Brewing activities January 2016

Sanitized a keg tonight that will get filled with an altbier tomorrow. Also kicked my keg of mild today so I'll be cleaning that tonight or tomorrow as well. Sipping on some barleywine right now contemplating what to brew next. Probably something hoppy as I've now gone a record breaking 4 batches in a row without a pale or IPA

 

Brewing my original, and still to this day my best, Baltic Porter on the 10th. February will be my first neck-deep foray into sours so this month I will finish up planning and procedures.

 

Bottling my IRS with Hawaiian coffee coloring in at 10.9 abv. Tomorrow dryhopping my rye IPA with citra.

 

Upgraded my square milk crates to "extended cab" models. If they were 1mm longer they wouldn't fit. Also went through my inventory and culled out and reorganized bottles.

 

Hoping my big barley wine will drop a bit more, other than that just prepping for a pils I'm brewing tomorrow.

 

Kegging a Berliner and heating sparge water for a DIPA right now

 

Trying out a new to me yeast strain tomorrow (Burton Ale) so going with a lower gravity (for me at least), Nut Brown Ale. Recipe below (10 gal batch). Any opinions on this strain? I haven't seen much online.

Grain
10 Avangard Pale
5 Avangard Vienna
2 Carabrown
2 Instant Oats
1 UK c60 (Muntons)
1 UK Pale Chocolate (Muntons)

Water Add
10g Gypsum
10g Calcium Chloride
10 g baking soda

Mash
8 gal mash strike temp 166.4 for 154 rest
8 gal sparge temp 170

Hops
2 oz GR Opal 6.3AA 60 min
3 oz GR Hersbrucker 2.8AA 5 min

Yeast
WLP023 Burton Ale

CALCS
1.058 OG
1.017 FG
5.4 ABV
27.5 IBU

 

hoping the weather stays good enough outside to brew comfortably next week.

i have a smores porter that i need to tincturize (?) with cinnamon and vanilla.

i'll be brewing my Manhattan-inspired beer this month.

i have a p-lambic i need to brew.

and i'll do a hoppy pilsner by February so i can condition it in my basement for 3 months

 

Two batches get kegged today:

1. Oopsie! My Vienna's a Dunkel, and
2. American pale ale still in search of a cutesy name.

 

I have a Classic American Pilsner that is in day 4 of the primary (happily bubbling away at 50 degrees F).

Next week I will be brewing a Tmavý Ležák (Czech Dark Lager).

Happy New Years everybody!!

 

Just Brewer one from the Zymurgy article from the Sept/Oct 2013. It's been 3 weeks lagering and really getting good. I need to Dail up the maltiness and tone down the sweetness for my taste but it is settling into the style nicely.

 

I have brewed my version of a Tmavý Ležák before (2014). It is sort of a hybrid of the Zymurgy recipe and a clone recipe for U Fleku that was published in a Brewers Association magazine (The New Brewer).

I will be brewing this batch exactly like my previous batch since I loved how it turned out.

I am normally fairly relaxed when it comes to lager yeast selection but for this beer I am a BIG believer in WLP802.

Cheers!

 

I used Franconian Dark Lager from Yeast Bay. I was ordering some of there Brett and sour stuff so I gave it a shot.

 

Interested in the recipe if you don't mind sharing.

 

Brewed a 2.5 gal batch of an IPA yesterday. Tried some new things to speed up time that worked great. Did a no-sparge which helped. Overall went from flame on to pitching yeast in just over 4 hours. That was with 2 - 15 min. hop stands. Record time for me which helps with rugrats. The only issue was way underestimating my first runnings efficiency. Ended up with a 1.080 OG rather than the 1.064 planned for. Ran with it seeing as though I have a big enough starter for it and mashed at 150. Just going to be a big IIPA now. Was bubbling away 6 hours later.

 

Was going to brew my Coffee Porter this weekend but ended up at the coast yesterday and got some snow today. Kegged my 10 gallons of IPA onto the dh from 2 weeks ago. Moved them into the laundry room to keep them warm for a few days. Will brew the Porter in a couple weeks.

 

Almost out of centennial IPA in the keg. Few more pints to go (or a growler fill) and it'll be drained. This is actually a good thing, because I need to get this weizenbock off the yeast and into there, pronto! Other than that, did some new year cleaning of my brew basement, and organizing/stacking of buckets and such.

Funky beer is next in line. First, I get to enjoy a bottle of femme fatale sudachi, and be extra careful not to disturb the sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Going to get a small starter going from the dregs and build it up over time for a farmhouse rye.

 

Figuring out what varieties of hop rhizomes to order for Spring. Prepped 36 hills in a 2,500 sq ft area about a month ago. Think that will be enough hops for home brewing next Fall?