Brewing activities January 2016

Just finished my first kegging. A dark mild. Wow did that feel good.


I have no sympathy for my lonely bottles...

 

Brewed my second smoked brown ale today. This time with 4 pounds of applewood smoked malt instead of the 1 pound I used the first time. It was definitely smokey going into the fermenter. Should be interesting to see how it is post fermentation.

 

Up tomorrow a Belgium Saison, since the weather is so warm out. Need to get ready for summer.

 

i hated storing bottles. It's worth kegging just for that.

 

January is always a busy brew month for me, not too much else to do in the cold. On deck for today is a pale ale.

 

Pulled the dry hops from my Citra / ADHA 529 beer. I was skeptical hops could produce coconut aroma, but 529 does make an aroma that is pretty similar to coconut. Can't wait to drink this one! It's mango, pineapple, coconut and dank before carbonation.

 

Brewed my 1st all-grain batch on 1/3...Version#2 of a Treehouse IPA clone using Amarillo/Citra/El Dorado. Trials & tribulations documented here: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/first-all-grain-batch-mash-paranoia.372066/

Kegged, force carbed and took a sample today...still needs a bit more carbonation, but wow!!! its a tropical fruit/mango/citrus bomb!!! The wife loves it too...double-bonus!




Also did my 2nd all-grain batch last night...traditional nut brown ale (special request from the better half)...hop selection discussion here: http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...ings-fuggles-substitutes.375978/#post-4423549

This also was my 1st batch ever using a starter culture...and based on results so far, it won't be my last. Fermenting like crazy within 12h of pitching:

 

Would love to hear how this comes out...contemplating some kind of smoked beer in my upcoming sessions...

 

Pounding the last half of a 2nd keg of Comet/Centennial/Citra IPA while watching football...tomorrow, before the weather warms up too much, I'll be brewing a single keg of lager with S-189...with an American hopbill for a change.

 

sipping last of the bilokin double pump pumpkin ale. Also had the countess of VT a double oatmeal stout.

 

Brewed 8.5 gallons of a Belgian Quad today with my father in law. The day started out great and then turned to shit. So apparently he barely attached the hose to his false bottom in his igloo mash tun and after about 10 minutes of draining, the flow ceased. We tried for minutes trying to "unclog" the stuck sparge that we thought we had. We decided to empty the mash tun to realize that the hose had disconnected. We had to boil for 2 hours because he decided to sparge with 2 qts per pound of grain. Ended up with 8.5 gallons into the fermenter after making him throw in the hops to start the cooking process. Anyway, needless to say, somehow, we hit the OG absolutely perfect at 1.079. After 4 pounds of progressive sugar additions during fermentation, this bastard should be around 12%. We ended up calling this "Quad Wrong", so let's see how this thing ages.

 

Following up from the December 'brewing activities' of smoking malt to show the end result. My intent was to oak this weizenbock in the keg, but there was already plenty of complexity in the overall flavor. Oaking with bourbon would've been overkill.

I has a rich, meaty smoke flavor. Unlike the smoked dunkelweizen I did earlier last year that ended up tasting like band-aids.

 

Halfway through the mash on 11 gallons of my Coffee Porter. Organizing the brew house today as well.

 

Bottling my Rye Nelson Saison today. Have 5 gallons still aging on brett.

 

Sample of my first sour, brewed about 10 months ago and fermented with Bug County. Taste is very fruity, especially with notes of pear, cidery (in a good way), and light tartness. I just added a soft maple honey comb barrel alternative stave, and will let that sit for approx. 6 weeks, then keg.

 

Last week, I did a re-brew of John Snow's House APA. This batch is for a friend of mine, who liked the previous one so much that he asked me if I could provide a keg for a concert that he'll be playing soon. As an added bonus, he took some pictures during the brew day:

 

Tamarind stout - tart, refreshing, smooth malt, very crushable

 

And now I have another stout variant to consider.

 

Just received a second manifold for the keg and bought some extra Oetiker clamps. I'm soon going to have the capacity for 6 kegs plus one last straw bottle filler. Of course, the gods of kegging will spit upon me and I will realize that I need to order some obscure piece of hardware or other.

 

After adding a manifold last week I've been back the lhbs 4 times. Needed to replace an o ring, ball lock fitting, needed a 1/4 to 5/16 barb, needed maltodextrin(not directly related).