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What's fermenting now?

skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
The coffee stout I made previously was probably the best beer i've ever made. I'm brewing that again tomorrow. Kegged, cleaned and prepped tonight.

IPA sample going into the keg - Whirfloc and cold crashing rock. 7% on the nose.



Also kegged a chocolate stout, that one tasted just OK but we'll see after it carbs up.
 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,162
2,686
The bunker at parliament
2 batches of IPA underway, both 23L of the same wort.
Dry hopping one with Citra @ 5g/L & 5g/L zythos.
The other with a dry hopping of 7.5g/L zythos.
OG 1065 trying to target a 7% beer.
Yeast is US04.
 

skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
I brought two 22oz bombers and two 1 liter bottles of a few of my homebrews to a small, local beer snob gathering where they were doing 1-2oz taster pours - this is all that made it back home with me. I guess I'm starting to do something right.

 
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xy9ine

Turbo Monkey
Mar 22, 2004
2,940
353
vancouver eastside
:drool:

Love Citra hops.
haven't tried them yet, but they're all the rage these days, so brewing a zombie dust clone next.

fabricating a coconut chocolate oatmeal milk stout as well; i made a float w/ coconut ice cream in my black xmas imperial stout (w/ coffee & cocoa nib infusions) that was like, so yum; want to replicate the profile. coconut haystack beer.
 

skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
Welp, brewed an amber and what was supposed to be a black IPA today. Took my standard IPA recipe and then guesstimated 4oz Pale Chocolate Malt and 4oz Midnight Wheat to do the trick...not nearly enough Midnight wheat. Looks like i'll end up with a very hoppy high ABV brown-ish-something-or-other. Oh well.



Also due to a lack of planning and pure laziness on my part I didn't make yeast starter and also didn't buy enough dry yeast. Instead, racked the amber onto the English Mild I just kegged (4% nice and light), and the BlackIPA/Brown/Something onto the coffee stout I rebrewed which was fantastic. They're both currently krausening out the blowoff tubes 3 hours later.

And now i'm drinking Lagavulin. Great success.
 

UNHrider

Monkey
Apr 20, 2004
479
2
Epping, NH
Just finished building a fermentation chamber, and have a dunkelweizen bubbling away. Looking forward to moving to all grain for my next brew.
 

skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
I was showing a coworker how easy beersmith was to use and change recipes around on Friday. I obviously forgot about that, because my light, easy drinking 1.045 pale ale just clocked in at og 1.074. :imstupid:
 

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
ha!

I cooked up a scottish beer, went on vacation and came back to find my airlock on the ground and krausen down the side of the carboy.
 

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
pretty long time, I'd reckon.

I used to buy 55 pound sacks of grain and get it crushed for me. I would then slowly use it over time and I never had any issues. I did keep it wrapped up and stuff inside a plastic tote/bin and in a somewhat cool place.
 

bean

Turbo Monkey
Feb 16, 2004
1,335
0
Boulder
A friend just game me some of his old home brew stuff that has been sitting in his garage.

* Glass carboy
* mesh bag
* funnel
* bottle brush (a big one, probably for the carboy)
* capper
* Airlocks
* Stoppers
* Plastic tubing with bug eggs in it

I'm guessing I should just throw out the plastic tubing and get some new clean stuff, maybe the mesh bag also. It also sounds like a bottling wand would be a good idea. And of course I'll need caps for bottles. Anything else I'm missing or that would make life easier?
 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,162
2,686
The bunker at parliament
Not a what "I've got fermenting" post but I figured this was a suitable spot to post this. :D

I just got banned from entering this years National home brew competition.
In a good way I guess?

I am now one of the 3 people organising and running it. :thumb:
It will be held at the annual Beervana beer festival (NZ's biggest and most important beer festival).
Gonna need a drink by the end of this lol ;)
 
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skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
Wanted to try out some different hops. Did a standard mash with 12lb Colorado 2-row, 5oz Acidulated. Split that into three 2.5gal boils trying all with .1oz Magnum FWH, then 15, 10, 5, 0 additions of Glacier, Falconer's and Motueka, each addition split up to hit 45ish IBU's respectively, 1.055 OG, Nottingham yeast split between all of them.

Fermentation fridge is full with a Citra Pale and Dead Guy clone, so I improvised with 2.5 gal water jugs in the mash tun with cool water. I've got 20oz water bottles freezing at the moment to chuck in tomorrow, but the external temp is currently holding at 64*. I'll throw a couple frozen bottles in tomorrow morning (supposed to be mid-80's all week), as long as it stays under 70* i'm psyched.

Tried to float a bucket for blowoff in there but it wasn't happening, so I just added starsan straight to the "cooling" water. If you yank out the spigot, 1/2" OD hose fits in perfectly to the jugs for a blowoff tube.

 
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pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
I dry hopped a pale last week. I should be kegging it soon.

I brewed a smash with 2 row and legacy hops. I've never used legacy so that should be interesting.

I brewed an amber on wednesday.

I need to brew again real soon. kegs are nearly empty...
 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,162
2,686
The bunker at parliament
Not a what "I've got fermenting" post but I figured this was a suitable spot to post this. :D

I just got banned from entering this years National home brew competition.
In a good way I guess?

I am now one of the 3 people organising and running it. :thumb:
It will be held at the annual Beervana beer festival (NZ's biggest and most important beer festival).
Gonna need a drink by the end of this lol ;)
Aaaand entries are open!
http://beervana.co.nz/hbcomp

In other news last Friday I put down a simple pale ale to have on tap at the shop.
34IBU's
14EBC
and 4.6%ABV
1.043 OG
Hopped with Riwaka and Centenial
ferment with US04 is not going well though... had to re pitch after 3 days and it's still pretty suggish at 19degC
 
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skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
If this works half as well as my drunk self thinks it will, i'm gonna be psyched and have doubled my capacity.



Kegged Citra Blone, Maibock, and bottled my hop experiments. Motueka is fuggin killer, but we already knew that.



Bottled off the rest of the Coffee Stout from the keg, then went ahead and brewed it again along with my Citra IPA. I've gotten my process dialed to where I can brew two 5 gallon all grain batches in 6 hours, versus 4 hours for just one. The math works, especially on a Tuesday night (Wednesday morning?)
 

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
what's your process/technique for 2 batches? what system/rig are you using?

Are those 2 gallon jugs for 'no chill' or just make shift carboys?
 

skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
what's your process/technique for 2 batches? what system/rig are you using?

Are those 2 gallon jugs for 'no chill' or just make shift carboys?
It's all about timing, I don't have anything fancy - typical cooler mash tun, Bayou burner and stove. You do need an extra pot or two that can hold additional strike/sparge water. Also, brew your larger grain bill first, the second brew you heat up strike water on the stove.

Start a typical brew. Mash for an hour. With ~10 minutes to go I throw my sparge water in my "HLT" (spare kettle) for the first batch on the Bayou on medium-ish heat depending on how much sparge water there is, by the time i'm done draining the first runnings into the brew kettle that's at 185 at ready to sparge.

Add sparge water to mash 1, stir and start draining. While that's draining, fill HLT with strike water for mash 2. Throw it on the stove (the hot water out of my tap is ~135-140ish). Brew kettle goes on the Bayou on high and I "clean" out the mash tun. Just scoop the grains out, give it all a good rinse and reassemble. I can get that done just before brew 1 starts to boil - add Fermcap and adjust heat/hops as necessary. Once the boil is going on brew 1, strike 2 is typically up to temp on the stove. Dough in on mash 2 with ~40 minutes to go on brew 1.

Now you can rack your full fermenters to kegs, clean those up and sanitize for these batches.

And on and on. Basically you just need to time it so that once you've racked brew 1 into your fermenter you can give the kettle a quick rinse and then start draining mash 2 (or just drain the mash into a bucket/kettle/whatever you have if your timing is way off). I also use the water running through the immersion chiller on brew 1 to fill the HLT for the sparge on mash 2, and then a bucket with PBW for cleaning. That's coming out of there ~150ish, so a couple minutes on the Bayou and we're at 185 for sparge and you didn't waste any water.

By the time the second boil is about done i've got everything else cleaned and put away - all that's left to do is rack to fermenter, clean the kettle and immersion chiller and wipe down the floor.

If i'm by myself I can brew, keg and clean up after 2 batches in 6 hours flat. Not a very relaxing way to brew, but I like staying busy. Just takes a few brews to get the timing and sequences right. It's quite the ballet and doesn't really work if there is anyone else around.

The 2 gallon jugs were makeshift carboys. I did a standard size mash, split it into three kettles and brewed each with different hops. Same yeast. See post #623
 
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pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
great idea using the IC water for mash water.

Mine tastes like the hose it comes out of though.
 

skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
Are you using a standard garden hose? Grab one of the ones for an RV, they shouldn't have any off flavors.

You can also buy a garden hose attachment (i guess you call it) with a barb on the end and just use standard tubing. Make sure it the nice brass one that swivels though, that first IC I made didn't and it was a PITA.

 
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skyst3alth

Monkey
Apr 13, 2004
866
0
Denver, CO
Citra IPA and Coffee Stout on tap, American IPA and Vanilla Bourbon Porter bubblin away. Brewing up a Red IPA and Brown Ale tonight.

Fermenting in kegs worked like a champ, minus slightly lower final product it's well worth the time and hassle saved. And space so now I can have 4 batches fermenting at once

 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,162
2,686
The bunker at parliament
Just kegged my Saison, had to wait a while for the sediment to settle again after the shake that hit just as I was heading home to keg it.
Sigh and then the aftershocks every 5 mins or so for the next hour.
 
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UNHrider

Monkey
Apr 20, 2004
479
2
Epping, NH
brewed my first AG batch Sat, a blonde. Went surprisingly well, and took less time then I was expecting. Very much looking forward to trying this one.
 

UNHrider

Monkey
Apr 20, 2004
479
2
Epping, NH
so im intrigued by kegging. What would a basic two keg setup cost me? provided i could find a small chest freezer or something similar on craigslist?
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
Brew day for my first attempt at using Mosaic and Citra hops. I've had several beers with both hops that I enjoyed a lot, so I put together a recipe and will give it a try.

I've got some Columbus for bittering and Simcoe to help balance out the fruit of the other two.
 

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,520
7,069
Colorado
I've got a Hefe on second stage fermentation. I'm hoping to get a double IPA brewed tomorrow. Once the Hefe is in the keg, I want to start exploring my own brews. Do you guys have any good basic recipie books I can reference?