I made NB saison this summer, which turned out alright. My homebrew shop was out of Wyeast Belgian saison yeast and I had to settle for White Labs saison, as well as my pregnant wife wanting to keep the house very cool this summer. Drinkable beer, but next time I’m going to make sure I have my #1 choice of yeast and now have a temp controlled spot in the garage where I can let it ferment warmer
Bottled about 3 weeks ago was NB’s saison noel. I used the farmhouse reserve and kept the fermentation around 83-85 degrees. Tried one 2 weeks after bottling. It was good. I’m interested to see how it tastes in a month or two.
In the fermenter is Belgian golden strong! :cheers:
Lately I’ve been digging low gravity beers. I know, boring right? But I like drinking without necessarily being really drunk all the time so the last two beers have been attempts at session beers. The first was my Americanized session beer which was supposed to be a low gravity APA but I overshot my efficiency and wound up at 5.2% ABV. Oh well right? My one fermenting now is a is a simple English Bitter and I have a bag of grain laying around for a Mild.
Oh yeah, and I just brewed Northern Brewer’s Oud Bruin kit as my second sour beer.
In mid August, I brewed the St. Paul Porter extract kit, and am happily sipping on it these days. I have a winter warmer in secondary that’s getting bottled tomorrow, and I’m starting the Black IPA kit on Friday (I have a starter going on my kitchen counter now). I think I’ll want to choose some quicker, smaller beers for later on just so I can brew more… isn’t that strange? Instead of deciding to brew the most delicious beer I can, I’m basing my decision on how quickly I can move through batches…
Really, though, even though I’m pretty darned new, I can’t wait to start tweaking recipes and coming up with unique beers.
I have found time in the last week and a half to brew three times (it’ll probably never happen again). I also collected extra wort from each of the last 5 batches and combined them all to make 4 gallons of 1.030 beer. I currently have 19 gallons of beer fermenting!
5 gallons of 90 Shilling
5 gallons of Chimera (Evil Twin inspired recipe)
5 gallons of Easy as Pie (Cascade, hop-bursted APA/IPA)
4 gallons of Kitchen Sink (I guess it could be classified as a Mild)
Last weekend I brewed what’s essentially NB’s Dawson’s Kriek kit, except that I’ll be using local cherries instead of the puree. It will be my first sour beer.
I also bottled a batch of the honey weizen kit.
Next up I’m going to try the export porter recipe from the previous issue of Zymurgy. That’s probably not for a couple weeks, though.
I’ve been thinking about that cherry beer. For the longest time, I could only drink those in small amounts, which made 5 gallons seem like more than a little overkill. About a year ago, a friend of mine made a wonderful cherry lambic and I’ll be damned, that might hit the spot every now and then.
I’m on a bit of a high gravity kick at the moment since I have a newborn and am anticipating brewing becoming more difficult over the next couple of years. I’m brewing as much as I can store right now. I like the long shelf life and how they change over time.
Just did my first extract/partial mash in ages. It’s just cheaper to do all grain.
But, this pilsner is supposed to be a good one so I followed directions. I needed something for my non IPA and light beer drinking friends.
[quote=“Beerlord”]Just did my first extract/partial mash in ages. It’s just cheaper to do all grain.
But, this pilsner is supposed to be a good one so I followed directions. I needed something for my non IPA and light beer drinking friends.[/quote]
[quote=“Rookie L A”][quote=“Beerlord”]Just did my first extract/partial mash in ages. It’s just cheaper to do all grain.
But, this pilsner is supposed to be a good one so I followed directions. I needed something for my non IPA and light beer drinking friends.[/quote]
CoCola? [/quote]
Tab. bwahahaha!!
I’m gonna be putting on a home brew class in my town. I was thinking something easy & light for the demo. was thinking Blond Ale. any recipes you guys like?
[quote=“Rookie L A”][quote=“Beerlord”]Just did my first extract/partial mash in ages. It’s just cheaper to do all grain.
But, this pilsner is supposed to be a good one so I followed directions. I needed something for my non IPA and light beer drinking friends.[/quote]
CoCola? [/quote]
My wife doesn’t like my extremely hoppy IPA’s and my dark beers but does sometimes want a ‘girlie’ beer. Other friends aren’t as picky but with 3 kegs in the kegerator, it won’t hurt to give her one for a short while.
Keeps the piece, er, peace, if you know what I mean.
If I buy another carboy for sour beers can I use it for brewing non sour beers? I heard somewhere that its not a good idea to use it for anything else because of the bacteria. If thats true wont want to spoil a good batch in it if thats the case.
Oct. 20th i did Jamil’s Evil Twin. On the 24tha Scottish Wee Heavy. Tomorrow I’m moving the Twin to secondary and brewing a Black IPA
to pour on the Twins yeast cake.
Currently I am brewing a Pumpkin Dunkelweizen. I really wanted to make a pumpkin beer and it’s difficult for me to get ingredients. I had a Dunkel kit so I decided to give it a go.
I took two 16 oz cans of 100% pure pumpkin and baked them @ 350 for an hour and added that to the start of my boil right around 160 degrees.
I then followed the Dunkel recipe for steeping the grains, adding the malts and hopps and in the last 5 mins of the boil I added one teaspoon of pumpkin spices and one teaspoon of vanilla.
The OG went from 1.045 (which was the recipe estimate) to 1.062. It’s a little on the steep side but I like dark heavy beers.
It’s currently only three days in the primary. I’m hoping that it turns out well.
Let us know how it turns out. I might make a pumpkin beer next year.
I have a Whole Foods in my area and they sell unspiced pumpkin puree, which I’ve used in the past to make a pumpkin and red pear ginger soup. Sounds odd, but ends up being kinda like a nice butternut squash soup.
