What's brewing October edition

Plan is to brew my first marzen Saturday after bottling an IPA Friday which will free up the fermentation fridge to get turned down to lager temps.

 

Plans in the works for a brewday on Sunday. Tonight I did my first closed CO2 transfer when kegging a porter. Easy as could be with my new set up.

 

Last night I got my DIPA kegged, which finished at 1.009-1.010 (from 1.072) for ABV of 8.2%... Used my new CO2 tank rig in the basement to purge and positively pressurize the headspace with CO2 after dry hopping and cold crashing to avoid any oxygen intake during those processes. Racked from the spigot into a purged keg as usual via gravity. Could smell the aroma from a few feet away when kegging. Big pineapple and “wine/grape” notes, that distinct tang you get from Galaxy and Vic Secret if that makes sense. Have it at 30psi at the moment and will tap it tomorrow to give it a whirl. I expect it to be a touch undercarbed still until next weekend, but it’s ready to rock n’ roll otherwise. Grain to glass in 11 days for this one when I tap it on Wednesday (brewed Sept 30th). You can’t beat a big NE DIPA that fresh! Like most beers though, it does get better the following few weeks, but I enjoy experiencing that “curve”.


Have all my ingredients/supplies prepped for brewing a Kolsch today after work. Cut my city water with distilled by 50% to soften it up a bit for this one. Low minerality for the water profile (50 sulfate, 15 chloride?) if I recall as well. Have a big 3.5L starter of WLP029 crashing at the moment ready to go into action (~450 cells). Will steal some of that for future beers and pitch the rest. Will be hopping this one to about 20-22 IBU with Hallertauer Magnum and Spalt.

 

- American Brown Ale w/ cacao nibs (1.065)
- Porter w/ coconut, cold brew coffee, and cacao nibs (1.080)
- NEIPA featuring citra, galaxy, and mosaic (1.056)
- DIPA with an offensive amount of hops (1.089)
- Rye Pale Ale (OG unknown)
- Stout w/ vanilla beans and cold brew coffee (OG unknown)



All brewed with home-brew friends. It's been a huge month so far.

 

Now that looks good. Wasn't properly carbonated before

 

Going to take a stab at a Roggenbier in the next few days. 50% rye malt, fermented cool with WLP300.

 

Bottled another half Pilsner malt pale, really like mixing the base malts.

Brewing a lager using half DI water and half from my spring, this lager using sazz hops

 

My Dopplebock is now stalled 4 days at 1.041... FG is supposed to be 1.020. I have roused the yeast, bumped up the temp, added some of the left over yeast from the previous lager... nothing. I did a starter last night and pitched the last of the yeast from my previous batch into it and will toss it in at high krausen. If that doesn't work...

 

Single hop (citra) Pale Ale. However I am using a bunch of leftover malts/adjuncts on top of my base recipe, so it's probably going to turn into 7+% IPA. Oh well.

On Deck : Coffee Stout

 

thinking of a single hop Mosaic in the next week or two.

Saison in the primary.

I need to get off my butt and do a barleywine for a buddy.

 

As I mentioned in the September thread, I had trouble drilling a hole in my stainless steel brew pot to install a ball valve, so I enlisted professional help. Now I just need to assemble the parts and give it a test run with plain water to check for leaks.

Next up on the brew docket is a Scottish ale sans caramel malt or kettle caramelization. Golden promise, a little Munich and black malt, and a combination of centennial and cascade hops in the boil. Aiming for a high mash temperature for low attenuation.

I also placed my annual bulk hops order this month - one pound each of Citra, Chinook, Centennial, Columbus, El Dorado, Azacca, and Legacy.

When my current kegged IPA kicks, I'm planning a Golden Promise WC IPA with Citra and El Dorado. Getting sick of all these hazy juice bombs, but I wanted to make use of these fruity hops while they're really fresh.

 

Bottled the Burton ale and Belgian dark strong. Nugget pale ale and Irish stout this weekend, maybe arrow a deer while brewing, that would be cool

 

Your September sounds like mine, mine sealed and then blew while warm. Thanks to some creativity and a lot of vessels I was able to recover. Out running for several hours trying to find what I needed and then back to it. Was one of my longer days but I got it to seal with perseverance, it was one of those "I will not be defeated" mentality days.

To the original thread, I'm going to toast some nuts for a British Nut Brown, haven't figured out which nuts yet though.

 

Haven't brewed in a few weeks thanks to travel and visitors that led to leaving a big imperial stout for some extra time at cold temperatures before bottling, so I'm getting an itch to get back to it. Don't have anything in mind specifically, so I may brew another batch of a blonde I made that met universal approval, perhaps with a little more Citra after flame out this time around to beef up the citrus note. That was a quick turn around, so I may go down that route and then come up with a little pipeline in the meantime.

 

Bottled a simple hefe last week. Getting ready to do a 50/50 blend of hoppy saison/farmhouse cider into secondary. Hitting it with Brett B and brandy soaked oak, and will forget about it for 4-5 months.

My wild wheat beer started another 'mini fermentation' about 2 weeks after the krausen dropped from the initial ferment. The temp in my closet had gotten warmer so maybe that's what caused it? Very strange... 1.048 down to 1.009. I'm gonna have to wait this one out for a while. No idea what microbes may be in this one, and I'd hate to bottle too early.

 

Yesterday I racked the imperial stout from barrel to keg. Three weeks in the barrel turned out to be just right. I sampled some, of course, and the barrel character was just right. Not too much bourbon, and not too much oak. I figure I'll carbonate, and then beer gun it to bottles for long-term enjoyment. I'll be curious to see how it ages.

Today I brewed a golden strong ale. Castle pilsner and corn sugar to dry it out. Warrior for bittering, late addition of styrian goldings, and czech saaz at flame out. 1.4l starter of wlp570. OG was 1.063, and I'm shooting for a FG of 1.005. 5 hours in, and I'm already seeing activity. Go yeasties!

From September, the Baltic porter hit three weeks in the fermenter as of today. Still moving along. 3 points away from my target FG as of yesterday, so I figure it ought to finish up this week. Damn, lager yeast is slow! Ha ha!

 

Anyone try Gigayeast for stout? They have a new Irish Stout strain GY080.

I'm trying this new strain as it was at my local shop and they recommended it for an oyster stout I brewed. It's started off really slow, like 48 hours to show some life (with great relief I opened the fermenter to see a light foam dotted with brown beasties). The delay was mostly my fault for dropping the temp down to low 60s after pitching at 68 the first night - placed fermenter in the open cooler with 1" of ice water - I was worried about it heating up too quick! Ah well.

So now wondering whether to pitch some US-04 or just let the GY ride - OG was 1.060. Don't know if GY is as robust as they claim...thoughts? Experiences?




STATS from GY for those interested:
Irish Stout GY080
Attenuation Medium Gravity* 82% – 86%

Attenuation High Gravity* 77% – 80% (10.1% – 10.7% ABV)

Temperature Range† 64˚F – 72˚F

Flocculation Medium

Description:

From one of the most famous stouts in the world. Creates a crisp, dry beer with a subtle fruity profile and a slightly tangy finish. Makes an amazing stout or porter but is also great for red, amber and even pale ales. This ale yeast is a robust fermenter perfect for high gravity brews and settles out well enough to create a relatively clear beer.

 

I kegged a first stab at an All Day IPA clone yesterday and then brewed up and added a Mosaic Session IPA onto the Chico cake. Then this morning I brewed up a big Brett Imperial/Triple IPA, with a bunch of wheat & golden promise, normal and cryo Citra and Mosaic and Omega's Where Da Funk blend, that I'm entering into our club High Gravity comp in early December...OG ended at 1.093 after adding some honey at flameout

Hope everyone else is getting some beer in their fermenters, kegs and bellies this weekend...Cheers!

 

Brewing a ‘Double-Double’ a la Mosher’s beer in Radical Brewing.
25 gal. batch, have the ingredients, but haven’t written the recipe yet.

2 sacks mild malt, 5lb dark crystal.
1lb EKG
1/2gal. 1968 London ESB (plus some SD super yeast if necessary)

I’ve got a 10 gallon rye whiskey/wheatwine 3rd use barrel that will get filled up. The rest will get kegged.

I like doing historic styles, especially ones with specific, unique techniques, so I am really looking forward to this brew.