Brewing Activities (2019)

Well, I finally had one of my four kegs kick. I can now think about the next brew. Probably a 5.5% pale ale of some sort, something good for the summer. Cheers!

 

sounds like a good beer. what temperature are you going to ferment at?

 

Thanks. Going to ferment around 30C. Just pitched the yeast an hour ago.

 

Just kegged the Kölsch & Citra/Apollo IPA. Porter & Hefe still happily bubbling away.

 

Brewed a black Belgian stout

 

Just finished brewing 14 gallons of Hefeweizen. I used 4 gallons of the unhoppod wort to top up a couple of my soleras. And I put 10 gallons in a fermenter. Summer is here.

 

Update: 28 hours after pitching, gravity was at 1.009 (OG was 1.063). Just added the dry hops and I'll keep the beer at 90 for 2-3 days. Wild.

 

Adding nibs and hard maple wood to brown, adding oak to black Belgian.

 

Brewday today! Making a Pale Ale with mostly Briess Pils, some Crisp MO, and a touch of Gambrinus Honey malt. Late hopped only with 1 oz each of Azacca, Calypso, and Mandarina Bavaria at 10 minutes and then the same again for a 160 F, 30 minute hopstand. Will dry hop, most likely with the Azacca and maybe a bit of Centennial thrown in also. Fermenting with Notty. Cheers!

 

Just ordered the ingredients for the averagely perfect brown ale. unfortunately the yeast was a special order and takes 2 weeks to get here.

 

The best laid plans...

Had to call an audible, as I only had 3 lbs of the Pils. So ended up with a 70% MO grist. I also found some GW Caramel Steam (50L) that I had (and have never used), so I went with that rather than the Honey Malt.

Cheers!

 

Had my first blow out. I even had a blow off tube. I don’t use the PET bottle much as I use my speidel and had less headspace then I thought.



Must have had some good pressure build up. Wort all over the fridge.

 

Brewing another spruce ale Friday.

 

I need to try that yeast.

 

Hosting my homebrew club meeting at my house next Friday and hosting the special lady friend's work department party on Wednesday...so kegged up 10 gallons of IPA last night, and ready to keg up 10 gallons of "barrel-aged" (only about a month though) brown ale, that I added some cognac-soaked oak chips to the barrel. Hoping to brew up a half barrel of imperial stout to refill the barrel this weekend...we'll see.

 

Hefeweizen is on deck next (after stout)...was down in Charlotte, NC and had Hornet's Nest by Olde Mecklenburg Brewing. Hit the spot after a long day on the road, inspired me to get some 3068 as soon as I got home.

 

Tabbed to brew a bunch of beers for a friends wedding in a few months. Brewing a few trial batches to see how the lovebirds like them before we commit, especially for the hoppy beers. They’ve asked for a Pilsner or two (which are already lagering) something light and tart, Pale Ale, IPA with NZ hops, and a IIPA of sorts.

Brewed the Pale Ale yesterday

Admiral Gallagher’s Best
8% Carahell
Acid Malt
Hopshot @60
HBC692/Simcoe @ 20
Citra@ 5
HBC692/Simcoe WP
1.052 and hopefully 1.012
Dry Hop it with some combo of the 3 hops.

Hope to brew the IPA and IIPA tomorrow, we’ll see if I can get through a double brew day successfully.

 

Brewed a partial mash "Harvest Beer" with ingredients found around the local wild, including redwood tips and fescue (specifically holcus lanatus). The fescue provided a surprisingly pleasant mellow and nutty flavor. I used 9 oz dried/roasted weight of the fescue on top of pilsner malt and pilsner extract in about 6 gal.

The redwood provided surprisingly no flavor despite boiling 2.75 oz for 60 mins. Yet they had intense flavor when chewing it!


The redwood tips

 

Maybe you boiled the flavor out of the tips, similar to what happens with hops oils in a 60 minute boil?

 

That's honestly a great thought. But I also tasted the wort at 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins, etc. The original plan was to go 15 mins but nothing came of it. Was really surprised by this.