What's Brewing? January 2017

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With the return of cold weather I'm thinking tomorrow I work from home and brew another spontaneous beer.

I am likely buying a whiskey barrel in the next week or so which will get filled with a big dark beer soon.

Brewing a mixed fermentation saison with meyer lemon this month as well.

Just bottled a mixed fermentation saison with brandy and oak from 2014 a couple days ago. Need to bottle an imperial brown with rye and oak.

Busy January.
 
Packaged 2.5g of clean farmhouse beer brewed with Kveik after 4 days of fermentation. It's only down to 1020 and still seems to be active, but the high finishing is "traditional". I'll keep an eye on the carb levels to be safe.Planning on consuming it over the next week.

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Kveik is a surprisingly clean profile. Very little esters even though I pitched at 95*f.

I added my culture to the other 6.5 gallon carboy. Though the base is pretty enjoyable, I think my culture could really kick it up a notch. I'll wait for it to hit a reasonable gravity and then package in bottles.
 
Brewed a double IPA on Sunday (Citra/Galaxy). Between now and Saturday I need to fill a couple bottles of belgian strong golden for competition, run the rest of my kegs of wee heavy and RIS into bottles for competition/aging, and keg a mild and a belgian strong dark. Then on Saturday I'll be brewing a pale ale. The last batch was decent as an all Mosaic beer, but I'm thinking of going 3:1 Mosaic:Centennial this time to make it a little more interesting.
 
Finishing the hardware build out before I brew again. Wrapping conicals in copper, assembling the glycol reservoir in the cold room, then running the piping to the conicals. Sunday I get my RO tank, then need to figure out how to hook up the RO system to it.

And downsizing my brew cart to a smaller cart. Will have a march pump on it, mill and plate chillers. I think. So a few weekends of building.
 
been slacking for the past couple of months but have some things I NEED to bottle and a beer I need to fruit... gonna use this snow weekend to try to catch up.

things to bottle:
1) 90/10 wheat/marris otter 100% foraged mixed culture ale aged on mangos (2.5lb/gal).
2) house tart ale aged on concord grapes (2.5lb/gal).
3) imp stout 100% fermented with Brett C that has been aging on bourbon soaked oak.
4) "biere de garde" fermented with a abbey sacc strain, fantome sacc isolate and brett anomala, aged on bourbon soaked oak.
5) imp saison fermented on a blend of various sacc saison strains and brett lochristie and aged on wine soaked oak.

things to fruit/adjunct:
1) imp version of house tart ale that will go on cranberries (4lb/gal!) - will bottle half of this sans fruit.

I think I have enough bottles to use.... :rolleyes:
 
Finishing the hardware build out before I brew again. Wrapping conicals in copper, assembling the glycol reservoir in the cold room, then running the piping to the conicals. Sunday I get my RO tank, then need to figure out how to hook up the RO system to it.

And downsizing my brew cart to a smaller cart. Will have a march pump on it, mill and plate chillers. I think. So a few weekends of building.
Mill on a cart with pump and chiller is asking for trouble.
 
Sampling two wild ales from secondary for the first time.

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Golden Wild (left): 9 months old. 2-row, wheat and vienna with wy3787 and SARA, Tilquin, Orval and Jolly Pumpkin dregs. Very lemony with a good brett funk in the nose. Taste is smooth, not very acidic or complex but ok overall.

Lambic Inspired (right): 6 months old. Pils, wheat, flaked wheat with nothing but stepped up Cantillon dregs. Smells like straight up Cantillon. Taste is not great... astringent, some hay, funky, kind of weird and not nearly as good as the aroma. Curious to see where this ends up in 18 months...
 
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Drinking my DIPA. Heaps of Citra, Centennial, Columbus and Apollo (4:3:2:1) and wy1056. I was not expecting this at all but this beer is an absolute ****ing cantaloupe bomb. One of the most melon-y beers I've ever had after Great Notion's Overripe.
 
Also drinking my Adam clone with Macallan and oak. Very very scotchy, gotta love scotch to be in the same room as this beer.

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I brewed an Adambier not long ago. Peat isn't a requirement for such an open ended 'style'. I used Cherrywood smoked malt, but only about 1% of grist. Can hardly tell it's there.

Trying to get more people to brew this to compare. Any chance youD want to swap.bottles?
 
I brewed an Adambier not long ago. Peat isn't a requirement for such an open ended 'style'. I used Cherrywood smoked malt, but only about 1% of grist. Can hardly tell it's there.

Trying to get more people to brew this to compare. Any chance youD want to swap.bottles?

I'm planning on brewing a clone similar to Tonsmeire's recipe within the next month, swapping the peat malt with 2 lb of smoke malt.
 
I'm planning on brewing a clone similar to Tonsmeire's recipe within the next month, swapping the peat malt with 2 lb of smoke malt.
I have 10 gallons lagering. I'm going to split 3 off and add oak and possibly bourbon to it at some point. I'm encouraging guys in my club to do this with the goal of having a blind tasting at the end of 2017. Put 11 months of age on it. If you, or anyone,would like to swap bottles I'd love to have more to try at our big tasting.

My 2nd attempt will have a larger % of Cherrywood smoked malt. My recipe was a blend of Tonsmerires and the Beer Chefs recipe and Maltose Falcons.
 
I brewed an Adambier not long ago. Peat isn't a requirement for such an open ended 'style'. I used Cherrywood smoked malt, but only about 1% of grist. Can hardly tell it's there.

Trying to get more people to brew this to compare. Any chance youD want to swap.bottles?

Awesome, I used this recipe which apparently come from Alan. Peat is noticeable but pleasant at 3%. I only put scotch in a gallon as an experiment. For the rest I added bourbon & apple brandy which I prefer. Overall it came out tasting a lot closer to Adam than I expected and is one of the better strong ales I've brewed. I'd still be curious to try Tonsmeire's Matt recipe.

I'd love to swap but I'm trying to quit shipping beer in 2017, sorry :(.
 
Awesome, I used this recipe which apparently come from Alan. Peat is noticeable but pleasant at 3%. I only put scotch in a gallon as an experiment. For the rest I added bourbon & apple brandy which I prefer. Overall it came out tasting a lot closer to Adam than I expected and is one of the better strong ales I've brewed. I'd still be curious to try Tonsmeire's Matt recipe.

I'd love to swap but I'm trying to quit shipping beer in 2017, sorry :(.
I'll be in PDX in March. Could do IP, 22oz bottle if to like to be part of our mini comp.

Plan is for 6 judges to be served blind, 3.5 oz samples all side by side in Best of Show style. Mini comment sheets for feedback, but not full BJCP reviews. Too time consuming and slow considering there's no real style.
 
I'll be in PDX in March. Could do IP, 22oz bottle if to like to be part of our mini comp.

Plan is for 6 judges to be served blind, 3.5 oz samples all side by side in Best of Show style. Mini comment sheets for feedback, but not full BJCP reviews. Too time consuming and slow considering there's no real style.

Definitely interested then! I only have 12 oz bottles though as long as two of those isn't an issue.
 
Mill on a cart with pump and chiller is asking for trouble.

100. 100. 100.

All these nanos around town make fun and say, "Oh don't let the sour brewer in here." But mill in the same room they ferment in. Okay guy.


Grain dust is tiny and hard AF to clean and harbors all kinds of nasty **** including lacto and clostridium. I always mill outside away from where I'm brewing.
 
I should have elaborated. I have a B3 system with 2 pumps on it. And a 3rd pump mounted to my brew cart. It's a much larger cart that worked well for an old brewing space, but now just moving the hardware to a smaller cart. This pump will be used to transfer water from my RO tank to my sculpture. The 2 plate chillers I rarely use, one is brand new. I use an immersion chiller 90% of the time. These being the smallest I may just find a way to mount them to my brewstand. The mill is already a stand alone unit, but I need the footprint it takes up. Have to maximize garage space.

In thinking about this last night, I have to use sheaves to slow the mill down, and it won't work on the cart. So I need a geared motor and direct spider connection. So that project I've decided to postpone for the moment.

Pretty flexible in how I build things. I'll have the pump finished tonight.
 
^^ Phischy has the coolest garage I've seen in person. If I had a garage like that...I wouldn't even walk in the house.
Thanks. In 13 years of home brewing I'm basically taking the best ideas I've seen in person and in other people's builds online. This is my own little slice of brewing heaven. Helps my wife said yes and my dad did an absolute ton of work. I want to put a couch in there but my wife still has delusions she's going to park her car in my brewery.
 
I plan on brewing something this weekend, what though, i haven't decided. Thoughts on a for the masses brew? (Hosting a diaper party mid-February) I've been debating on "Cream of 3 Crops" from HBT but not sure if I want to go that generic and choke down whatever ends up being left over. (Simple recipe, 2-Row, Flaked Maize and Minute Rice. 4.5% and 16IBU)

Otherwise, I have about 15lbs of hops I should prolly get working on.
 
I plan on brewing something this weekend, what though, i haven't decided. Thoughts on a for the masses brew? (Hosting a diaper party mid-February) I've been debating on "Cream of 3 Crops" from HBT but not sure if I want to go that generic and choke down whatever ends up being left over. (Simple recipe, 2-Row, Flaked Maize and Minute Rice. 4.5% and 16IBU)

Otherwise, I have about 15lbs of hops I should prolly get working on.
That's extremely similar to the grain bill I have been kicking around for a cream ale. I missed the HBT post though. What hops are you going to use? I want something like that as a refreshing evening drink that wont end my night after one.
 
That's extremely similar to the grain bill I have been kicking around for a cream ale. I missed the HBT post though. What hops are you going to use? I want something like that as a refreshing evening drink that wont end my night after one.

I've been meaning to brew one as well. I'm just going to use Centennial since I have already have it.
 
That's extremely similar to the grain bill I have been kicking around for a cream ale. I missed the HBT post though. What hops are you going to use? I want something like that as a refreshing evening drink that wont end my night after one.

The original recipe calls for Crystal and Willamate, but all at 60min. I haven't decided, if it's purely malt forward, whatever I have laying around to get to that 16IBU mark. (Nugget, U.K. Phoenix, or something)

Link for reference: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=66503
 
I plan on brewing something this weekend, what though, i haven't decided. Thoughts on a for the masses brew? (Hosting a diaper party mid-February) I've been debating on "Cream of 3 Crops" from HBT but not sure if I want to go that generic and choke down whatever ends up being left over. (Simple recipe, 2-Row, Flaked Maize and Minute Rice. 4.5% and 16IBU)

Otherwise, I have about 15lbs of hops I should prolly get working on.

Haven't tried the cream ale, but you definitely can't go wrong with the Centennial Blonde. Easiest beer I've ever brewed and biggest crowd pleaser. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42841
 
Keepin cool with my Citra/Equinox NEIPA. First time using Equinox and I have to say I really like it a lot. Pineapple, mango and lime on the nose. Orange, lemon, lime, papaya and that "fleshy" tropical fruit quality. I think Equinox is bringing a lot of citrus to the table, with the lime notes standing out as pretty unique to me.

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Getting busy now ahead of my club's competition in early February. Filled bottles of belgian strong golden, wee heavy, and RIS from kegs last week. Kegged a mild Tuesday night and will keg a quad hopefully tonight, but soon. Brewing a pale ale (mostly Mosaic, with I think a touch of Centennial) on Sunday. Still need to find time/bottles to brew a new batch of lambic, rack some of my old lambic on fruit, and bottle another batch of gueuze as well.
 
Yup. This is why I like our club's competition as far as timing. I typically have about ten entries and it helps me narrow down what my entries for NHC should be.
 
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