December Homebrewing

At this moment I'm prepping a 20 gallon kettle I bought from a commercial equipment junkyard for $40 (with lid). After (industrial, not kitchen) Scotchbrite w/ mineral oil, followed by soap and water boiling 4 gal water + 2 gal vinegar. More to follow. May have to bulk up some planned recipes! Cheers!

 

Brewing a basic Belgian blonde this Saturday. Probably just some pilsner malt with a little crystal 20L Northern Brewer hops and T58 yeast. I like the taste that yeast contributes when fermented at 68-70 degrees. This will be something I can turn around quick enough to bring growlers to a New Year's Eve party I've been invited to.

 

Brewing a Rye Irish Stout tomorrow. Which is just a dry Irish stout, but subbing the flaked barley with flaked Rye.

 

Brewed a Golden Promise Amarillo-Citra APA with US-05 on Saturday to keep the hop fix in check. First time using own grain mill - Cereal Killer had for $85 (with discount from AHS). Hope to produce two more recipes before the end of the month -- hoppy Belgian Golden Strong Ale (ala Duvel Triple Hop) and a Schwarzbier. Great thread as always.

 

Brewed a maris otter pale ale with Columbus and cascade last Thursday gonna Dryhop with cascade and mosaic

 

Dec 1st brewed up 11 gallons of an IPA for a friend's 40th birthday celebration on Dec 10. Fermenting it with 1318 and it's going to be a 9 day turnaround…so let fermentation free rise from 63F pitch temperature up to 72F at peak…hoping it helps speed up fermentation and won't produce too much esters & fusels. Dry hopping tonight…kegging thursday and serving by saturday…it's going to be tight.

Kegged up my 3-Way Stout…put the Peanut Butter/Cocoa nibs version on tap last night. Coffee/Vanilla bean goes on next with the Mole version going on last.

 

1. Drinking the Finkel & Garf Oatmeal Milk Stout (recipe from Zymurgy) - I was paranoid because my gravity was higher than expected and it smelled weird going into the fermenter. Turned out fine. Tastes great! A bit sweeter than it should be but not too sweet. Going well with desserts after dinner. My wife set up a blind tasting for me and a buddy. We used Left Hand Milk Stout. I knew pretty quickly which one was mine because it's sweeter. My buddy guessed wrong which was pretty cool.


2. Closed transfer of the Gold Medal winner Tom Thorpe's English Pale Ale (he called for 100% Mosaic but I decided to go 100% Nelson. It's my 5th all-grain batch so I'm obviously qualified to tweak a gold medal winner's recipe.) to serving keg and on CO2 now. This was the first batch that I actually hit all my gravity readings according to the recipe. Excited for that and to feel the full power of Nelson. I think I love that hop but not sure. I should definitely know after this batch.

3. Brewed up JohnSnowNW's Boone's Farmhouse Ale Sunday. Messy sloppy brew day. Finished way below target gravity - initial was meant to be 1.045 and I hit 1.033!!! Ugh. AND completely forgot to add the flaked oats to the mash. Nice! I extended the boil 20-30 min to concentrate it down a bit and manage to hit a post-boil gravity of 1.049 (meant to hit 1.054). That being said, it's fermenting nicely at 72F and seems clean and healthy. Still very much looking forward to it. I do need to figure out my gravity misses though.

 

Hoping to bottle the stouts brewed in Oct....so we can brew a Moon man clone and a Falconer's flight IPA....might even try a NE style IPA....That is our list for December....

 

I hope to God you're an hourly employee

 

Kegged my double sunshine clone on Sunday to be drank at party on 18th. Uncarbed sample tasted promising and hit it w second dose of dry hops , looking forward to that. Going to use the cake for two small beers for Xmas. Doing a dark Mild, a recipe that was created w help from BA community (https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/english-dark-mild.469139/) & a simple NEPA w galaxy & Nelson

 

After two weeks in the primary I added 8 oz of sugar and a package of dry yeast to the Duvel clone. In two weeks it will be transferred to keg!

 

I'm curious as to why you added sugar and yeast after two weeks.

 

Got a double sunshine clone on tap at the office currently! Actually brewed with Sean Lawson…and its delicious!
Hope your version is as successful!

 

Share your grain bill by chance? Just did the BYO Double Sunshine clone and curious how it compares.

 

It was the BYO clone as well which I know you can find on this board and the recipe is direct from the man himself. Unfortunately I ran out of 2-row, so had to sub in some Pilsner malt in its place, also thought I had dextrose, but turns out I didn't so subbed in some clear belgian candy sugar. I only have Sip of Sunshine to compare to, would say the clone attempt is bigger in citra-kick to face but has a slight off-flavor I couldn't quite place…maybe acetaldehyde, but it was hard to pinpoint under all the hops. Definitely a fermentation flaw though…but not too surprising considering the miles that beer put on before getting into a keg.
40% Rahr 2-row
25% Weyermann Pils
15% Briess Goldpils Vienna
6.5% flaked oats
6.5% clear belgian candy
5% Carafoam
2% Caramunich I

brands were just what I had on hand at the time…not necessarily the maltsters Sean uses

 

Bottling a sour this month, brewing a Baltic Porter, and plan to do a deep clean and assessment of all my homebrew gear and fermenters. Tis the season to clean and replace for the new year.

 

Getting my cranberry berliner on secondary currently. The color prior to putting on fruit is absolutely perfect:

 

Why the Belgian candy vs dextrose?

 

Per the instructions from my LHBS. I've made about 15 of their recipes and the beer always comes out great. They said that even with a starter this recipe might stress the yeast out a bit so after 2 weeks add 1/2 pound of sugar (dissolved and boiled in 2 cups of water) with the dry yeast package. This is the first recipe that has called for that so I've never done it before and cannot say how well it works. However, they've been 100% with their advice to me thus far so I have no reason to 2nd guess them at this time.

Interested in other opinions on this process!

 

Lady friend just broke that glass last night…she was practically in tears (but I know what I'm getting her for christmas)

Just an oversight on my part…thought I had dextrose in my specialty ingredients tub, but didn't find any. The clear belgian candy has been in there for a while, so thought it would be close to a 1:1 swap.