What I did for beer today

[lumpher]

Yes i use city water, adjusted my water, but forgot the campden for the chlorine removal. I was trying to get a brew in while getting a bunch of other stuff done around the yard. Maybe it wasn't the best Idea!!

Never brew when you're in a hurry. Who knows what can happen and distract you. For all I... I mean you...know, systems may go down right as you're starting to chill it and you have to turn it into a no-chill because of a work emergency. Wait... who said that... it wasn't me... lol...

 

[broot]

Never brew when you're in a hurry. Who knows what can happen and distract you. For all I... I mean you...know, systems may go down right as you're starting to chill it and you have to turn it into a no-chill because of a work emergency. Wait... who said that... it wasn't me... lol...

Yeah, I know better. the worst part is it happened at the start of the brew when that was all i was doing! I'll definitely have to taste it before adding the peaches. worst case I just dump it.

 

[lumpher]

I doubt it will affect it that bad. May be a bit of a chlorine bite, but nothing a couple beers before drinking these won't fix.

 

[ba-brewer]

Chlorine can give beer a phenolic flavor and aroma and not the good kind.

I use RO water and still give my water a small shot of camden to remove the residual chloramine that makes it through. I use to not add camden to my RO water as I could not taste anything but there were beer judges that could taste it.

edit: I additionally confirmed with a water test kit that there was chloramine present in the RO water. It was barely detectable but still there. I had reduce my RO system output from 75gpd to 50gpd to give more contact in the carbon filters to help reduce it too.

 

[Ayzala]

Finally put together my keg washer! Test run today!

 

[day_trippr]

Getting set up to brew the 17th batch of Julius clone tomorrow.
Decided to freshen up the yeast I built for it two weeks ago with small "vitality" starters...

Cheers!

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Bottled 5 gallons of a Bourbon County Stout clone!

Then I made 2 gallons of sugar-wash for a seltzer that my wife requested -- so easy! Only boiled a cup of water (plus 2 grams of fermaid-K), dumped in a full 2 lb package of sugar, and then 2 gallons of distilled water, plus the yeast. Took a whole 5 minutes!

 

[JAReeves]

Transferred the IPA to keg. Initially just citrusy, we'll see how it goes after a week of carbonation.

 

[day_trippr]

Brewing my 17th batch of Julius and so far so good! Managed to strike before 9 am - a miracle for me

Onwards!

[edit] Fly sparging in progress. Haven't effed up yet!

Ever Onwards!

[edit2] Spent grains carted to next door neighbors chickens, HLT and MLT cleaned, and BK is well into the boil.

Have to boil off a half gallon more than usual to accommodate these two starters instead of my usual decanted pitch. Nbd, the early start helps...

[edit3] Sure got hot here today. I'm going through extra hand towels keeping dry while whirlpooling hops...

Shouldn't take much longer to get done today...

[edit4] Finishing up always takes longer than expected but I got 'er done.

Loading carboys...

Pitched, gassed, hooked up and ready to go...

In almost 20 years of brewing this is the very first time I pitched an uncrashed starter. I'm curious if "lift off" will happen quicker...

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

Managed to strike before 9 am - a miracle for me

Some days I consider it a minor miracle if my feet strike the floor before 9 AM.

 

[lumpher]

Put 5 lbs of blackberries from my garden into 2 bags and into some k-meta water in prep for cider. Froze them to break up the cells, then mashed them up really good. Next step... add the apple juice.

 

[day_trippr]

Another hazy brew coming up so I decided to get some more 1318 spinning from a stashed overbuild before I go out to slay the lawn. Gave it my customary O2 jump start...

Cheers!

 

[mac.cartier]

I made the All Together NEIPA recipe from Other Half, my second attempt at one of my favorite styles. I’m still dialing in my process parameters, I just made the jump from 1 gallon to 2.5 gallon batches and my final volume was 18% less than expected which is frustrating. FG was slightly high so I think I should have topped up in the boil but I don’t have a way to measure volume reliably in the kettle yet.

Smells great though! All my last batches have had unpleasantly yeasty flavors, that’s the only way to describe it. Not esters or phenols, just tastes like yeast. Even with healthy starters and temperature control, weeks after cold crash the beers still taste like straight bread yeast. I tried to over pitch this one so here’s hoping it will flocculate out.

Cheers!

 

[HM-2]

Kegged 5 gallons of 3-grain Saison, plus a 1L bottle I'm going to carbonate on some priming sugar.

Pulled a couple of bottles of rum barrel red rye IPA off the tap via a borrowed counter-pressure bottle filler (that's marginally too long to fit comfortably under my tap tower...) for tomorrow's homebrew club.

Had a clear out of some of my spare non-duotight type fittings that had started to go rusty.

Updated my hop inventory and cleaned out my all rounder for next week's beer




Now, do I brew the Best Bitter or Hefeweizen?

 

[seatazzz]

Sold our spare car this weekend; it's been sitting the better part of two years out on the street so needed some scrubbing (algae, anyone?). Husband got some stuff at HD called LA's Totally Awesome cleaner and degreaser, took everything off and left the car looking almost new. Yesterday we were spraying it on random dirty areas in the house to see how it does; takes stains off painted walls and leaves the paint, just does a great job. So I thought, why the heck not. The outside of my BK was completely gunked up with burnt on boilover remnants, so I tried this stuff on it with a steel wool pad. EVERYTHING came off (not the etching) and the damned thing looks like it did when I brought it home from the LHBS. This cleaner is the absolute shiznit! And cheap!! Smells to high heaven so ventilation is key when using it. Cannot wait to see what it will do to my nasty stovetop.

 

[flipster]

Small batch brewday - so into my Utility Muffin Beer Research Kitchen I went...

Now that the sweet dried orange peel arrived from a spice vendor, I've taken another step towards BlueHouseBrewhaus' recipe and made a lager from it (I need to restock ale yeasts, but it's not worth the postage just for the yeast alone, and lager always works as well for me...). HERE is the recipe and the thread for the interested ones.

And here are some pics documenting the brewday for your pleasure.

Grinding malts:

Mashing in:

Lautering and first wort hopping:

Boiling and further hops, ginger and orange peel addition:

PS:

Now, do I brew the Best Bitter or Hefeweizen?

Hefeweizen with the Maltase process!

 

[T Murph]

I finally finished my back bar today. Now it's time to enjoy it.View attachment 849379

 

[JAReeves]

I finally finished my back bar today. Now it's time to enjoy it.View attachment 849379

View attachment 849447

That is beautiful.

 

[MaxStout]

Hard to compete will all the cool stuff in this thread lately, but I did a little woodworking project to make calibrating and using my pH meter less cumbersome.

I had a 5"x7" block of maple in the scrap bin of my wood shop. Drilled some holes in it and now I have a much less tippy place to set my cal solutions, small beakers, etc.

 

[mac_1103]

I had a 5"x7" block of maple in the scrap bin of my wood shop. Drilled some holes in it and now I have a much less tippy place to set my cal solutions, small beakers, etc.

Nice. All it needs is a nice honey maple stain and about 17 coats of poly.

 

[day_trippr]

I need to do something similar, the one-by piece of oak scrap I used works but at a mere 11/16" thick is just too thin to work well, even after using flat-bottom Forstner bits. Not having any thicker scrap on hand I might glue another piece to the bottom and drill the holes deeper...

Cheers!

 

[MaxStout]

I need to do something similar, the one-by piece of oak scrap I used works but at a mere 11/16" thick is just too thin to work well, even after using flat-bottom Forstner bits. Not having any thicker scrap on hand I might glue another piece to the bottom and drill the holes deeper...

Cheers!

I have a similar, slightly larger scrap of maple, cut from the same slab. It's about 6" x 8-3/4" x 2-1/4" thick and weighs about 4 lbs. It's yours if you want it. Send a PM.

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks for the offer, I appreciate it, but laminating another piece of oak to what I have vs shipping 4 pounds of cutoff will satisfy my inner cheap-skate

Cheers!

 

[balrog]

Pretty piece of wood, @MaxStout. My late FIL left some walnut I'm desecrating by sawing off bits to make picture frames for the offspring.

 

[balrog]

Oh, and to stay on topic, I sniffed the blow off jar of my @Miraculix classic english ale with Mittelfruh today.

 

[Miraculix]

Oh, and to stay on topic, I sniffed the blow off jar of my @Miraculix classic english ale with Mittelfruh today.

That step is mandatory.

 

[HM-2]

Kicked my BRU-1 Hazy (boo!)
Got my Saison into the kegerator instead (yay!)

Had some great fun and games having to swap gas post O rings due to perishing...fun game of "where's that slow gas leak coming from"?

 

[Cameronl]

Hard to compete will all the cool stuff in this thread lately, but I did a little woodworking project to make calibrating and using my pH meter less cumbersome.

I had a 5"x7" block of maple in the scrap bin of my wood shop. Drilled some holes in it and now I have a much less tippy place to set my cal solutions, small beakers, etc.

View attachment 849510

I need to do this for my hop addition cups. More than once I've had them lined up on the table and bumped it, knocking them over, or mixing up the order. I could line them up like a beer flight and add a spot to label the timing.

 

[MaxStout]

I could line them up like a beer flight and add a spot to label the timing.

Make yourself a beer flight paddle with some small glasses for your hop additions. And for sampling beer later. Dual-purpose.

 

[jerrylotto]

I ise small Tupperware containers and keep them in the freezer. I label the lids with masking tape and write the time and order of addition.

 

[JAReeves]

Kicked the keg of hoppy PA yesterday.

 

[T Murph]

I kegged my Old Glory American Wheat beer. I basically brewed @Sammy86 's recipe with the exception of adding 2 oz of Citra Hops at the last 15 and 5 minute marks. Smells and taste great. Can't wait to enjoy this one.

 

[Broken Crow]

Brewing my 17th batch of Julius and so far so good! Managed to strike before 9 am - a miracle for me

View attachment 849091

Onwards!

[edit] Fly sparging in progress. Haven't effed up yet!

View attachment 849097

Ever Onwards!

[edit2] Spent grains carted to next door neighbors chickens, HLT and MLT cleaned, and BK is well into the boil.

View attachment 849099

Have to boil off a half gallon more than usual to accommodate these two starters instead of my usual decanted pitch. Nbd, the early start helps...

View attachment 849100

[edit3] Sure got hot here today. I'm going through extra hand towels keeping dry while whirlpooling hops...

View attachment 849105

Shouldn't take much longer to get done today...

[edit4] Finishing up always takes longer than expected but I got 'er done.

Loading carboys...

View attachment 849109

Pitched, gassed, hooked up and ready to go...

View attachment 849110

In almost 20 years of brewing this is the very first time I pitched an uncrashed starter. I'm curious if "lift off" will happen quicker...

Cheers!

I've seen inspiring pics of your beautiful brew rig some time ago and if I recall correctly, you had one of those large TC sock filters inline on the path to the fermenter.... I'm wondering 2 things; Do you still use it? ..if not, why? and:
What is this:

I'm a strong proponent of large kettle filters and have a burning need to know!

 

[Wigglebutts Brewery]

I had three fermenters with IPA, Irish Red Ale and Dortmunder Export looking to be kegged….. mission accomplished with all procedures completed for O2 free transfers. Kegs look good in the conditioning Frig! Back row is Golden ale and imperial stout in 3g cornies.

 

[day_trippr]

I don't know what a "sock filter" is - is that a muslin hop bag? I did use those with whole leaf hops "back in the day", and I also used nylon hop bags for pellets. Then I bought an SSB 6"x20" hop spider which I used for many years, but spiders are a pain and I believe they reduce utilization. I tried using a Hop Stopper V1 from The Electric Brewery but it could cause wort scorching if left on the kettle bottom during the boil, and I couldn't recirculate through it without it plugging up, so I went back to the spider.

Then The Electric Brewery came out with their much larger Hop Stopper V2, and I got a little smarter and added a third port to my BK to use it.

I attached the Hop Stopper to the original drain port, but I recirculate out through one of the added ports and back in through the other added port, all while the Hop Stopper is hung up from a post. The picture you referenced shows the Hop Stopper in its "up" position where it stays out of the way of the boil and whirlpooling and IC chilling. Once the wort has hit pitching temperature I remove the IC, unhook the Hop Stopper and let it drift to the bottom.

Then I move the drain hose over to the port with the Hop Stopper and start the pumped runout to the carboys, being careful to keep the flow rate around 2 quarts per minute to as not to plug up the Hop Stopper and pancake it from pump suction. When the wort is all drained this is what's left in the kettle...

This has been working quite well even with the biggest hop loads in the kettle, and the utilization from the free swimming pellets has to be as good as it gets And the wort is quite bright going in the carboys, leaving the pellet mush and a lot of break material in the kettle...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

It's going to rain here tomorrow so I'm going to brew my 10th batch of my Juicy Bits clone.
Got the grain bill measured out.

Unhooked the pair of kegs that were purged by last weeks batch of Julius, put a few psi of CO2 in them and tested their poppets for tight seals. Then tucked them out of the way until it's time to fill them. Need the space for tomorrow's grain buckets.

Set up the RO system to fill the brew rig and measured out the salts. Everything's pretty much ready to go...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Off and running on a rainy brew day - complete with multiple power outages so far

First step was to split my big 1318 starter in thirds, 2 jars to pitch and an over-build to stash.

Next is get the grains grinding and liquor heating. I use a BBQ monitor so I can be elsewhere doing other things while it's heating.

Underletting the strike.

A few minutes later a lifting stir to equalize temps.

Nailed the initial mash temperature!

Power went out right after that shot and is still out.

[edit] So my early-for-me start got set back by a 45 minute outage with the mash dropping to 140°F. It's back to 152°F now and all I can do is start the clock over again. Rats!

[edit2] Finally, mash is done and fly sparge has begun...

Onwards!

[edit3] One cannot double the mash time without some consequence, in this case gaining an extra 3 gravity points, taking the usual 1.057 SG pre-boil to 1.060. I can live with that, though it does show potential I have not been enjoying.

Anyway...as it's raining too hard to take the spent mash next door to the neighbors chickens I dumped it in an old wheeled 20 gallon shop vac barrel in the garage and will take that over when the rain ends.

Back inside, HLT and MLT cleaned and dried, and I'm 2/3s through the boil...

Hopefully no more surprises today...

[edit_last] Weeellll....there's always something, isn't there?

Once the boil had run its course I dropped my IC in and brought the wort down to 170°F and tossed in the 8 ounces of whirlpool hops.

Once the wort hit pitching temperature is was time to reconfigure the lines and run the wort to the carboys.

Got the expected almost-11-gallons into the carboys and moved to gas them up.

Moved the two carboys to the chamber next to last week's Julius batch and got them set up for fermentation. Noticed they looked exceptionally bright - and much darker than normal at this stage. Hmmm....

DOH!

That was a first - remembered all the hops but forgot to pitch the yeast! Fortunately it was only a matter of a couple of minutes late but I still feel like a knucklehead

Aaaanyway...aside from that screw-up this brew hit the books up a few OG points over the recipe, but that's fine with me! All's well that ends well!

Cheers!

 

[Wigglebutts Brewery]

Yesterday got me going so I bottled up a couple cases to be exchanged this evening. That process kicked a couple kegs so the IPA and Irish Red Ale have taps. I was filling a pint out of the caskerator which triggered a keg check! Oooops almost out so brewing a Tinker’s Bunny Bitter for the replacement….. never ends

6/2 Follow up: yeast was being a bit lazy so last night threw in the 50ml frozen vial of WLP002…. Lots of action this morning!!

 

[acm28]

Today was the day to prepare my first Imperial Stout, now I have to wait and see what comes out of the fermenter

 

[jerrylotto]

Today was the day to prepare my first Imperial Stout, now I have to wait and see what comes out of the fermenter

Don't judge it right away, big stouts improve with age- especially if you expose them to wood . Either way though it's going to change probably for the better.