What's Brewing? June 2017 Edition

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doobiegoobie

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Wooooot! Brewing up another batch of a grape in primary mixed ferment beer. Got about 7# of some white grape I can't remember and am brewing up a fairly standard mixed culture saison base for it. Low mash temp, low OG, low IBUs. I'm gonna ferment with k1-v1116 yeast and my house culture. V1116 is a killer strain so it should take care of all the sacc in my house culture and just let the brett and LAB do what they do, so it should be interesting. I'm hoping to blend this with the earlier batch, and maybe put on more grapes when this year's harvest is ready but I'll play that by ear.
 
Drinking my 8th and 9th brews of the same NEIPA recipe with different hops, this time 100% Azacca and 100% Galaxy (other than a touch of Columbus to bitter).

Azacca: Papaya, pineapple, earth, strawberry. Not as bright as Citra or Mosaic, more on the earthy/savory spectrum but with really nice fruit notes. This beer tasted like gasoline (disgusting) after over a week in the keg, but after two weeks it is delicious. Slightly less hazy than average for the recipe.

Galaxy: Aroma is nose in a bag of hops, smells like pungent tropical fruit and candy. Lots of passion fruit, citrus, mango and dank in the flavor. Very sweet. This beer is much hazier than the Azacca version. I like this a little better than Azacca.

Azacca + Galaxy (blended from the taps): Well... let's just say two hops are better than one. I'm getting tons of flavors from both described above, and it is much more balanced and delicious than either hop on its own. My favorite out of the three.
 
Brewing a big imperial stout tomorrow. In order to manage the ~30lb grain bill using my 10 gallon orange cooler mash tun setup, I'm going to split the grain into two 15lb batches and basically brew two simultaneous ~3 gallon batches (boiling down from ~5 gallons in each pot), then sending the whole 6 gallons to the same fermenter.
 
2 sessions Saturday for a total of 30 gallons. I have 24 carting away and a buddy took 6.

10hrs, but I was slowed down by doing some repairs. I had to fix a power cord to a march pump that my psychotic dog chewed through, and the brewing buddy accidentally destroyed a float switch line that I had to re- soder together. I think I can shave at least an hour off the brewday, both were hippy beers with some whirlpooling whi changes also added time.
 
2 sessions Saturday for a total of 30 gallons. I have 24 carting away and a buddy took 6.

10hrs, but I was slowed down by doing some repairs. I had to fix a power cord to a march pump that my psychotic dog chewed through, and the brewing buddy accidentally destroyed a float switch line that I had to re- soder together. I think I can shave at least an hour off the brewday, both were hippy beers with some whirlpooling whi changes also added time.
So i should clean out my growlers and stop by for lots of refills?
 
We need to do another brew day with SirDickButts
and now that im back in a house, i can take the wort home with me this time.
I just got back to brewing and my list is pretty full, this is my first brew day in 2017 and nearly all my beer on tap is old and needs to be dumped. I plan to keep both conical's going at full capacity for awhile. But, I'm totally down for another brewday, probably once the temp drop.
 
I just got back to brewing and my list is pretty full, this is my first brew day in 2017 and nearly all my beer on tap is old and needs to be dumped. I plan to keep both conical's going at full capacity for awhile. But, I'm totally down for another brewday, probably once the temp drop.

So no summer saison brew sessions? :(
 
Local grocery store got in a bunch of red flesh dragonfruit, so I cleaned them out and immediately chopped/froze it all for use in berliners. Here's an idea of what it does color wise: I was drinking a PnB while I was working:

NzcXkoA.jpg


I scooped out some of the leftover juice/guts from each skin shell and tossed them it, stirred, and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Maybe a tablespoon total into an 8 ounce glass. This was the result:

1zjjVBU.jpg


Thinking a dragonfruit-key lime-mango berliner weisse for crazy pink color, that awesome bright key lime acidity, and some sweetness from the mango.
 
Local grocery store got in a bunch of red flesh dragonfruit, so I cleaned them out and immediately chopped/froze it all for use in berliners. Here's an idea of what it does color wise: I was drinking a PnB while I was working:

NzcXkoA.jpg


I scooped out some of the leftover juice/guts from each skin shell and tossed them it, stirred, and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Maybe a tablespoon total into an 8 ounce glass. This was the result:

1zjjVBU.jpg


Thinking a dragonfruit-key lime-mango berliner weisse for crazy pink color, that awesome bright key lime acidity, and some sweetness from the mango.
Yeah dragonfruit by itself is pretty lame, doesn't add much besides the color. You could also add color with hibiscus for a cheaper alternative and add another fruit. Less liquid loss too.
 
Kegging my APA on Friday. Brewing a DIPA on Sat, fermenting that in the conical. Debating a 2nd brew that day, Oude Brun. I really want to get some sours going. Is the entire point of my chest freezer and keeping carboys around.

And the brew day after that may be a lagered Baltic Porter and a Flanders Red.
 
Ordered my grains for tomorrow but I have some questions for the Oude Bruin.

Maybe nanobrew can chime in. Or Snarf or SirDickButts

Just pulling the recipe from Brewing Classic styles as it's my go to for a beer I haven't brewed before. Shooting for the upper end of the style around 1.070, but in reading Milk the Funk and reading American Sour Ales, I adjusted the recipe for 30% unmalted wheat.

It'll be a 12 gallon batch split to 2 carboys. Now I can pitch different bugs.

Question: I plan to use Wyeast or WhiteLabs, depending on what the LHBS has. Ideally I want different things. Is it best to pitch sacc solo first, or just add everything at once? I want a bit more lacto, restrained acetic, and no polyphenols.

Plan is to leave it in carboys for ~2months @65F, then rack to a pin lock keg and move it into my house until it's done...no caring on how long that takes. When it's all done, I have some 3 gallon pin lock kegs I can do blending in.

A week later I will be starting a Flanders Red, same as this, 12 gallons etc...

For both I think Jamil calls for Chico yeast, but should be using a different sacc yeast, or even a blend of yeasts?
 
Ordered my grains for tomorrow but I have some questions for the Oude Bruin.

Maybe nanobrew can chime in. Or Snarf or SirDickButts

Just pulling the recipe from Brewing Classic styles as it's my go to for a beer I haven't brewed before. Shooting for the upper end of the style around 1.070, but in reading Milk the Funk and reading American Sour Ales, I adjusted the recipe for 30% unmalted wheat.

It'll be a 12 gallon batch split to 2 carboys. Now I can pitch different bugs.

Question: I plan to use Wyeast or WhiteLabs, depending on what the LHBS has. Ideally I want different things. Is it best to pitch sacc solo first, or just add everything at once? I want a bit more lacto, restrained acetic, and no polyphenols.

Plan is to leave it in carboys for ~2months @65F, then rack to a pin lock keg and move it into my house until it's done...no caring on how long that takes. When it's all done, I have some 3 gallon pin lock kegs I can do blending in.

A week later I will be starting a Flanders Red, same as this, 12 gallons etc...

For both I think Jamil calls for Chico yeast, but should be using a different sacc yeast, or even a blend of yeasts?



I always pitch the bugs at the same time as the yeast. I would especially do this with a higher abv as waiting until the beer is fermented can create a harsher environment for the bugs.

I also tends to introduce less oxygen in my sour beers than a regular beer. This can help with a cleaner and quicker turn around. But if you don't care about turn around time this shouldn't matter.


P.s. i have no exact measurement of Oxygen, just how much i shake the carboy.
 
I always pitch the bugs at the same time as the yeast. I would especially do this with a higher abv as waiting until the beer is fermented can create a harsher environment for the bugs.

I also tends to introduce less oxygen in my sour beers than a regular beer. This can help with a cleaner and quicker turn around. But if you don't care about turn around time this shouldn't matter.


P.s. i have no exact measurement of Oxygen, just how much i shake the carboy.
I have time to wait. I've wanted to get a sour program going for awhile and now I finally have the time. But I'm constrained by having only 7 pin lock kegs. So I won't hit it with O2 then, and pitch all at once.

Any thoughts on what sacc yeast to pitch, or is it largely irrelevant?

I also expect to have some failures, which is why starting with split batches and using a variety of bugs should help soften that loss for long term beers.

And an entirely different set of fetmentation/cold side for brewing to keep it away from my clean beers.
 
I have time to wait. I've wanted to get a sour program going for awhile and now I finally have the time. But I'm constrained by having only 7 pin lock kegs. So I won't hit it with O2 then, and pitch all at once.

Any thoughts on what sacc yeast to pitch, or is it largely irrelevant?

I also expect to have some failures, which is why starting with split batches and using a variety of bugs should help soften that loss for long term beers.

And an entirely different set of fetmentation/cold side for brewing to keep it away from my clean beers.


I mainly use antwerp yeast for my sours, very clean Belgian yeast.

If this is truly to get your feet wet, I would go with a lower gravity beer, maybe 1.050 to 1.060. Higher ABV sours are much harder and that is where I find more solvent or vinegar type characteristics.
 
I mainly use antwerp yeast for my sours, very clean Belgian yeast.

If this is truly to get your feet wet, I would go with a lower gravity beer, maybe 1.050 to 1.060. Higher ABV sours are much harder and that is where I find more solvent or vinegar type characteristics.
Cool. I can knock .010 points off.

I know there a lot of new labs making bug mixes, but I don't know anything about them. Last intentional sour was an underattenuated beer that I dumped the dregs from 3 supplication bottles. Turned out amazing.
 
Cool. I can knock .010 points off.

I know there a lot of new labs making bug mixes, but I don't know anything about them. Last intentional sour was an underattenuated beer that I dumped the dregs from 3 supplication bottles. Turned out amazing.


I don't have too much experience with lab bugs since in SD we pretty much only have White Labs and I don't like their cultures. I pretty much only build up my own cultures using dregs.
 
I don't have too much experience with lab bugs since in SD we pretty much only have White Labs and I don't like their cultures. I pretty much only build up my own cultures using dregs.
With the split batches I intend to experiment for that very reason knowing I'm going to lose some batches in the R&D process. I'm just too new to have any direct experience with labs and cultures.
 
With the split batches I intend to experiment for that very reason knowing I'm going to lose some batches in the R&D process. I'm just too new to have any direct experience with labs and cultures.

I'm with nano. Pitch wild yeast and sacch (Belgian strain) @ primary, sit back and relax.

can't go wrong with building starters from your favorite sour beer dregs. I have a monster blend of Cantillon, Drie Fonteinen, Blaugies, Van de Korenaar, Jolly Pumpkin, Jester King and Fantôme dregs. It's tart AF.

2vJWyv9.jpg
 
Another 2x 10hr brewday. Knocked out the Oude Bruin 1st. After sleeping in for 2 hrs. Then the DIPA. Last night while milling grains I figured out my efficiency problem. Too much grain (8-10%) is sliding past the rollers on the outside. The hardy board they use has gotten flexible with age, and I see a defect to my hopper.

I just figured it was 8yrs of batch sparging. So...new fix coming this week. I did double crush and I hit my numbers for these 2 brews...but now I can tighten down that variable.

How'd I figure this out? Polycarbonate clear bins, which I hadn't used before, vs the home Depot Homer bucket. And I realized the grain had an uneven distribution of crushed vs not.
 
Brewed up my 2nd attempt at a Sticky Hands clone this weekend. 2 Row, Golden Promise, White Wheat, Carafoam. Trying Conan instead of 1056 this time. Columbus, Centennial, Amarillo, Mosaic & Citra. My hoppiest brew yet at just over 1 lb, and I'm shifting more of the 0 min and whirlpool over to dry hop.
 
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