Brewing Activities (2020)

I'm rebuilding my brewery in my new shop so I can start to brew in the near future-hopefully I'll have homebrew for my birthday in April. First up will be a hefeweizen and then a porter, 2 styles I can't get good commercial versions of where I live.

 

Debating whether to bottle my Irish Red or ditch it. The gravity kept creeping down slowly for ages - it's currently at about 85% attenuation despite using a fairly standard mash temperature and grain bill and West Yorkshire Ale Yeast which is advertised to do 67%-71% - and it looks suspiciously like it's picked up something residual (maybe saison or other Belgian yeast) from the old, somewhat scratched-up plastic brew bucket. This is particularly suspicious given that the previous beer did something similar. I might have a taste and see whether it's worth keeping anyway, though - I might have brewed an accidental dubbel rather than an accidental lambic.

Also looking into ordering a new stainless fermenter...

 

Kegged a kettle sour yesterday. Flavored with orange puree, vanilla, and coconut.

 

Installed a valve and bazooka tube on my kettle.
Bottling the sweet rye stout this evening if time allows.
Getting acquainted with new temp control and stainless fermentor, as I consider additional accessories.

 

I want to acquire a Fermzilla for 5 gallon batches, does anyone know a good deal on line i may not have found? Looks like the fermentor and the floating pick up tube runs about $170. Not too bad but I'm cheap lol. Just got a keg system and kegged another brown ale but I'd like to ferment under pressure and dry hop and transfer without introducing oxygen. Thanks for any heads up.

 

The combined price for the fermzilla and pressure kit (includes ball lock posts) is $160 @ MoreBeer with free shipping:
https://www.morebeer.com/products/fermzilla-conical-fermenter-71-gal-27.html
https://www.morebeer.com/products/pressure-kit-27l-fermzilla.html

 

I had been searching for a solution to dry hopping in the keg without using muslin bags - and it looks like I have found it. I had seen this on Scott Janish's blog, but randomly found the exact thing at my LHBS. Lucky because ordering these filters to Canada wouldn't be cheap !



I have a pale ale fermenting right now with this keg being purged with the fermentation CO2. Once the CO2 is kicking I'll drop 3oz Strata and 1 oz Comet and let the vessel purge completely before transferring the finished beer in.

Hoping to get better aroma / flavor extraction this way !

 

Good weather tomorrow so i put a mexican lager together. Also using some barke.

 

Watch his vids. They sent this guy a few trying to fix the problems. He even melted one in a dishwasher.

 

ya Dr.Hans is the one that got me excited to try the fermzilla. I always say it in my head the way he does lol.

 

Brewing up a Marzen as my first brew day in a month. I'm trying to dial back on brewing since I may be moving this summer and want a reasonable amount of bottles to move.

My first two tries at the style weren't very good so hopefully get it right this time. Simple recipe of Pilsner, Munich, and a bit of Caramunich fermented with 2206 Bavarian. Planning to ferment at 48 with a large pitch rate and lager for 6-8 weeks after fermentation.

 

Had my brother in law over as a brew partner and brewed up an IPA, leaning towards an NEIPA.

65% Pearl Malt
35% Wheat Malt

1oz of CTZ @ 60
2oz each of Citra and Mosaic and 1 oz of Centennial whirlpool hops at about 155 degrees for 20 mins
Dry hop during fermentation with 1.5oz each of Citra and Mosaic
Dry hop after fermentation with 1.5oz each of Citra and Mosaic and 1oz of Centennial

First time adjusting my water today and per Brewcipher ended up with:
78 Ca
4 Mg
50 Na
150 CL
75 SO4
22 HCO3

Mash pH of 5.33

Wyeast 1318 at 65 degrees

Should come in around 6% abv

 

Closed xfer-ing Citra and Galaxy NEIPA to post fermentation dry hop keg today. Pic is of the final hydrometer sample.

 

Had a group brew for the homebrew club at my house yesterday and brewed 5.5 gals each of an ordinary bitter (for an upcoming club comp) and a west coast pils (100% pils malt w/ Weihenstephan yeast and all Galaxy/Citra at FO and DH only).

 

That looks freaking awesome!!

 

I bought myself an Anvil Foundry all-in-one system and had my first brew day on it Saturday. Brewed the Timothy Taylor Landlord clone recipe from Gordon Strong's September 2017 BYO best bitter style profile article. Golden Promise, EKG and Styrian Goldings, Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire yeast.

Did a no sparge. Fortunately there is a Beersmith profile floating around and used a BIAB mash profile for the no sparge. Hit all of my numbers. Despite the learning of curve of figuring out a new system and adding a pump and recirculation to the equation (which I had never used before) this was the easiest and most accurate brew day in 10 years of homebrewing. Being able to set a timer for the strike water so that it was ready when I woke up was huge! And mash temps have always been the weakest part of my repertoire, but no more. Everything about it was easy. I was completely done by 12:30. Now it is chugging away in the fermenter.

Gonna push the system a little more next time with step mashing and a larger grain bill but it worked so well the first time I know I am going to be brewing more often than I have been the past few years.

 

Which size did you buy. I'm trying to get the 10.5 but the corona virus moved it to mid April. These guys pushed it.

 

I got the 10.5. You might find a homebrew shop out there that has them for sale. I kept missing out so I finally joined their email list and ordered mine the second I got a notification they were back in stock. Glad I waited, actually, since I got the first batch with the control panel moved up to the top instead of on the bottom.

 

Propped up my house Brett culture (CMY-01 and Jolly Pumpkin) for my annual berliner weisse. For every batch I experiment with a different dry hop, and settled on Azacca/Denali for this iteration

 

Getting a 1318 starter going for a hazy IPA. Sunday brewday, using Galaxy and Rakau.