September 2017 brewing

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Beerontwowheels

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Brewed up a milkshake DIPA this past Friday (9/1) so that officially marked a solid 5 months since my last [beer] brew day (a milkshake IPA).

Everything went perfectly... until about 30 minutes after cleaning up I realized I forgot to add the lactose. Dumped it in cold and carried on with my post cleanup beer drinking. 8 lbs of strawberries getting processed (and then frozen) tomorrow and added to primary in a few days. Sipping some Eagle Rare and considering whether to rack over sliced up berries in a 'purged' keg or just pureeing that **** and adding the berry goo to primary... thoughts?
 
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Brewing up my submission for the TB comp. One bag of grain was not enough for a 5 gallon batch. 23.5 lbs of Grain and 7.7 gallons of water will go right to the brim of a 10 gallon orange cooler. I guessed it would reduce my efficiency to 65% and hit my numbers almost perfectly.
 
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Brewing up my submission for the TB comp. One bag of grain was not enough for a 5 gallon batch. 23.5 lbs of Grain and 7.7 gallons of water will go right to the brim of a 10 gallon orange cooler. I guessed it would reduce my efficiency to 65% and hit my numbers almost perfectly.
I have the same cooler and I've done the same on a few batches!
 
Just mashed in on a Robust Porter; smells great! Fermenting with Hansen's.


Also did an abbreviated brewday on Sunday. Local nano is doing a split wort contest- I received 6 gal 1.053 wort w about 10% each wheat, rye, and oats and 5ish ibus.

Brought it home, added 1 gal distilled water to account for boil off, and gave it a 30 min boil w 25 ibus of Czech Saaz followed by 2oz Hallertau Blanc in whirlpool. Pitched 3724 in half the batch and a Brett Saison slurry in the other half. Entry gets submitted 10/23
 
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Pulled some wort from my last two saisons to see how they're doing.

1. Brewed 4/15/17 - This was fermented with dregs that mainly came from >6 SARA bottles, a few HF bottles, and maybe one JK bottle. Mainly Belgian Pils with a touch of white wheat, vienna, acid, and flaked oats. I'm super happy with the way this one tastes, I think it's time to bottle it up! I might blend some of this with the (younger) #2 saison.

2. Brewed 8/11/17 - Fermented with reused yeast from my first saison brewed at the beginning of the year. Still super young, sweet, yeast definitely needs more time, but I like where it's headed.

3. Same wort as #2, just fermented with only Brett C. Surprisingly I'm not a fan of this considering I've really liked a lot of beers fermented with just Brett. Maybe C is my favorite, or it need some accompanying varieties. It could still just be really young as well at only 4 weeks. I'm going to let this sit a little longer.



I'll be bottling the Pineapple and Mango Milkshake IPAs as well tonight, so beer porn later.
 
Tonight decided to push a brew of an Americanized oud bruin to refill my barrel. It will replace the present contents of the barrel in a few weeks. The current barrel beer will age on figs before bottling.

Yesterday I bottled a sour pale ale with raspberries and a golden sour with ground cherries. The ground cherries beer is weird af. The fruit tastes like pineapple, caramel and vanilla. What came back tastes like tomato, white wine and mint in a weird car air freshener/medicinal/menthol way. The smell is still strong in my bottling equipment after a thorough wash. I hope I can bleach out the smell. I'm not sure that beer ever gets consumed but I'm not in such a hurry to empty bottles that I won't hang on to it and see what happens.
 
I'm brewing an English Barleywine with a friend next week... it will be my first attempt at the style. The recipe we're shooting for is roughly 83% Marris Otter, the rest Carafa II & White Wheat, EKG hops targeting 52 IBU's, and a large starter of Wyeast 1968. Any tips/tricks/recommendations for those with experience? Max out the mash tun and a long boil?!?
 
I'm brewing an English Barleywine with a friend next week... it will be my first attempt at the style. The recipe we're shooting for is roughly 83% Marris Otter, the rest Carafa II & White Wheat, EKG hops targeting 52 IBU's, and a large starter of Wyeast 1968. Any tips/tricks/recommendations for those with experience? Max out the mash tun and a long boil?!?
If you'd rather not stand around and wait for a 3-4 hour boil and your mash tun is large enough, just use the first runnings.
 
I'm brewing an English Barleywine with a friend next week... it will be my first attempt at the style. The recipe we're shooting for is roughly 83% Marris Otter, the rest Carafa II & White Wheat, EKG hops targeting 52 IBU's, and a large starter of Wyeast 1968. Any tips/tricks/recommendations for those with experience? Max out the mash tun and a long boil?!?
I don't know if I'd add the wheat personally but I've only brewed barleywine once. Traditionally it's mostly pale malt, a bit of crystal and a long boil.
 
I don't know if I'd add the wheat personally but I've only brewed barleywine once. Traditionally it's mostly pale malt, a bit of crystal and a long boil.

I have no basis for using White Wheat other than that it's listed in the malt bill for Brew 1000, otherwise everywhere I've looked in my research has said the style should be more or less what you said.
 
I have no basis for using White Wheat other than that it's listed in the malt bill for Brew 1000, otherwise everywhere I've looked in my research has said the style should be more or less what you said.
In that case go for it. I'd keep the wheat and Carafa II minimal though, maybe 90% base and the rest specialty.

I aged my barleywine with rum-soaked chips and really enjoyed the result if you're looking to "emulate" barrel-aging.
 
In that case go for it. I'd keep the wheat and Carafa II minimal though, maybe 90% base and the rest specialty.

I aged my barleywine with rum-soaked chips and really enjoyed the result if you're looking to "emulate" barrel-aging.

I'm always weary about using chips or cubes, but i am tinkering with the idea of using them for this Barleywine. Did you boil them before you soaked them to remove excess tannins? When did you add them and for what length?
 
I'm always weary about using chips or cubes, but i am tinkering with the idea of using them for this Barleywine. Did you boil them before you soaked them to remove excess tannins? When did you add them and for what length?
I didn't boil them, added them after primary was done and left them in for maybe 2 months or so before bottling.
 
I'm brewing an English Barleywine with a friend next week... it will be my first attempt at the style. The recipe we're shooting for is roughly 83% Marris Otter, the rest Carafa II & White Wheat, EKG hops targeting 52 IBU's, and a large starter of Wyeast 1968. Any tips/tricks/recommendations for those with experience? Max out the mash tun and a long boil?!?

I don't think the wheat will do much one way or another in that small an amount, don't know that I'd use Carafa II though. 1968 can be tough to get the attenuation you want in a big beer, I'd make sure to add plenty of O2 at pitching, more the next day, make sure the temperature rises up into the low 70s after about 3 days (and stays there a while), and give the yeast a good rousing after 4-5 days. I've been happy doing a co-pitch of 1968 and 1056 to get that English character but also better/easier attenuation (and I still do all those things I mentioned).
 
One thing I've heard talked about and want to try is being called poly-gyling. They were testing it on the brewstrong podcast. Basically you split you mash in two and use you first runnings to mash in the second half of your mash. So say you have a grain bill that is 1.100 but your mash tun can only hold a grain bill of say 1.050. Split your 1.100 grain and mash in and collect your first runnings. Clean out that grain, and use the runnings heated to appropriate strike temp to mash in on the second half of grain. The runnings from that should get you to about 1.100. You then boil down to hit your volume/ starting gravity. The brewstrong guys have done it on a pro system and homebrew scale.
 
One thing I've heard talked about and want to try is being called poly-gyling. They were testing it on the brewstrong podcast. Basically you split you mash in two and use you first runnings to mash in the second half of your mash. So say you have a grain bill that is 1.100 but your mash tun can only hold a grain bill of say 1.050. Split your 1.100 grain and mash in and collect your first runnings. Clean out that grain, and use the runnings heated to appropriate strike temp to mash in on the second half of grain. The runnings from that should get you to about 1.100. You then boil down to hit your volume/ starting gravity. The brewstrong guys have done it on a pro system and homebrew scale.

I've heard this referred to as reiterated mashing as well. Always thought pH would be slightly at of whack on the second mash though!
 
I've wondered about that as well. Though I'm still not focused on my water chemistry as of yet. Still focused on process and fermentation, starting to read a little more on it though so we'll see what happens.
 
First brew day in over a year....now that I'm done school, I plan to brew a lot more! Pumpkin beer...not too late in the season right?!
 
I'm always weary about using chips or cubes, but i am tinkering with the idea of using them for this Barleywine. Did you boil them before you soaked them to remove excess tannins? When did you add them and for what length?

I'm really happy with my last bourbon/oaked imperial stout (after trying a bunch of different ways). I boiled 0.25oz/gal medium toast American oak for 3 min and let it sit in secondary for 8 months, after a month or so in primary, then add bourbon to taste at kegging. I have an English barleywine on oak now too, ready to be kegged once the Stout kicks.
 
Running a double brewday today. About to go start the vorlauf on batch one (top secret as it's for the TB comp), and then once that one is chilling I'll heat up strike water for a pale ale. Hop combo is TBD, but I'm thinking maybe 3:1 Mosaic:Nelson for all my additions.
 


Brewing up my 2nd iteration of my pineapple coconut milkshake IPA. I think I am going to go nuts with the coconut and Pineapple so it doesn't even resemble beer when done.

Been thinking of doing the same thing for a while but I'm so busy currently with the pilot batches I'm making. Need more fermentation space. Report back! (and send samples pls)
 
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