What's Brewing-June edition

nothing is brewing . I have a bunch of yeast ready to go (Juice, Conan, Coastal Haze). New shipments of Mosaic and Vic Secret, all the malt I need to make various versions of my go-to IPA recipes. I have kegs empty and kegs on their last legs, I have fermentation control so no worries about the summer heat...Just haven't had time this month - or I forgot to collect my water (which generally takes a few hours at a gallon per hour on my RO).

I planned to brew this coming Sunday the 1st, but I am a stove top BIAB and they're calling for 99-100 degree temps and I don't have central air in my apartment or any AC in my kitchen....

 

Going to drive to a town in MD tomorrow (about an hour each way) to pick up some yeast if I get confirmation that the LHBS down there has it.

 

Finally brewing my Choke Cherry Saison today. 1.75 lbs (~ 5 cups) choke cherries simmered in some water to break them down and extract the extractables. Will be added at the end of the boil.

I was going to use 2 lbs unmalted spelt (cereal mash), but that turned out to be a mild disaster. I didn't open the gap on my mill, and the spelt being too hard made the roller bind which then sent the whole mill onto its side, spilling everything into the floor.

After vacuuming the mess I decided to go with 1.5 lbs of flaked oats instead, along with a bit of Golden Naked Oats and Briess Pils malt (I really like this malt -- super light in color and in flavor).

Hops: Mandarina Bavaria at 20 minutes, Cascade at 10 minutes, and Calypso at 5 minutes.

Yeast: Lamelland Belle Saison.

Cheers!

 

Yeah!

I figured it might just need some extra time. Ordered some backup yeast just in case, though.

 

That yeast is a notorious slow starter anyway. Give it some time.

 

Brewed a Helles and Märzen this passed Monday. Far and above most efficient brew day ever. This was my first time mashing the second brew at the same time boiling the first. Spot on gravity targets. A little excess boil off, hot day - but that wasn't an issue, just added water. Starting the diacetyl rest tomorrow. Going to be great, looking forward to these brews!!!!!

 

June is toast...brewing ? in July?

 

Lots of beery action planned for today:

• Make starters for Averagely Perfect Dubbel and a grisettey-saisony thing. Starter wort is cool, starter flasks are sanitized.
• Determine if Cheesewick Bitter and Old Dogs - New Tricks Pale Ale are ready for packaging with dry hops.
• The Lallemand London ESB yeast took Cheesewick from 1.036 to 1.008, way more attenuation than I got on the porter I brewed recently with same strain
• eqwqwe.

 

Sigh. Internet connection dropped and my edit got timed out.

Old Dog is ready to keg, too. 1.045 --> 1.006. Old dog refers to cascade and Columbus. The beer is surprisingly lemony, which I got from these cascades the last time, too. New tricks are all-Weyermann Vienna base malt and Ekuanot dry hops. Both beers will get keg hops. The bitter will see some Styrian. But next up is sanitizing the kegs and dry hop bags.

 

Just crushed the grains on the dubbel and realized I ordered Dingemans Caravienne rather than Caramunich. Guess I am DQ'd from winning the boast-about-your-APDub contest, as I'm not brewing true to recipe. It shouldn't detract from my enjoyment of the beer, though.

 

Well my cellar is quite happy right now.
15 gallons of RIS in the bourbon barrel.
6 gallons of Saison
4.5 gallons of sour on pluots
3.5 gallons of sour on blueberries
Still have 2.5 gallons of sour left to fruit tomorrow.