48
I’ve always let them finish at 48 but going to try to allay step this one down after about 60% attenuation or so.

Flying back to Boston tonight and headed straight to HF tomorrow morning. Probably the only one there that’s gonna be drinking lagers all damn day. Pumped!

 

I think my crush might be too fine.

 

Brewed a saison a week and a half ago, and am going to throw a NEIPA (kinda) on the yeast cake this weekend. Drinking in an esb and stout.

 

Ez pils using barke,vienna,carahell, saaz,liberty and lemon drop. Also changed my mill (3 roller) settings to .045 for a sea salt like course crush and got the same efficiency as .035.

 

Looks like that will make some nice pancake
Mix, congrats!

 

Finally brewing beers for a wedding that’s a month away. Meant to get to it a few weeks ago but should be good timing. Changed my recipes a bit. Brewing a 10 gallon split fermentation all neomexicanus American wheat ale with sabro and Medusa barbarian in half and us5 in other. Other beer is going to be neipa with Citra and mosaic at end of boil. Half dryhopped with Citra and mosaic and half dryhopped with strata. London 3 in half and s04 in half. Yeast starters are a little sluggish to start the yeast has been in my fridge for about 3 months. Guess I’ll just make sure it looks and smells alright before I pitch it or dump it. I’ll have extra dry yeast on hand before tomorrow’s brew day. Gonna be a long day