Brewing Weekend 10/12/2012

Winter Black and Winter White:

Dry Oatmeal Stout & Wit

 

Drinking some of my Brett beer before I have to take it out of my kegerator for my other beers. Nothing else planned really... maybe design a recipe for my next sour. Ill likely be brewing next week or the week after.

 

On Sunday, brewing 20 gallons of Hefeweizen, split between 3638 and 3068, and 5 gallons of Berliner weisse (Lacto for 7 days, German ale yeast to finish, Brett at bottling) for the upcoming Caltech Sausage Fest (FYI every Caltech event is a sausage fest).

Kegging an American Red/Amber Ale (Rakau and Amarillo hopped) and doing the second dry hop on a West Coast IPA (Galaxy, Simcoe, Rakau, Amarillo hopped). Both are for my brew club's internal contest to brew on a local brew pub's system. Hopefully one turns out well...

Also beer gunning 4-6 cases of beer from my kegs on Sunday.

 

Rye Porter. Golden Promise base, along with brown malt, rye malt, cararye, and chocolate rye0. Could be great, could be a trainwreck.

 

we did 18 gallons of a Karmeliet triple yesterday and a 6 gallon christmas ale

 

Stepping up a starter of super old WY1388 and then testing to see if it's any good.

Beyond that nothing other than singing to my Brett IPA that still hasn't taken off (as of last night - 72 hours - eff.)

 

Home roasting my own "crystal" malt this weekend for next weeks bitter. This is the method I will be employing to look for a 60-80°L "crystal" malt: http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/

 

I’m kegging a wet hop IPA that I used homegrown cascade hops. And I'm going to try to brew my first sour. Fingers crossed that a year from now it wont be total rubbish.

 

Drinking my wet APA and dry Hopping My HBT.com Zombie Dust Clone. I am going to dry hop it twice. The first will be 2 oz for 5-7 days, pull those hops and add more 2 more for 1-2 days pull and force carbonate.

 

Just transferring and spicing my pumpkin ale for next weekend's Halloween party. This beer was a hit last year; hopefully this year's is just as good.

 

Brewed a bitter, no sparge this morning, ended up with 75% eff so I'm in best ranges. Named it after the street I lived on in London.

Bedford Bitter

1.046

95% TF MO
5% TF Dark Crystal

Bitter w Whitbread Golding and finish with a mix of First Gold and Styrians. Also small dry hop of both.
Yeast is WY1318. It was a relaxing brew day!

 

I'm laboring over some stout recipes. Looking for something close to, or over 1.100 to brew. I want it to be 1.030-1.025 and to have some great roasted coffee and chocolate flavor, without being too acrid and burnt.. Something I can age up and drink around Christmas maybe and beyond...


I have a brown ale sitting on a nice clean 1099 cake that I'll be taking it off of this weekend to keg, so looking for something to toss on there without any trouble... Last weekend for about a month that I'll have free.

Maybe a milk stout? Hell I don't know. I'm going to the LHBS tomorrow no matter what. I'll toss on a yeast cake, or use some dry yeast to pitch enough. I have some wort I could make a start with, but a day in, is a bit late. Brewing Sunday.

Might say piss on it, and do an Imperial Coffee Porter I have, and mess with the grain bill a bit to make it darker and more roasty, and then it's pretty much a damn stout anyways, and rolls deep at 9.8%.

 

^Keep us updated Fatc1ty.

I just dry hopped my rye pale ale, washed some yeast, and kegged my blonde ale

 

No plans on anything to cook this weekend. Bottling my pumpkin porter and might go ahead and design a simple pale ale or dark mild just to serve as a starter for a yeast cake to repitch my stout onto in a week or two.

 

I just brewed my pumpkin ale that I have been meaning to brew for weeks. It turned out a little weaker than expected, but it sure is gunna taste good!

 

I'm thinking the back up is the Imperial Coffee Porter.. ehh.... Stout... A bit of carafa, or some more black patent and some roasted barley and I think I'm there.. Up the maris otter a pound or 3 and boom.

I have no idea why I feel the need to brew for the season. This is my first year brewing, and I'm totally behind.

I've planned already to have seasonal brews ready for the season.. Saisons being made in Feb/March and shit like that.. Popping out porters and brown in August for Sept/Oct/Nov... Big RIS in May, so I can let them sit until Nov/Dec.

I have a bunch of fresh 2012 crop Amarillo, Cascade and Magnum.. Part of me wants to brew a nice spicy-citrus Saison... but like I said.. I'm so undecided other than I know I"m brewing something.

 

Brewing a New Zealand IPA tomorrow.

12 gallon batch
20# 2 row
2# dark munich
2# carapils
5oz acid malt

Mash with 10.4g strike water @ 148F for 60 minutes (159F strike temp)
7g gypsum
4g epsom salt
7g calcium chloride

Collect 7g of first runnings in the boil kettle
0.125g of water per # of grain absorption for 1st runnings

Sparge with 8g of water @ 168F (188F strike temp)
5g gypsum
3g epsom salt
5g calcium chloride

Collect 6.75g of second runnings giving a total preboil volume of 13.75g @ SG
That would be 0.05g per # of grain absorption on 2nd runnings.

Boil 13.75g of wort for 60 minutes resulting in 12.75g post boil @ SG
12g after cooling expansion loss
11-11.25g into fermenters
9.75 - 10g into kegs after all of the dry hopping losses

2.5oz Riwaka @ 25 minutes
2.5oz Motueka @ 20 minutes
3oz Riwaka @ 15 minutes
3oz Motueka @ 10 minutes
3oz Riwaka @ 5 minutes
2.5oz Motueka @ 0 minutes (120F)
2.5oz Riwaka @ 0 minutes (120F)

2.5oz Riwaka 1st Dry Hop 5 days
2.5oz Motueka 1st Dry Hop 5 days

2.5oz Riwaka 2nd Dry Hop 5 days
2.5oz Motueka 2nd Dry Hop 5 days

1.059og
1.010fg
6.5% abv
56 ibus
5.6 srm

 

Man I hear this. I'm only two batches into my brewing hobby (obsession?) and am already overwhelmed by how much I want to get caught up on the appropriate seasonal styles (brewed a pumpkin porter to start October, planning a stout within a few weeks so I can have it ready for Xmas and into colder winter months) so that I can share with friends that makes sense for the time of year. Once I finish the stout up, I'll feel like I can catch up much more easily. I'll be able to make cheap and easy dark milds or ESBs to hold me over through much of the winter and will be able to get the saisons up and running to have ready in the spring. I know I'm rushing my current beers just to have them ready in time, but I plan to let a few bottles sit for a year and see how they do with some age on them. Can't wait until I'm caught up on the season and can better plan ahead my brew schedule.