Brewing Activities (2020)

American Modelo.

 

Brewing up a gluten free American Stout. Gonna dial back the roast a bit and I'm changing up my mash/enzymes to get some more body.

Columbus
Willamette
Crystal
US-05

 

Checked on the “American Modelo” thanks @Brewday this morning and it had a nice kraseun - can’t spell lol. Was scared it wouldn’t start yesterday and @VikeMan reassured me it would be ok. It’s chugging along now in 90° heat. Covered up from light of course. Going to do the dry hop this evening cause I’ve read these finish quickly.

 

Might not want to put a clear fermenter outside unless you like skunky beer...

 

It’s covered up from light and direct sun. I just uncovered to take a couple photos. Thanks for Linkous for me though!! Cheers

 

Where are you at to have such low temps at this time of year? Curious to see how your January spontaneous fermentation turns out too. I've had some decent beers produced from harvesting yeast from the air and local flowers, so this sort of thing always piques my interest.

 

Impromptu brew getting going...

Gluten free NEIPA with some of my favorite hops from the last couple of years, Strata & Ekuanot + Bravo bittering. Also trying S-33 for the first time.

 

I've never used S-33 and can't say for sure if I've ever tasted a beer brewed with it. But I was thinking it might be the on-again off-again Belgian strain. So I looked it up on Fermentis' site...

"Fruity driven strain, gives a high mouthfeel and body to the beer. Ideal for Belgian Ales (Blond, Dubbel, Tripel, Quadrupel Styles) and strong English ales (ex. Imperial Stouts). It is also ideal for New England IPA’s. Yeast with a medium sedimentation: forms no clumps but a powdery haze when resuspended in the beer."

I wonder what this strain really is. Ideal for Belgians Ales, strong English Ales, and NEIPAs. Sounds pretty magical!

Looking forward to hearing how the NEIPA turns out.

 

Hey, I've used 33 in my Belgian blueberry. We like the taste it gives better than other dry Belgian strains, and, it's a rocker, burns da sugahhhhhhs off fast.

 

Went through and tasted a handful of my wilds this past weekend. Really excited for how they're all coming together. Today I racked my mixed ferm Tripel w/ all Hallertauer Blanc hops onto a 1lb each fresh dark sweet cherries and fresh raspberries. I'm going for a 3F Hommage thing.

Also, I was able to bottle my mixed ferm Buckwheat Saison. I added a half an oz of Turmeric Ginger Tea from a local company about 5 hours before bottling to infuse the flavor. I've done "tea" beers in the past and letting it sit at ambient temp for too long can still add quite a bit of astringency/bitterness, so went for a shorter period. Smells and tastes amazing.

I've been playing with salt additions with the past few batches and it's made a HUGE difference. Really nice chalky/minerality, a lot of complexity.

 

Dry-hopped the landlord's IIPA, which is tasting great and finished at a nice 1.011 / 8.3%.

 

Bottled my strong and hoppy ale . Got shitfaced last night and did it still drunk this morning. No slip ups and it tastes pretty damn good. Can't wait to try it when it's carbed up. Also finally ordered an iSpindel, first homebrewing gadget I've bought in ages

 

Kegged my Patersbier and unfortunately had a clogged poppet which ruined my oxygen free transfer. Tasting great already and tried to limit O2 exposure while cleaning out the poppet. Tasting great so far, harvested the yeast and will absolutely use it again.

Brewing another saison today. My assistant brewer showed up for work today:

 

Most recent batch of tepache was just canned pineapple juice, 3 cinnamon sticks, a pound each of white and light brown sugar, water to fill the fermenter (1:4 juice to water ratio, 5 gallon big mouth bubbler), as well as a quart of the last batch and the microbes I've been pitching (gut pill and 1/4tsp bread yeast).
So, the boss liked the most recent tepache batch even though I thought it was "flabby", for lack of a better term (didn't have the acidity necessary to be drinkable), and liked that it had some complexity without tasting "fermenty". I basically cold crashed what I assumed would be a day before I liked it, just to get some sort of baseline.
Owner would like a touch more acidity, more pineapple flavor, similar sweetness, as well as a bit more complexity.
I'm thinking I'll just up the ratio of pineapple juice to water slightly, and a touch more spices (maybe a clove, an few allspice berries, and an arm or two of star anise), and let it ride a little longer.
Definitely a work in progress. Gotta remember to bring a hydrometer into work so that I can take actual notes on progress on each batch.

 

I brewed an AK Mild, inspired by the 1896 Eldridge Pope recipe on the Barclay Perkins blog. I was inspired to brew it when I saw that a US homebrew shop was selling a US produced brewers invert sugar. I split the recipe, using invert syrup in half and storebrand organic brown sugar in the other half, just to see if mattered to me. OG was 1.048 for the batch with the invert and 1.047 for the batch with the brown sugar. Hops differed a bit, as I only had 1 oz of EKGs. I blended with US Fuggles and Styrian Aurora. In a twist, I am pitching the Lalleman New England IPA yeast. I never used it before, but as NEIPAs often use English yeasts, I thought it might turn out to be appropriate,

 

Brewing a tropical/hazy double IPA w/ Sabro, Cashmere, and Mosaic plus TOASTED COCONUT CHEERIOS in the mash and whirlpool. #memebeer