683 replies to this topic

[Stout_fan]

I'm back in the game.

Brewed a completely non-style specific pale/amber something or other on sat.

Yesterday did 5 gal of starter wort to be canned. Planed for 1.040, got 1.047

I guess that's close enough.

Canned 27  32oz mason jars with 24 oz in each. Should keep me in starter wort for a while.

I haven't brewed on my big rig in over a year.. kinda forgot how I did things.

Edited by Stout_fan, 22 October 2019 - 04:25 PM.

[3rd party JKor]

Dunkel for sure and what about a Stout with the 002.

I would like a dry irish but I don't know how that would go down with 002.

[Buscotucky]

I haven't brewed on my big rig in over a year.. kinda forgot how I did things.

 

That was me this past weekend...multiple mishaps just do to being rusty; everything took longer than it should have! But there's beer...

[positiveContact]

Batch number 9 of this year. German pilsner. I change it slightly every time. 15lbs pils, 2.5lbs Vienna, 0.5lbs carafoam. Bitter with Magnum and then 7oz of hallertau over the last 10 minutes.

[Poptop]

Bottling a traditional Saison w/ 3711 on Saturday  -  and brewing a very simple Blonde on Sunday; 1/2 Pale, 1/2 Pils, a splash of Opal 44 malt, Mt. Hood, Celia and 1728.

[zymot]

Brewed a super robust brown ale yesterday. Mostly based on BBM's award winning recipe. Doubled it up to make it even more awesome.

12# Maris otter
1# Simpson DRC
1# brown malt
1# Simpsons golden oats
1/2# biscuit
1/2# chocolate

2 oz Magnum 60 min
1 oz Mt Hood 10 min

Gigayeast English Ale
(Gigayeast is local to me)

Did the vitality starter

I have to get my brew space sorted. I am a bit nomadic, every brew day is a new adventure.

This was my last beer with my 10 gallon aluminum kettle. Got a Spike kettle on the way. SHINEY!

[SchwanzBrewer]

Just got the ferm fridge fixed last week. I have to start building up some beers in supply. Might make a few stouts to start back. I volunteered to brew 4 beers for my friends daughter's wedding in March and I have my annual camping trip presidents day weekend. So we'll see how it goes. Got to clean up the garage from painting the house and I need to get my kegs cleaned. I'll take them to a local brewery to clean.

[Big Nake]

My schedule has been weird lately with lots of work and lots of travel.  I'm actually brewing on Tuesday 11/4... a pale ale.  Work be damned. 

[Poptop]

Trying to fit 12# of grain into a 5# bag.  Work and family have C-blocked my brewing.  But..........  Saturday (I hope) my Blonde is going down.  

[Big Nake]

My schedule has been weird lately with lots of work and lots of travel.  I'm actually brewing on Tuesday 11/4... a pale ale.  Work be damned. 

I ended up brewing yesterday, Wednesday.  Smooth brewday and a nice, clear wort was produced.  1099 is bubbling away at about 64° now.  This brewday was sort of wedged into my schedule so I made NO changes... single infusion mash and a 30m boil.  We'll see what happens.  I have a blonde ale, an ESB and another pale ale planned and I just put the pale ale recipe together here...

 

Think that combination will play nicely together?  I'm going to drop them all in at FO, put the lid back on and let them steep for 15-20 minutes and then chill.   Using up some small amounts of hops I have left.  

[neddles]

How do you justify 1/4# of flaked barley? Not that it will hurt it...

 

Otherwise it looks fantastic to me. I have used that exact basemalt combo (8#GP/2#wheat) for pale ales and love it. Normally used 1/2# caravienne to go with. 

[Big Nake]

How do you justify 1/4# of flaked barley? Not that it will hurt it...

 

Otherwise it looks fantastic to me. I have used that exact basemalt combo (8#GP/2#wheat) for pale ales and love it. Normally used 1/2# caravienne to go with. 

CaraVienne (or CaraRuby... the BSG version) is what I would usually use but I'm out of that but have 2+ pounds of CaraMunich.  The flaked barley was a weird thought that occurred to me.  I was putting the grain bill together and remembered that I had some new stuff (torrified wheat and some other stuff) and I remembered I had an unopened 1-lb bag of flaked barley.  I don't use it often but thought, WTH?  Seems like mouthfeel and enhanced foam is the plus.  

[Big Nake]

Next weekend it will be a blonde ale.  Here's a look...

 

[neddles]

Both look great to me. Did you ever do the 60 minute beer or give up on that experiment?

[Big Nake]

Both look great to me. Did you ever do the 60 minute beer or give up on that experiment?

The beer I made yesterday was the first time I brewed since September 21 so no, not yet.  I wanted to brew last weekend but the schedule clouded up so I sneaked in a weekday brewday.  The other issue is this... as we all look at issues in our brewing and do some process of elimination, we find things that seem reasonable and we also find things that "don't feel like it".  The boil time doesn't feel like it.  I think the boil time or the boil intensity could be it when combined with other things or... it could just be something else completely.  I know I have made clear 30m boil beers.  To be honest, many of the beers I have made since adding the LO steps have been less-than-clear.  I wish I knew why but I have been slowly pulling away from that just like Drez... not spunding, force-carbing, fining, etc.  If this string of beers made with 1099 have any clarity issues I might just take away the LO steps one-by-one... transferring via tubing to the MT, getting rid of the mash cap, stop using the trifecta mix, etc.  I would probably keep the "use the CO2 from the fermenter to purge the keg and do a closed transfer" because I highly doubt that's the culprit for cloudiness.  

[neddles]

Dammit. This is like the third time I have tried to talk you into trying it. Thought I finally had you this time!

[Big Nake]

Dammit. This is like the third time I have tried to talk you into trying it. Thought I finally had you this time!

I know.  I remember you saying you had clarity issues and you were doing the LO steps too... one of which was a less-vigorous boil.  Now a less-vigorous boil for 60m might be better than a less-vigorous for 30m but my way around that (being the pragmatic person I am) was to just screw the less-vigorous boil and go with my standard boil intensity for 30m as I did with many other batches that came out clear.  You may remember that I had a mysterious run of 1056 beers and I actually emailed Wyeast and was going back and forth with a guy about it.  My guess (in hindsight) is that something in the LO steps is causing this cloudiness and a lower boil intensity may just be it.  I have a couple of kegs in the on-deck fridge where the boil intensity was higher and I boiled this pale ale yesterday pretty well too.  Nothing too crazy but not wimpy either.  The issue is not BTB either because I had 30m boil beers with BTB in the mash, sparge and boil that came out clear.

[neddles]

Agree, BTB is not the issue. The 60 min boil cured mostly non-low O2 beers. I was hitting my stride with low-o2 and 60 min boils when I stopped brewing. Those beers were coming out great.

[Big Nake]

The clarity issues with my LO beers was probably due to a lot of yeast in the keg, some amount of trub in the fermenter and the fact that fining was considered a no-no.  I started getting better clarity as I worked on getting only clear wort into the fermenter.  But I wonder if there is something with the LO steps that has a direct impact on clarity.  I can't imagine what that could be but I have been brewing with some amount of LO steps since the start of 2018 and my clarity has declined.  Some are okay and some are REALLY sedimented but overall, my clarity has declined.  At some point I'll find out what it was.  

[Bklmt2000]

Hoping to get back to brewing in the next 2 weeks or so (our whole-house flooring remodel is in progress).

 

Looking to make a nice Centennial-focused IPA, somewhere between Bell's 2-Hearted Ale and Founder's Centennial IPA, but for a bit of a riff, I'll be using 1028 London Ale instead of my usual US-05, which I usually use for American IPAs.