[-BB-]

Do you guys mill your own grain?

I am thinking that it would be worth it to get a mill and then be able to buy my base grains in bulk. Small initial investment, but overall long term savings.

Oh.. and I got my Keggle built the other day!! Friend of mine had a keg in his garage for about 10 years and let me have it for $20 plus some beer from my first batch. Plan on using it this weekend!!

Was going to do a bastard black IPA.

18lbs 2-row
4lbs Crystal40
2lbs Crystal 10
2lbs Carafa
2lbs Special Roast

2oz Centennial - 60min
2oz Cascade - 45min
2oz Willamette - 25min
2oz Cascade - 0min
2oz Cascade - Dry hop

Whitelabs 001 Cali ale yeast

 

[pnj]

I have a mill. I can buy 2 row in bulk, 40 bucks for 55 pounds. I used to get it milled when I purchased it but now I just mill it myself. It's kind of more of a pain becuase it's more work on my end but, eh.

 

[TN]

does it stink yet?

I just started some Apfelwein thats bubbling away. As my first "brew", looking forward to trying it out in a about a month.

Also got a kit and all the ingredients for an IPA (extract), hoping to brew this weekend. Any tips for a complete newb?

 

[pnj]

ten gallons of amber cooking right now... first ten gallon batch....

 

[-BB-]

I saw that "Apfelwein" email thing come over from Brewtalk and since I was already doing a 10g batch of the Bastard Black IPA, I thought why the heck not... I should also do a batch of this stuff. It ins't like it takes any effort. Buy apple juice, mix in some sugar, then yeast... wait a month and Viola. Hope to be drinking it over thanksgiving (started it on Oct 23rd).

And yes, it did stink for the first few days. Glad I'm fermenting in the garage!

My Bastard Black is just about done "primary".
I had a 1.063 OG... Gravity today is 1.01 on the batch that had the Cali Ale yeast and 1.012 on the batch with the Belgain yeast (Same wort, split in half for two dif yeasts). The Cali ale seems to still be bubbling a bit so we will see what the FG will be. I'm really hoping that the Belgain one ferments a little more as well. Maybe down to a 1.008 FG. If it doesn't budge though, i'll think about adding a little of the Cali batch to it to introduce a new yeast that will kick start the fermentation.

 

[UNHrider]

does it stink yet?

it did for about a week. Glad i had it in the basement. However temps in the basement have fallen to the mid 50's after two weeks of fermentation at about 68* going to try it this weekend and see how it came out.

 

[pnj]

five more gallons of pale ale....

you people are SLACKING.

 

[skyst3alth]

Showing a new brewer the ropes on Sunday. Gotta think about what I want to make up, any suggestions? Maybe a porter or stout for the colder weather.

 

[TN]

five more gallons of pale ale....

you people are SLACKING.

I am back! finally got my kegerator setup. Using the picnic tap for now. I just need one more bit & I can use the faucet on my tap tower.

Kegged a pale ale-ish brew I cooked on labor day. It has a smorgasboard of hops I had in the fridge. It is damn tasty as well. Will be brewing a breakfast stout this weekend.
I will be glad to not be buying beer as much.

 

[pnj]

will be drinking by thanksgiving.....

 

[skyst3alth]

Chocolate stout the guys at the homebrew shop and I conjured up. Brewing tomorrow.

14lbs 2 row
1lb roasted
1/2lb chocolate wheat
1/4lb black
1/2lb crystal 60
1/2lb flaked oats
1/4lb flaked rye

2 oz Nuggets @ boil
1/2 oz Williamette @ 30min
1/2 oz Williamette @ 55 min

Dry English Yeast

 

[binary visions]

Red IPA of my own creation:

6 lbs. pale LME
2.25 lbs. Munich LME

1 lb. Crystal 120L (steeped)
8 oz. Special B (steeped)

Chinook & Amarillo hops. Wyeast American Ale II.

1.068 OG.

 

[TN]

drankin' a pale ale with mostly centennial then a handful of hops that were in my fridge. cooked up a coffee breakfast stout this weekend.

 

[binary visions]

Huh, been almost a week and there are still about 4 inches of krausen on there. Haven't checked the gravity yet but it's clearly still pretty active.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Huh, been almost a week and there are still about 4 inches of krausen on there. Haven't checked the gravity yet but it's clearly still pretty active.

Infection maybe?

 

[binary visions]

I'd tend to doubt it. I'm guessing this batch of yeast is just taking its time - I'm keeping it reasonably cool so it's not surprising that it's extending the fermentation a little longer.

I pitched a pretty good sized starter and worked clean, so it'd be surprising if something else out-competed the yeast. It's not impossible, obviously, but infections are pretty uncommon if you keep your work area sanitized.

I'm not worried - if there's still a bunch of krausen after a couple weeks, well, I'll knock it down myself and see what it tastes like

 

[-BB-]

Chocolate stout the guys at the homebrew shop and I conjured up. Brewing tomorrow.

14lbs 2 row
1lb roasted
1/2lb chocolate wheat
1/4lb black
1/2lb crystal 60
1/2lb flaked oats
1/4lb flaked rye

2 oz Nuggets @ boil
1/2 oz Williamette @ 30min
1/2 oz Williamette @ 55 min

Dry English Yeast

What is the "black" malt you are using? Something like Caraffa? Caraffa II?

 

[-BB-]

Last weekend was a big beer weekend for me. On Saturday I went down to SD again with one of the guys I ride with. We hit up three breweries in one day.

• Green Flash
• Stone
• Iron Fist

There was a tasting event at GreenFlash that was excellent! 10 tastings, a glass and a t-shirt for $40. As we left I was asking my buddy if he was Ok to drive. He said, "No Problem"... Then at the very first light we were making a left hand turn and he drove right over the median. BLAM BLAM.... "Um, are you SURE you are ok to drive?"

Luckily the other two breweries we hit up, we only stopped and got growlers "TO GO"
I was a little disappointed at the Iron Fist one (a Saison using domestic grains) because it was pretty flat. Luckily I have my CO2 system so I force carbonated it and it was very tasty.

On Sunday my buddy came over to my place and we brewed up 10g of Stone Saison Du Buff (from a recipe posted in their "book") and I tried some of my black Ale that I had posted about a few weeks ago. It was great! Hopppy, Malty, nice and balanced... Good stuff.

Also tried a little of the Applewine. Also pretty good! Will go well with Thanksgiving dinner.

 

[BikeGeek]

Chocolate stout the guys at the homebrew shop and I conjured up. Brewing tomorrow.

<snip>

Sounds good

What is the "black" malt you are using? Something like Caraffa? Caraffa II?

Probably something like this

 

[skyst3alth]

Sounds good


Probably something like this

Exactly like that. Great krausen on this brew, I've got high hopes.

 

[pnj]

Shout for stout.

five gallons cooking up today....

 

[TN]

got a recipe PNJ?
would like to see how yours compares to mine.

 

[jonKranked]

growler challenge.

one evening, one growler of porter, one growler of wit, from trap rock brewing.

3 (true) pints deep currently.

 

[pnj]

7 # Crisp Maris Otter
2 # 2 row
8 ounces crystal 90L
13 ounces Roasted Barley
15 ounces Chocolate malt
8 ounces special B
4 ounces midnight wheat

Cluster, Galena and Willamette hops.

not sure on yeast yet...

 

[binary visions]

Fermentation finished - as I suspected, no apparent infection, just a slow process. 1.017 which gives me about a 75% efficiency and a little shy of 7% alcohol. Tasted pretty good even as "green" as it is and with no dry hopping.

3 ounces of green swamp muck are sitting on top of it now

 

[TN]

^sounds good.

Here is my breakfast stout fermenting now @ 60º.
3#DME
5# 2row
1# crystal 120L
3# DME
8 ounces Roasted Barley
8 ounces Chocolate malt
8 ounces de-bittered black
8 ounces oats

Willamette hops.
Wyesat Neo-brittania yeast

 

[skyst3alth]

12lb American 2-Row
1lb Crystal 75
.5lb Premium Pils

1oz Chinook @ boil
1oz Centennial @ 50mins
1oz Cascade @ 50mins

1oz Cascade Dryhop
1oz Centennial Dryhop
1oz Chinook Dryhop

California Ale Yeast

 

[DaveW]

Looks good, No dry hopping though?...... I loves me some aroma hops!

Going to be doing an extract brew on Thursday night for a radio show. The producer is doing a series on homebrewing going from simplest beginner extract kits, to modified extract brews, to a range of all grain brews.

I'll be doing a sort of mutant extract brew.... Haven't made up my mind which yet, it will depend on what I can find ingredients wise.
Option 1
Dark malt extract
Jaggery
Vanilla pod
Coffee beans
Extra bittering hopping with northern brewer maybe??

Option 2
Pale ale!!!!!
Lemongrass
Maybe a bit of ginger
Hopping with Sorachi ace and the new Kohatu hops from Nelson
Tempted to also chuck a bit of Sauvin into it as well but that might just be over kill?

 

[BikeGeek]

Not homebrew, but it's fermenting.
100 bbls of hefeweizen in open fermentation

 

[pnj]

five more gallons into the fermentor.

og=1.062

cluster/willamette hops
2 row, vienna, tiny bit of roasted barley, victory, honey malt.

pitched onto a 1968 cake.

four kegs full...

 

[TN]

drankin my java breakfast stout now....when that is gone I will keg my English Pale Ale that is in the carboy now.

 

[skyst3alth]

Brewed up a Centennial Blonde last week, going for a Dead Guy clone this week.

Drew the short straw to work today, made good use of 8 hours of doubletime - ****in' magnets, how do they work?

 

[skyst3alth]

Brewing today. The Chocolate Stout I made is getting two thumbs up from everyone that's tried it. The IPA i tasted was pretty bomb too, just needs a little while longer to carb up.

7.5 lb American 2-row
1 lb Carapils
1 lb Crystal 75
1 lb Dark Munich

1oz Chinook
1oz Amarillo

Washed 1056 with starter using my fancy new toy above.

 

[pnj]

Kegging that last brew ^ today.

Brewing a BIAB (beer in a bag) brew today. First time doing this. I'm hoping to change up my brewing setup and come up with something that's simple and easy.

this batch is:
10# 2-row
2-3 ounces of willamette
notty or pitching on that yeast cake from the kegged beer....

 

[pnj]

knocked out another five gallons of IPA today.

Think I'm hooked on this BIAB set up. So much easier than setting up/cleaning my mash tun.

 

[skyst3alth]

Did a Breckenridge Avalanche clone for my buddy, new chest freezer and temp controller is working like a champ. Chocolate stout is gone, I think i'm gonna try that one again.

Also, making a 1L starter with the stirplate is getting me airlock activity within 2-4 hours. No complaints there!

 

[-BB-]

I did a little brew session on Sunday as well.

Kind of a belgain golden I guess. My sister gave me a Hefe "Kit" for christmas and I wasn't into the idea of a simple extract batch, so I decided to use the ingredients to integrate into an all grain batch. So all the steps of all-grain with an extra kick.

10# german Pilz malt
4# american 2-row
2# Belgain aromatic
2# Cara-vienna
.5# flaked wheat
1# Acid malt

48hrs before brewing I set up 1.5lbs of 2-row at 160f. When it cooled down to 120 I added in an extra handful of 2-row. Aparently there are some natural brets, yeasts/bacteria and stuff on the grain to start some natural fermentation action. So this was roughly a 4% (of grain bill) sour mash. I kept it in a a pitcher in a cooler stuffed with towels to keep the temp stable. It smelled rank after 48 hours! Awesome!! Added that to my mash tun on brew day.


Then in the boil I added:
3# wheat liquid extract
3# pale malt extract

Hops:
1oz Mt Hood and 2oz EKG at 90 min
2 oz EKG at 15 min
2 tsp moss at 15min
1oz orange peel and corriander at 10 min
1oz Willamette at flame out.


Ended up with about 11 gallons with an OG of 1.082

Pitched using a 20oz starter of Belgain Saison yeast. Whitelab Saison Mix
It was started at 68 degrees, bubbles like crazy within about 16 hours. Turned temp up to 75 after 36hours.

 

[-BB-]

Right now I'm drinking a hoppy dark ale brewed with a belgain abby yeast as well as an exact clone of Stone Saison Du Buff (From a book Stone published).

 

[TN]

I just moved my English Pale to the basement. After I added my dry hops, it started fermenting again. Sorta has me worried about an infection but I think it coulda' got cranked up again cuz the heat was up pretty high for the last few days (cuz it was witch-tit cold) & my carboy hot 67º.
I need to keg it but want to wait until the Krausen falls...again.

 

[TN]

Been doing it this way for about a year now. I need a bigger kettle so I can do AG. I've been having to add 3# of DME to wort to bring the gravity up.

knocked out another five gallons of IPA today.

Think I'm hooked on this BIAB set up. So much easier than setting up/cleaning my mash tun.