Brewing Activities (April edition)

I add my hops at 180F and then slowly cool to pitching temp. I'd say that it probably takes around an hour to reach that in a cold water bath, with probably 20 minutes or so in the range that you describe.

 

Al grain Helles in the fermenter, Brewing Saison tomorrow.
Same recipe 8th time.
Cheers all

 

With the hopes that summer may some day come to Minnesota, I brewed up a simple saison recipe (2-row, caramunich, flaked wheat) and using wyeast 3711 for the first time. Planning to add some pineapple to it later this week. Previously did a test gallon split off from a 6 gallon batch with wyeast 3787 and it turned out great so hopefully I can recreate that magic.

Also will need to bottle my strawberry mango milkshake ipa in the next couple of days.

 

Decided to squeeze in another brew between saisons. This one will be a sour blonde, soured with WY3278 and various dregs. I plan on making this the base for a future solera. The goal is to pull 2-3 gallons every year or so and replace with fresh.

 

Always wondered what people saw as the benefit to doing this was. What's your point of view on them, as opposed to, say, simply brewing new beers?

FWIW, I'd understand it if people were using Methode Traditionelle and ambiently inoculating, but "normal" techniques don't seem to present a benefit.

 

recipe?

 

While I've never done a true solera, a benefit to this technique in my eyes would be no need to gather a new mixed culture or propagate one you already have. You can of course always stop the solera or never put a new beer on it in the first place if the beer coming out isn't stellar, but it is a low effort way to expose fresh beer to a culture that is making great beer.

I kinda did something in the veins of a solera method recently where I had a sour ale with an awesome culture that was refermenting on raspberries in a bucket. When I racked that beer out to bottle I put another beer onto the raspberry/yeast cake that was left behind. The primary reason in this instance was that I wanted to get more use out of the fruit, but I was super stoked to expose it to that culture with little effort involved.

 

One of my biggest issues with the solera technique is exposure to oxygen. Even if you purge the headspace when racking in and out, overall oxygen exposure is going to be higher than in a beer that's fermented and then either blended or packaged, as a certain percentage of the "base" beer will always be older and, therefor, have had extended oxygen exposure.

If you want to reuse a culture, just package and reuse it or culture something from a bottle that you like, whether that be a commercial bottle or your own. It really isn't that much of a headache to do.

 

It’s just something I’ve always wanted to try. It’s almost more for experimentation purposes, just curious how this beer will change over the years. Who knows, I may end not doing it, and just bottling the whole thing. See how it goes.

 

Would definitely like to hear your results whichever way you go.

 

Brewed a mixed culture dandelion saison yesterday. 50% pilsner malt, 25% unmalted wheat, 25% malted wheat. Sacch/Brett/Lacto that should be a quicker turn around culture, hopefully ready to bottle in 3-4 months. 10 IBU's of Saaz. Steeped 3 oz of 24 hour air dryed dandelion flowers for 5 minutes in whirlpool. I just kinda made up the dandelion addition in terms of rates and timing so I'm not really expecting anything great, sort of a trial run for possible future batches. Couldn't find a whole lot of information on that.

OG was 1.033. Goal was to produce a very low gravity wort without topping off with water while not oversparging. Added 1/4 tsp of lactic acid halfway through the collection of the wort and went for an inefficient crush to ensure the pH doesn't rise too much by the end of the mash and the SG of the final runnings wasn't too high. Worked, pretty happy with that. pH of final runnings was 5.3 and SG was at 1.010. Now I just hope the dandelions don't create too much astringency.

 

Remember it's inspired by. Mostly the inspiration was the low IBU by adding hops first wort, the very end and dry. I think I used the Amarillo and Nelson because I had Nelson and no Simcoe.

2.5 gal batch:
Original Gravity:1.058
Final Gravity:1.011
ABV (standard):6.24%
IBU (rager):27.61
SRM (morey):8.95

3 lb American - Wheat 38 1.8 44.9%
3 lb United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale 38 3.75 44.9%
8 oz American - Rye 38 3.5 7.5%
3 oz American - Caramel / Crystal 120L

7 g Amarillo Pellet 8.6 aa First Wort
7 g Amarillo Pellet 8.6 aa Boil 1 min
7 g Nelson Sauvin Pellet 11.4 aa Boil 1 min
21 g Nelson Sauvin Pellet 11.4 aa Dry Hop 2 days
14 g Amarillo Pellet 8.6 aa Dry Hop 2 days

White Labs - San Diego Super Yeast WLP090 @ 66F

 

Brewing my first batch with the Grainfather. This thing is friggin awesome! I have to brew gluten free, which requires longer rests and different temps. Here's an example:

104 for 15 min
170 for 15-90 min (depending on added enzymes)
150 for 90-120 mins (depending on conversion) .
Boil

The Grainfather holds these rests like a champ. It's also easy to use the chiller to drop for the last long rest. I just nailed my preboil gravity and volume. Coming up to a boil now. Also, I set the GF to heat up before I woke up so it was all ready the same time as my coffee!

 

http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Soured_Herb,_Spice,_and_Vegetable_Beer

 

Reread the Saison portion of Farmhouse Ales, specifically the History by Yvan De Baets. Got really inspired by the historic rustic ale, adjunct grains, lactic and Brett secondary, long storage for months in barrels. Wrote up a 20 gallon yield recipe for a 4.2% ABV, bone dry, moderately hopped, Spelt and Rye Saison, which will go into my 15 gallon wine barrel on plums for a few months. Pitching my Nectarine Blossom blend along with Lacto sources. Will top off as time goes on.

 

Thanks, definitely will take that into consideration for next year!

 

Brewed a take on the Hoppy Session Wheat beer over at HBT: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/hoppy-session-wheat-beer.644047/

Dropped the oats, used a dry Kolsch yeast (Crossmyloof), used CTZ for bittering, and went with El Dorado, HBC 431, and Centennial for whirlpool/dry hop. I think it's already hit FG after just 3 days, but I'm gonna give it another 5 or so before bottling.

Also have a thrown-together cider going on CML Lille Saison yeast. Going to dry hop that with Apple Crisp and Huell Melon after it sits for a month or two and cleans up. Heavy sulfur going on so far, but tastes good under that.

I alllllso have a 3 gal batch of a pretty simple saison (pils & red wheat) going, fermented with WLP644. Once it hit FG I racked it onto 6.5lbs of whole frozen kumquats, where it's been sitting for almost two weeks. Gonna hit that with Belma and Mandarina Bavaria.

I've got ingredients for a rye dark mild, but I think I'll probably hold off until the first weekend in May.

 

Won't be brewing for another week thanks to this crap weather so i'm doing a practice Sauergut to get the correct temp. Not sure if i'm doing it right but it has that raisin bran taste.

 

• Bottled an English Barleywine yesterday
• Racked my imperial stout to secondary for bulk aging.
• Brewing 10 gallons of Berliner today. fruiting half with Passion Fruit, and the second half will either be dry hopped or will get blueberries in secondary. Can't decide if I want to go with Blueberry Basil or blueberries with cinnamon and vanilla bean in secondary.

 

I think spring might be coming to Vt,,,,, and after 15 days of company, the cellar is a bit short of beer. So,

Ordered 2 sacks of marris otter
Brewing a Irish stout and House Pale Ale on Sunday
Currently chlorinating 12 milk crates of bottles
Dry hopping the brothers ipa and dipa
Making up an order to Morebeer.

The family did it to me