What's Brewing?: May 2018

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meatst1ck

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Woops, I guess its May now haha... getting us started off with a new thread...

Got my hands on TYB House Sour Blend, ended up tossing in some WY3726 and some 3F/Tilquin dregs all in primary along with it as well, excited to see how this one turns out!
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 3.5 gallons
Boil Size: 5 gallons
Efficiency: 74%

OG: 1.056
IBU: 7.54
SRM: 4.49

FERMENTABLES:
4.29 lb - American - Pilsner (67%)
1.2 lb - American - White Wheat (20%)
0.19 lb - Canadian - Honey Malt (3%)
0.72 lb - Flaked Oats (10%)

HOPS:
0.3 oz - East Kent Goldings, AA: 4.6, 60 min

Infusion Mash @158F for 90 min

YEAST:
WY3726 Farmhouse
TYB House Sour Blend
3F/Tilquin dregs

WATER PROFILE:
Ca2: 53
Mg2: 5
Na: 31
Cl: 99
SO4: 79
mash pH: 5.25

~0.7oz Med Toast French Oak Cubes tossed in

Notes/Thoughts:
-Ended up steeping some additional flaked oats pre-boil at ~170F for a few min for unconverted starches for the brett/bugs, not sure if it really does anything (although I did overshoot my OG goal of 1.050 a bit, so perhaps that played a role lol).

-Started my mash at 157.5F, and 90 min later was sitting at about 150.5F (Kettle wrapped in thick blankets and towels). Curious to see how fermentable the wort ends up being, but I'm glad to see some activity starting only 12 hours later.
 
In my pseudo-lambic grist I'll steep flaked oats in the wort when I'm done lautering and I'll keep them in there until right before it starts to boil. That definitely gets a lot of starch into the wort and you'll end up with some great cooked oats that you can doctor up with some brown sugar and other toppings and have some delicious oatmeal.
 
oh man, i totally wasn't thinking about that!! Next time those oats are definitely becoming a tasty bowl of oatmeal

It didn't occur to me until I was letting the oats to cool off in the mesh bag on the ground and when I went to untie the bag, it broke and I got oats everywhere. I licked some off my fingers while cleaning up and thought they tasted great since there's a bit of wort sweetness they soak up.
 
Notes/Thoughts:
-Ended up steeping some additional flaked oats pre-boil at ~170F for a few min for unconverted starches for the brett/bugs, not sure if it really does anything (although I did overshoot my OG goal of 1.050 a bit, so perhaps that played a role lol).

I've done high percentages of steeped oats and the beers turn out great. I just do it to help mash out go easier. I put the oats in a bag and throw them in the kettle once I start collecting the wort. Then I pull them right before boil.
 
I'm in the process of flavoring some 2 year old golden wild with some Norway Spruce and Oregon Fir tips I foraged. I've read that using them in the boil is the best way to get good character, but since that's not an option in this case, I'm going to try both "dry sprucing" and making a tincture with gin.

0.25oz "dry" Norway Spruce in a gallon of wild ale for a day hasn't added any noticeable character. The spruce gin tincture already tastes pretty awesome though. Fir tincture just tastes like gin. Might also add some citrus zest if I think it needs something else, fingers crossed.
 
Well I'm bummed out, the shop didn't have enough Red X malt for me to make a red IPA today so I had to shift gears. I'm trying my pilsner malt bill for an IPA. I need to check the freezer for what hops I want to use.

Ended up using Motueka and Galaxy hops. #cheaterhops
 
Brewed an English Barleywine this weekend with two minor (or at least I thought they'd be minor) changes to my process. I was tired of stuck sparges with my false bottom, so I employed a fancy-pants brew bag in my mash tun which allowed me to collect way more wort than usual. Additionally, this was my first time recirculating the mash with a pump rather than volurafing manually with a pitcher.

The end result: while I historically have had 60% efficiency with this style I achieved 77%. This means that I way overshot my FG and instead of the 10% ABV I had intended, this thing will be in the 13.5% territory. Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that my 007/1056 combined starter has enough enthusiasm to not stall out before 1.030.
 
Sunday I brewed a simple golden saison of mostly golden promise / CA select with some unmalted wheat, fermenting with WY3711 and WY3724. I'm considering adding honey + lavender (how to add lavender?), gin soaked oak cubes (just for the gin character), or dry hopping it. Yesterday I brewed a hazy IPA using the same hop schedule as Alvarado's contains no juice, fermenting with imperial yeast Juice. Going to dry hop in primary after high krausen, cold crash, then dry hop again in the keg. Both of these are for a friend's wedding on June 2nd so I very little time. Going to use blichmann's quickcarb a day or two before to make sure these are ready to go.
 
I'll be brewing another iteration of my hazy IPA this week. Been experimenting with different adjuncts for mouthfeel. Note to the community, flaked wheat isn't the best choice although not terrible in a pinch.
 
This weekend we are hosting a joint birthday party for my son and daughter, who turn 1 and 3 this month. To serve at the party, I brewed a 10 gallon neipa batch that I split and pitched different yeast blends (tyb hazy daze & 1318). Both batches were hopped with galaxy exclusively... until I realized that I had only bought 1 pound total, so the 2nd dryhop was a mix of mosaic/citra.



I was also very excited to see that stonefruit harvests were starting to make their way to my neck of the woods. I was able to finally get around to putting the finishing touches on a beer 14 months in the making. I brewed a mixed ferm sour with tyb mélange blend and some NG dregs which now has been racked on 6 lbs of apricots, a small amount of gin soaked oak, and a fresh pitch of brett brux. I plan on letting it referment for roughly 8 weeks before I bottle/cork/cap them.



The apicots were halved, about 1/2 the pits were left in for added tannin



A small sample before racking



Up next for me, hopefully in the next week or so:

Another 10 gallon batch of Neipa w/ citra/mosaic/centennial

A 10 gallon batch of turbid mash wort, split beersel brett blend/northeastern abbey blend copitch & Belgian Ardennes/amalgamation blend copitch.
 
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