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Was just curious what folks got going this weekend?
I'm hoping to save my dunkle by repitching. We'll see.
Posted 34 days ago.
Wish I was brewing. It will either be next weekend or two weeks from now.
Posted 34 days ago.
*sigh* Good news is 60's temperature and no snow where I am now. Bad news is that I'm 8100 miles from my brewing equipment....
Posted 34 days ago.
I brewed a belgian golden strong yesterday using The Yeast Bay Dry Belgian Ale yeast, and bottled a gluten free oat saison. The belgian was bubbling in the fermenter in less than six hours. Fastest working pitch to date!
I bought a corona style mill for the GF beer a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday was the first time milling regular grains. Efficiency skyrocketed from my usual 69% to 84%. Even with only 5 pounds of grain, I could've done without all that cranking. I think that I'll be looking into attaching a drill to it.
It was the first time looking at the spec sheet for a grain and making a judgement on its modification and whether a protein rest would be adviseable. It seemed that it was, so I rested at ~130 for about 20 minutes and proceeded to ramp up to 145 for a 40 minute rest (I do BIAB, so I just lit the burner and let it ramp...I have a good false bottom). I wasn't watching things closely enough and the temp was at 157 when I checked it, so I cut the flame and stirred like a madman until my temp dropped to under 150.
Then, I overboiled so my final OG was higher than I wanted.
Ah well, c'est la vie. This just reaffirms my lack of skill of practically applying theory. I always got A's in any theory class, but in the labs my results would always suck and grades would suffer. So long as I didn't kill off all of the beta enzymes I should have still made a good beer! Just a bit stronger (and more mouthfeel?) than planned is all.
Posted 34 days ago.
It's a drinking weekend, not that I am complaining.
I have about 4 kegs just about to kick, and I am sure I will be exhausted by the time they all do so... :)
I need to make room for the now 30 gallons in the pipeline that will need a keg in the next few weeks.
Posted 34 days ago.
dave, depending on the time it took to reach the 157, you are essentially describing a modified Hochkurtz mash... I did a step mash like that on my last tripel - started at 120F (yeah, I know probably not necessary), continuously heated through to 140F for 60 minutes, then up to 164 for 20 minutes. Had an amazing mouthfeel and really great attenuation. Don't count it out.
Posted 34 days ago.
Yeah, I've read about the long and slow ramp mashes! Haven't heard the term Hochkurtz before, so thanks for that. It'll give me something to research. Looking at my notes, I mashed at 130~132 for 28 minutes, then kicked the heat on. I was at 155 11 minutes after that :/ After 8 minutes of stirring I was at 153, then 5 minutes of more stirring I was down to 147.
So, 28min held at 130
+11min Ramp to 155/157 (there were some hot spots, since I wasn't babying it during the ramp up)
+8min cool to 153
+5min cool to 147 (was stirring harder)
+30min hold at "147" (lost a degree or two, I use a towel & sleeping bag to wrap my kettle in)
I definitely won't count it out. Fermentation is kicking along.
In any case - now that I know what to look out for I can approach multi step / ramp mashes a lot better in the future. That's precisely why I small batch brew! I have this huge 20 gallon pot just begging to be used, but I haven't fully nailed anything down yet to warrant its use (close on an IPA/Pale Ale thing).
Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by dave
Mrs. Aardvark has requested a milk stout, so I'm brewing the Triple-X Sweet Stout from the 80 classic styles book.
Posted 34 days ago.
Put the WLP920 into the test tubes tomorrow. Take off the WLP022 to cold crash. Bottle the Bock that made Dopplebock ABV status. Ride a bike for 2-3 hours (allows me to continue drinking beer). Bake 45 bottles in the oven to sterilize them. Continue on my hop sprout vigil. No brew day this weekend.
Posted 34 days ago.
Kegging the brulosophers Best Brown and pulling yeast/trub on the hop back ipa. Keg cleaning and bottling 2 beers, a bochet'd and cider for NHC Round 1.
Posted 34 days ago.
Brew demo with the Guild, mashing in a barrique (225 l oak barrel), boiling in an advanced kettle with a inside cooker with "vulcano". A nice blend of old and new. Just pale malt and EKG, might make a sour of it.
Posted 34 days ago.
First brew will be a variant on my Standard Dark Mild, a Standard Mild....so no chocolate malt, and then later in the day will be a Double IPA with Conan that i ordered a few weeks ago. I have been want to use Bramling Cross for a while so i'm going to mess around with that this time. Anyone have any experience they care to share with that hop?
Posted 34 days ago.
Bramling-X is IMO the most elegant hop, very Art deco/Jugendstiel. It can have a little sharp edge when used for bittering, for late addition and whirlpool, use more.
Ingo
Posted 34 days ago.
Was going to bottle my red. Just realized that I'm out of bottle caps. D'oh!
Posted 34 days ago.
Finally back home from China, I bottled my Wild Mahogany Brown, Red IPA, and Summer Wheat over the last two days. After a run to pick up a bag of 2-row, I hope to brew my Sea Spray Summer Ale today (if the pregnant in the kidding pen allows...).
Posted 34 days ago.
