Brewing Activities (2021)

About to mash in on the Rauchbier I posted about the other day.

Recipe wise, kept it real simple. Ended up being 54% smoked Rahr 2-Row, 41.5% smoked Vienna with 4.5% Acidulated for pH. Hopped with a single dose of Comet (FWH) to 30 IBU. US-05.

OG/FG expectation is 1.052/1.010 for final ABV of 5.6%.

Just milled the grain and it smells unreal, a bit more potent than usual, IMO. Very pleasant smell, not acrid/harsh. Really excited for it.

Should have this on tap quite quickly, targeting by Dec 5th!

 

Not planning to lager your lager?

 

It's not a lager, I am using US-05 Chico-Ale for this one. I figure it will ferment out in 2-3 days, be in the keg by then to spund and crashed and ready to go in about 10 days.

I suppose it should be called a "smoked ale" vs. Rauchbier, but by habit I kind of call all my smoked beers Rauchbier regardless if its a lager or ale

 

i had surgery that wouldn't let me brew for a few months as i recovered, then got busy with harvest and deer season, but stoked to get back into brewing! just grabbed a glycol chiller on sale. i hope to get lagers dialed before summer comes. winter is brewing season baby!

 

Dusted off my beer gear for the first batch since maybe April? Plugged in the electric system and... nothing. My Blichmann Boilcoil isn't heating up. All the wires seem to be in good shape. Wondering how I might have messed that up.

Not seeing any other options, I dusted off my old cooler mash tun and fired up the gas to heat some strike water on the stove top. I haven't given up on brewing a bitter, but it no longer feels so ordinary.

 

Dry-hopped my Italopils and Two-Hearted clone today. Gonna snag some grain alcohol tomorrow so I can add centennial terpenes to the Two-Hearted after the DH.

 

Well, I have been doing some more beers lately. I got a 6 tap Keezer, so why not. I have a Vienna lager spending two weeks in a Oak barrel, and did a bitter and dark mild this weekend. Next weekend I plan to do another Vienna lager to see what the Oak did for me.

 

Brewed a 2-gallon test batch of vossaøl yesterday. Steeped 6oz. of western juniper tips in 4.75 gallons of water overnight at 158F. The infusion (predictably) seemed way too strong, so I diluted it by half before continuing on to the three-hour mash, and left the branches out of the mash itself. Boiled four hours, pitched 1/3 packet of Lallemand Voss at 95F. Tastes really interesting so far.

 

Brewing 2 single hop pale ales. 4L Rice as the base for each with an added character malt and fermented with US-05.

Brew #1: 4L, Munich millet, Eclipse

Brew #2: 4L, Vienna millet, Bru-1

 

Assistant Brewers wants more, so today is ultimate run and gun brewing. Got little amounts,,4 oz or less,, of Munich L60, Belgian buisket, brown malt, black malt, roasted barley smoked malt.
Added 8 oz of bairds chocolate 11 lb od marris otter and am fermenting with Be33. Think we will oak it ,,,,,,titled,,,,,
Chocolate mess.

 

Tomorrow I’m whipping together a rye farmhouse type ale.
60% 2-Row
20% rye malt
12% malted oats
8% wheat malt
Hopped with Cashmere and Sabro. Fermented with Lutra (dry).

 

Brewed a lager this morning with 100% floor malted pils, warrior for bittering and German Perle at flameout. 20 IBU, 5ish abv. Fermenting with Augustiner at 52F and Lutra kveik at 70F. Looking forward to seeing how these yeasts compare!

 

Saison is finished and ready to keg up.

Plan for tomorrow is to brew a Winter Warmer. Pale Malt, Dark Munich, Pale Chocolate, Caravienne, sugar, Comet, Simcoe, CTZ, West Yorkshire yeast. Aiming for 6.3% ABV, 55 IBUs, 20 SRM, resiny, piney, grapefruit hop notes, and a dry finish.

 

Brewed a Saison earlier today. Barke Pils, Wheat, Barke Vienna and Barke Munich. Magnum for bittering with Styrian Goldings for flavor. ECY03 for the yeast.

Next time around I will take @jbakajust1 advice and sour a portion of the wort separately and blend back in a few weeks later.

 

Kegging my Saison tmro

 

Brewing a gluten free Russian Imperial Stout today. Shooting for 1.100 and ~10% abv. Fermenting with S-04.

Also kegging a Galaxy, Simcoe, Amarillo NEIPA.

 

I’ll be interested if you can get 10% with 04. I never had good luck
Making a high abv brew with it.

 

Brewing a Bitter today.

95% Golden Promise
5% Crystal 45
OG around 1.045

EKG for most of the hopping with a little help from Magnum for bittering as the AA on the EKG was a little lower than I estimated when building the recipe.

Will be using Omega DIPA Ale (Conan) for the yeast.

 

Hmm, maybe I'll co pitch some us-05 or notty. Thanks!