Who's Brewing This Weekend? 11/7-9 Edition

The Gruit has some vigorous airlock activity two hours in.

 

I don't think that I'd sweat this part so much. Yes, sparging a muslin bag full of grains will help extract a little more sugar, and yes the hotter the temperature the better the transfer of sugar. I don't think you'd see a huge difference between 155F and 160F, and I don't think you'd see a huge difference between directly immersing a bag of grain into a pot of water vs getting a little sparge water on top. It sounds kind of dangerous to be pouring 170F water over the top of your pot. If you've got a good way to do it, you're welcome to it.

I'd probably use a second kettle of water to add the grain sack to it after your original kettle. The water should be the same temp, or you can go up to 170F, if you want. I'd dunk it in the second pot for about 10 min and gently twist the bag at the top when I'm done. DO worry about tannin extraction if you're using RB or black patent. Make sure your volumes of water between the two pots add up to what you want for a preboil volume. This way, you'd get better extraction from 2 pots of 3 gallons vs the 1 pot of 6 gallons. I realize that this makes total sense in my head, and maybe not on paper. Lemme know if we're still clear as mud.

 

Wait. What do you eat when you are presumably allergic to EVERYTHING? Sucrose and distilled water?

"Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure-grain alcohol?"

 

No brewing planned, but got around to keg a dunkelweizen.

 

Just finished brewing my house ipa, great brew day.....weather was perfect and got to watched some great football games.

 

I'll be brewing my second batch after a year + hiatus. Just a simple pale ale to get everything dialed back in.

 

Tomorrow, after cleaning some kegs, I will rack a mild to keg, harvest yeast, transfer a mead to secondary, and maybe transfer a sour to secondary, too.

 

getting ready for 10 gals of Stout...5 with roasted chiles

 

Doin my first batch tonight!! Just a partial grain APA kit from the brew shop, but I'm still learning.
And DAMN everything smells so good!

 

Wait until it is fermenting and the smell comes out the airlock... Tis wondertabulific...

 

My god i'm gonna have to leave my carboy under my bed now...

 

Hopefully moving my Gala Apple Cider with 3711 and Orange Blossom honey to secondary. Gonna dry hop with Nelson, my personal favorite hop.

 

RB = Roasted Barley
Black Patent.. aka black malt. A malted barley that is dark roasted. Distinct from Roasted Barley, which is not malted.

 

No brewing, but I made a run to my LHBS for a bunch of grain and misc. supplies. Picked up 55 lbs Weyermann Pils malt, 10 lbs Munich, 5 lbs Vienna (for upcoming lagers), some crystal and Carafa III to round out the grain bill for an upcoming American Brown, some Wyeast 2565 (Koelsch) for my next brew (a Koelsch inspired by JZ's recipe in Brewing Classic Styles), PBW, iodophor, keg lid with pressure release (to replace non-release lid). Of course I forgot at least one item -- some more DME for starters, but I think I have enough to build up the Koelsch yeast.

Also tasted my 1-week-in-the-keg Hop Fool! IPA (see HB recipes section). I originally targeted this as a 7.4% IPA, but the (somewhat inadvertent) 2 hour mash (which resulted in high fermentability) combined with pitching onto the whole cake of Ringwood from a previous APA resulted in an 8.3% IIPA. Holy cow! This is one hop dominated brew: aroma, flavor and bitterness. Definitely the hoppiest beer I've ever made. Fingers crossed that oxidation does not rear its ugly head too soon on this one. BTW, I am happy with the performance on Ringwood for both of these American style pales. It could end up being my go-to yeast for such beers in the future, although I'm still going to explore some other possibilities.

 

Just got done bottling my chocolate milk stout. Looked and smelled good.

 

Brewing a clone of Three Floyds' Snow Weasel dry hopped porter. Increasing the hop flavor and aroma compared with last year's attempt based on having the good fortune to have Snow Weasel at the brewpub again this past spring. Also adding a touch of black malt for some roastiness that I found in the original that was entirely absent from mine.

 

I got 10 gal of Rauchbier brewed up. I'm still debating whether I want to brew 10 gal batches, or if I just want to run 2 5 gal batches. The time difference isn't much and there seems to be a lot more set up and tear down time when I have to rack 10 gal. Overall it was a 5 1/2 hour brewday that went smoothly, other than the heavy lifting.

 

Brewed an ESB today. Hoping to have it on tap by Thanksgiving...

 

Brewed porter and ipa. Can't decide what to do next. Maybe a hoppy brett'd wit and an english mild. That could be tasty!