Anyone brave/crazy enough to fire up their kettles on this hot weekend?
Brewed yesterday for the first time in a month. A pseudo-clone of Bell’s 2-Hearted Ale is bubbling away in the 1°, (a slurry of US-05 is handling the heavy lifting).
Mostly 2-row, some munich, and a bit of wheat and C-20 to an OG of ~1.070. Decided to try using Columbus for the bittering charge (mostly because I have a bunch in the freezer), and I wanted to save the Centennial additions for later in the boil. Did a 20-min hopstand after flameout (2 oz of whole Centennials) before chilling. The smell from the boil kettle was heavenly.
Next up: a raspberry wheat for our annual Labor Day family get-together next month.
Hop standing now. Had a great efficiency. Hit 1.071, at six gallons. With the sugar addition after a few days fermentation I will be at 1.082 and hopefully finishing around 1.015. 8.8% and 135 ibu’s.
experimenting with sorghum, so have a little quick-drinkin’ belgian baby boiling away right now. more spices than a Julia Childs’ Christmas ham, but what the heck, why not.
Brewed up the Caribou Slobber extract kit Friday night. Had vigorous bubbling in the airlock all day yesterday and slowed quite a bit today. This is only my second 5 gallon brew. I just got a deal on a 6 gallon bucket at the LHBS so I think I’ll put it into the secondary after a week if the SG looks good and let it sit for 2 more weeks.
Earlier in the week I put the old Mr Beer barrel to use and started a hard cider with mulling spices.
I hope it turns out well. I just bottled my first 5 gallon batch last Monday. It is the NB American Wheat to which I added honey, clementine peel, coriander and a sprig of Rosemary. I also made a tincture with a few oz’s of vodka with some more peel & another sprig of rosemary that I added to the bottling bucket. The sample used to check the FG was sublime. I cant wait to try it.
Hopefully in a couple weeks, can throw down a Munch Helles that will be conveniently ready just after I blow through the Oktoberfest and Festbier kegs.
Brewed an oatmeal stout this morning, my first partial mash. It was a lot of fun but my OG was a little low -1.043, supposed to be 1.049. Even added lactose and a bit of extra oats to the deal. OG sample had good flavor, though. Been in fermentor at 64* for about 6 hours, no action yet. Plan on cacao nibs and vanilla beans in secondary. Hope it’s ready by Thanksgiving! :cheers:
I also brewed Caribou Slobber this w/e. I had some solid activity in the airlock after 24 hours but it has since calmed down. I’m leaving it in primary for two week, then move to secondary. I’m going to dry hop with 2oz. of Williamette and .5 oz of Warrior for two weeks before bottling.
I got up early Saturday morning and had a nice quiet brew session where I made 21 gallons of my Two Hearted Ale. I finished by 11 am and pitched a gallon of US-05 slurry scavenged from my primary the night before. I put the fermenters in my beer cellar in swamp coolers as it is too warm to let them go at room temp. They are bubbling nicely at 58-62F.
Brewed a 12 gallon batch of cream ale yesterday. Half got the “no chill” treatment while the other half was chilled as normal. Its amazing how long the wort stays hot if left to cool at room temperature.
dang greg - you’re either starting at 5am or you are much more efficient than me.
I brewed 12G of robust porter, happily fermenting away right now and aside from a slightly lower pH than I wanted (5.35 vs. 5.5) an all in near perfect brewday.
dang greg - you’re either starting at 5am or you are much more efficient than me.
I brewed 12G of robust porter, happily fermenting away right now and aside from a slightly lower pH than I wanted (5.35 vs. 5.5) an all in near perfect brewday.[/quote]I started filling and heating the HLT at 6:30. I make that beer so often that I was on autopilot.
OK, not the weekend, except that I’m taking a vacation this week. Got up at 5am this morning and broke in my new propane burner/7G brewpot combo. No more partial boil batches(or using two 3 G pots to do a full boil). The recipe was Beermuncher’s Centennial blonde except I popped it up to Pale Ale range. Hit my predicted OG dead on(OK, I was 1 point higher). Finished with everything except the cleanup by 11:00. BY then it was wicked hot, so I was glad to be done.
Maxing out the 1/2 bbl mash tun for 14 gallons of RIS. Was supposed to be my 50th batch, but I wanted to make a starter batch to grow some yeast. Voila Fifty One RIS.
Brewed 11gal of Cali Brown for the Brewhemoth. This is my friend’s recipe, has about 12% brown malt and a little carabrown. That brown malt has a great roasty smell!
Just placed my order for all of the ingredients I need to brew Jamil’s American Amber Ale. The order should be at my house in time for a Saturday brew day. A little malt roasty-ness mixed with those clean American cascade, centennial and horizon hops…Mmmmmmmm
