Brewing Activities (2020)

I figured with all the continental malts, black malt instead of roasted barley, and the use of caramel malt**, it might not fit some folks narrower style definitions. Of course that's hogwash, just like my own biases on how an Averagely Perfect Kolsch ought to be brewed.

*What were you getting at with your highlight of this malt?

 

It was the most egregious foul.

 

Brewed a classic American pilsner guided by Jack’s Zymurgy article and recipe (exceptional article — best one I have seen from Zymurgy in some time — they are getting absolutely killed by BYO and CB&B in content) and kegged a Festbier. Getting a little sad that lager brewing season is winding down. Since Christmas, I have brewed 10 lagers!

 

I am currently sparging my first batch since coming back to the hobby after two years of putting my wife though a masters program. Thank God. I missed this a lot. So here is hoping My Bock Chevey AKA To Helles and Bock comes out well. Thanks forthe input and inspiration @PapaGoose03 @JackHorzempa and @hopfenunmaltz

 

Got my yeast starter going this morning with WL830 German lager yeast. Going to brew what was supposed to be a Kölsch for the AP Kölsch tomorrow. But since I purchased the wrong yeast it will be a somewhat Helles lager I guess.

 

Somehow missed my og by a longshot. even topping up with HLT liquor i still hit 1.082 instead of 1.072. Sheesh. Oh well, itll be beer.

 

bottled the stout liquire and burton ale.

i had 3.5 gallons of the stout liquire at 10%.
after freezing , then bottleing i had a bit less than 2 gal.

anybody able to do the math and figure the ABV?

tastes awsum

 

Assuming the discarded ice was completely alcohol free (maybe not true), then roughly...
ABVnew = (3.5 / 2) x 10% ABV
= 17.5% ABV

 

@VikeMan is a wizard with brewing related materials!!

 

Fermentation was wrapping up a few days ago so I upped my lager to 65F for a few days. Took my sample, got my final gravity. Now cold crashing, going to keg and let it lager for a few weeks.

 

thanks @VikeMan. any sugestions on getting all the alcohol while leaving the water?
@stealth posted making this a while back and would drain liquid till the ice was clear, devoid of colour. which I did.

 

I've heard there may be techniques to maximize the efficiency, but I've never looked that far into it. But you might want to look up "fractional freezing" (which this is), or "freeze distillation" (which is a misnomer, but a commonly used term).

 

My brother and I had a wonderful brew day yesterday. If the smell of my garage is any indicator, simcoe/amarillo/cenntenial is a huge winner. Interesting note, my original malt bill was 95% rahr 2-row/5% flaked oats. I wanted a slight color adjustment to into the 6 srm range so I added 3 oz of Simpsons DRC. Color of the wort was this beautiful yellow orange color but it also added a very, very nice fruity element. It wasn't dark fruit like I'd witnessed using it in high doses (I made an amber with it and it was straight cherry for awhile). But more generic sweet fruits. I'm sure the sweetness of raw wort helped with that perception but I'm super interested to see how it will play with the fruit character of the hops in the finished beer.

 

Brewed up a NEIPA on the weekend, cranking the hop knob upwards a little:

Mix of Pilsner malt and Pale ale malt
Malted oats (which I love brewing with because they have a husk)
Flaked oats
1.066 OG / London Ale III
Warrior to 35 ibu
Strata for 10 and 5 min addition
El Dorado, Sabro and Mosaic (2oz each) for hop stand at *130F

Added 2 oz Citra at 24 post pitch,
DH will happen in naturally purged keg with 10oz charge of Sabro, El Dorado and Mosaic after a soft crash in the fermenter under gas. Pretty excited for this one to land for some warmer weather!

 

Brewed the Helles which what was supposed to be the Kölsch for the PA or AP beer this morning. My brother also helped me as I also had to home school my son since TN closed schools the rest of the year. OG hit 1.050 and I love the color. Also tried out my new submersible pump to recirculate ice water in the immersion chiller so I don’t use as much water. It worked but I underestimated the amount of ice needed. Had to hit the ice maker in the fridge up lol. Also had a boil over because I was talking and not watching

 

I freeze concentrated an entire 5 gal batch of stout recently by splitting it into 2 2.5 gal kegs and freezing them at -15 for 10 hours or so until they were very slushy. Then I connected a jumper from the frozen keg to an empty keg and pushed over the liquid remaining at around 40 psi until nothing more pushed over. Imagine how a slushy gets when you suck on the straw and the ice turns white as you pull all the liquid out...same idea. Worked great and I had 2 kegs full of light brown ice/slush afterwards.

 

No kegs here, so freeze and strain, repete till done.

 

Brewed a pretty straightforward saison (pils, rye, wheat) w/ Hallertau Blanc + Huell Melon on Saturday—a little Pekko for bittering and then the aroma/flavor combo at FO and DH. Tastes great and already down to 1.004 lol.

Also brewed what will be a sour table beer with a similar grist and a 1.030 OG. Pitched a very old pack of Bootleg Biology summer solera '19 plus some cake from a Flanders red I just transferred. No activity yet, might throw some of the yeast from the saison in there after I keg it later this week.

Also kegged my BBA imperial brown ale. It was pretty tart (I think due to using several generations-old Oslo). Kegged it with 3oz of whole bean coffee and let it sit for 3 days, then pressure transferred to the serving keg. Tastes pretty good now! Like a mini-barleywine.

Steam-sanitized the barrel using steam from my Robobrew, then filled it with an English old ale, which'll be in there for 6 months to a year. Bottled a 12pk of un-barreled old ale, which should be fun to compare side-by-side when the time comes.

 

Kegging American Amber. Sample is on point.