Done 10 gals of light lager and 5 gals RIS. Up next is an irish red for St. Patty’s day. That is if it ever gets out of single digit temps. Not so much afraid of the cold as the equipment failure (frozen propane tank, frozen pump).
I feel ya brother. I got a whole bunch of equipment from the wife for xmas and haven’t been able to use any of it yet cause it hasn’t been above freezing yet this month.
I brewed a couple weeks ago, the last time it was like this. Propane tank kept freezing. Then the pump froze. Then the hose froze while I was trying to warm the pump up. Couldn’t recirc through the CFC. Bad brew day…
I might be a March-October kinda guy.
It was 20 below on my only brew day so far this year, so I used a heat diffuser on my kitchen stove.
I was very happy with the brew day… the stove added about an hour of time total, but that wasn’t bad considering I would have been in the garage. Brewing inside was comfortable, but I like the feel of brew in the garage and outside.
I have the Denny’s IPA fermenting right now. I’m transferring it to the secondary this weekend, then I’m going to give that Chipotle Porter a try.
1/3/14 - Dry Irish Stout (5 gallon)
1/17/14 - Dead Ringer IPA (1 gallon)
1/17/14 - Smoked Brown Ale (5 gallon)
Wanted to get the stout brewed fairly early in the year so it could age a bit before St. Patty’s Day. It’s in secondary now, where it will stay until mid-Feb. Other two are still in primary.
Been extra-cold here in Chicago area too, obviously, and this week will be no exception. The one brew day so far had temps in the low 30’s, which made the garage tolerable but surely made the burner/boil work harder. Using the DarkStar on a 10G MegaPot and felt like it took forever to get going due to the cold.
Secondary (6 days in): Caribou Slobber - 5 Gallons, extract
On Deck: Pliny Clone extract kit from MoreBeer, adding Amarillo to the recipe
Hoping to get the Pliny clone into the fermenter before baby #2 arrives!
Was able to get in 10 gallons of my house pale ale and 10 gallons of my house stout on the few days it did get above freezing over the past month. I haven’t been able to brew often enough to keep these two on tap consistently last year so I won’t be splitting my 10 gallon batches into different beers.
My first brew is bottled with two weeks to go yet on carb and condition - Chocolate Milk Stout.
Second brew has just under a week left in the primary and two weeks to go in the secondary before bottling (and yes, I’ve read the reasons to not transfer to a secondary, but I need the yeast cake!). Brewed a modified Dry Irish Stout - added 1.5# of Briess Sparkling Amber DME and added 1# of kiln coffee grain to the steeping. Looked like chocolate syrup when it went into the fermenter.
Third brew is slated for Thursday - another modified Dry Irish Stout. This time I’m just adding 1.5# of Amber DME.
Not really sure where I’m going to go from there yet. At some point this year I’d like to brew a killer IPA (preferably a Dogfishhead 120 minute clone - although that probably has to be done as a full-grain brew). Not really in a position to go full grain yet, maybe later this year. For now I’ll be sticking with extract brews and “kitbashing” them as I see fit…
I brewed an American Stout and a Nut Brown Ale last weekend. Both days were in the 70s in south central Texas, but the Juniper Pollen was outrageously high. The brews went great, but my eyes were watery, my nose was stuffy, and I was sneezing all the time.
Only brewed once so far, but I steped up to 10 gal and split the beer with 2 yeast. One with repitched slurry of us 05 and one with wlp 090 San Diego super yeast, they will probably be really close but I’ve never used 090 so I’m looking forward to trying it.
Only one brew day so far in 2014, a Koelsch on the 4th. Planning to brew a Munich Dunkel and an Octoberfest next weekend.
Winter is a great time to brew outdoors! Temps here have been hovering about 5°F for the past few weeks, but that just means need to prepare for it. Wrap a towel around the propane tank valve, keep the hoses in-doors until they are needed, dress right
1a: Session IPA w/ WLP090 San Diego Super Strain - 1/17/14
1b: Session IPA w/ S04 - 1/17/14
2a: Red Rye Ale w/ WLP001 California Ale 1/25/14
2b: Red Rye Ale w/ Nottingham
Made helles at the beginning of the year. Finding a use for the bitter cold is deeply gratifying. Made a dry irish stout today (15 degrees brewing in my garage). When you lurk as much as I do, it’s easy to forget about the basic beers that always satisfy.
'14 off to a good start.
ESB using the yeast cake off the stout and home grown willamette up next.
I kicked off the year with a 5-gallon batch of starter wort on New Year’s Day. Prepping for a year of heavy brewing!
I scaled back to 3-gallon batches so I could cycle through beer faster, brew more often, and have more variety without having to pound beers and empty kegs. So here’s where I’m at so far:
Mosaic APA - I’ve read mixed reviews of Mosaic, but I really like it. I’ll brew up another and pair it up with another hop. I used the “APA with Caramel” from BCS and it tastes great to me. I wasn’t a big fan of the “APA without Caramel” recipe from BCS.
Munich Helles - just cold crashing now and should be lagering in the keg by the end of the day. Recipe from BCS.
Scottish Heavy 70/-. Another recipe from BCS. I’m doing the one with caramelized first runnings. I brewed the other version with a more complex grain bill and skipping the kettle caramelization a few years ago, and it was good. It will be nice to see how this one turns out.
Next up will be a kolsch, then a batch of IPA (probably Dean Larsen’s Celebration Ale clone), then a Vienna lager. Big plans this year. So far so good! I’m still working through a lot of the recipes in Brewing Classic Styles. I’ve been really happy with the ones I’ve brewed so far - about 18 recipes from that book. :cheers:
