Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

[icantbejon]

Ferg I'm thinking of going extract + grains at those two parking lot events. Definitely for Winston's, it's just gonna be too complicated & long to mash. I may change my mind for the cluster brew since Bob ought to be well equipped.

I'll be AG for both because I want to get a better handle on a few of my recipes. I'm gonna redo my abbey ale at Winston's and want to roll AG for that. I haven't finalized my decision for the cluster brew, but gonna do my xmas beer there.

[Paulmac]

Can't wait to get everything unpacked so I can start brewing again!

[Salvelinus]

Putting in my order for 6 gallons of fresh pressed cider. Not a big cider fan myself but pals seemed to like it at thanksgiving last year. Decent change of pace, and can't get much easier.

1. Fill carboy with cider
2. Add yeast

[Mikes]

Picked up a lb of 2012 crops:

Belma leaf hops
Cirta leaf hops

from www.hopsdirect.com Pretty good prices imo.

[Salvelinus]

Let us know how that Belma works out. It sounds like it is right up my alley hop wise.

[Mikes]

Well my hops came in and I opened the Belma bag and it was an instant room filling aroma of citrus! I think this is going to be the new hot hops for the up coming year..... My bag was 1.7 oz over a lb ;). Hoping the citra bag will weigh over as well. While splitting up the bag into 4 oz packages the resins just covered the bags and my fingertips.

Here is what I made tonight:

Mini mash 45 min soak
2 1/2 lb 2row
1/2 lb crystal 20l

6 lb extra pale extract

1 oz belma hops 60 min
1 oz belma hops 15 min
1 oz belma hops 5 min

Pitched wlabs californa ale 001

[Salvelinus]

Brewed a brown ale with 2lbs of a friends honey today. Hadn't brewed in what seemed like ages. Nice to get a day in.

[Steve]

Brewed a brown ale with 2lbs of a friends honey today. Hadn't brewed in what seemed like ages. Nice to get a day in.

:dr:dr

Dang, that sounds good! I love fresh honey, and mixing it with a grerat brown ale...wow!

[Salvelinus]

I can only hope so. I came home to yeasty foam pushing through the blowoff tubes from both carboys so it'll at least have booze in it. Should be good paired with turkey and help further induce that early afternoon nap!

[St. Lou Stu]

Have any of you guys qualified for the MCAB finals in May?
A Mini homebrewers herf in Minneapolis would be cool.

[rack04]

Have any of you guys qualified for the MCAB finals in May?
A Mini homebrewers herf in Minneapolis would be cool.

No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[icantbejon]

Got a Xmas ale in the fermentor currently....did a semi-clone of Great Lakes Brew Co. Xmas Ale, which I like a lot. I tweaked it a bit so I'm sure it'll be different, but hopefully close. I'm supposed to be brewing this Sun, but now we have another "perfect storm" apparently going to destroy the East Coast so I don't know if it's going to happen.

[St. Lou Stu]

No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

lol... jackalope. Did you get your new fermentors today? Mine showed up... helluva deal!

Is 635 still all jammed up? You should take than on over to 35 and shoot right up to Minneapolis in May! It can be any more than a two hour drive!:D

[rack04]

lol... jackalope. Did you get your new fermentors today? Mine showed up... helluva deal!

Is 635 still all jammed up? You should take than on over to 35 and shoot right up to Minneapolis in May! It can be any more than a two hour drive!:D

Haven't received the fermenters yet.

Two hour! HA!

[Mikes]

Just thought I would post up my initial findings on the Belma hops. I went from the primary to the keg after 2 weeks in the fermenter @65 deg and can see how these hops compair to citra. They are less in your face and I don't really get the orange taste that is in the description on hops direct website...what I do taste is a nice change of pace citrus based hop that seems to be a bit better at bittering than citra/simco....that pine is there in the finish along with the citrus.

I did float an extra oz of Belma in the keg for a dry hop so that will help amplify this new hops T F S profile. Will post back after it is carbed with more.

Brewing up a Falconers Flight IIPA tonight and a Galaxy Pale Ale tomorrow. ;o)

[St. Lou Stu]

Just thought I would post up my initial findings on the Belma hops. I went from the primary to the keg after 2 weeks in the fermenter @65 deg and can see how these hops compair to citra. They are less in your face and I don't really get the orange taste that is in the description on hops direct website...what I do taste is a nice change of pace citrus based hop that seems to be a bit better at bittering than citra/simco....that pine is there in the finish along with the citrus.

I did float an extra oz of Belma in the keg for a dry hop so that will help amplify this new hops T F S profile. Will post back after it is carbed with more.

Brewing up a Falconers Flight IIPA tonight and a Galaxy Pale Ale tomorrow. ;o)

Falconer's Flight is a great hop.
Belma reminds me of a more tropical/mango citrus Aussie hop.
Both should be good stuff.

[replicant_argent]

Just got back from a run to Northern Brewer for some supplies. 2 batches of Dry Irish, one EPA and one Two Hearted clone with a slight twist are on deck. I suppose if it is a clone with a twist, it isn't a clone at all.

[kaisersozei]

5.5 gallons of Saison du Noel is bubbling away, just added D-90 and 16oz of wildflower honey last night. Smells great, should be ready to drink by Christmas.

Will be bottling up my holiday ale this weekend: an American Imperial Chocolate Cherry Stout, fermented with Duvel's Belgian strong ale yeast that I harvested from a bottle of Blue Mountain Brewery's Dark Hollow.

[cigarmonkel]

I'm hoping someone could help me out! I know nothing about home brewing but my dad keeps expressing interest but won't pull the trigger.. So I'm thinking for xmas I'll give him a little nudge down the slope.

I was just wondering if I were to make him a "starter kit" what are the things I would need? Doesn't have to be anything to make mass amounts all at once or anything like that. Something simple to get him started. Thanks in advance!

[replicant_argent]

Some folks express interest but aren't really interested. There are forums for such things.

[BeerAdvocate]

I'm hoping someone could help me out! I know nothing about home brewing but my dad keeps expressing interest but won't pull the trigger.. So I'm thinking for xmas I'll give him a little nudge down the slope.

I was just wondering if I were to make him a "starter kit" what are the things I would need? Doesn't have to be anything to make mass amounts all at once or anything like that. Something simple to get him started. Thanks in advance!

Northern Brewer now has 1gallon brewing starter kits

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/beer-equipment-starter-kits/1-gallon-small-batch-starter-kit.html

[ashtonlady]

Northern Brewer now has 1gallon brewing starter kits

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/beer-equipment-starter-kits/1-gallon-small-batch-starter-kit.html

I think I could handle it on this scale. :banger

[Salvelinus]

Basement is finally cool enough for lagering! Just put in an order for grains to make a German Pils and a Vienna lager.

[Tristan]

Got a few things going:

Dark American Lager fermenting
Cascadian Dark Ale fermenting

Munich Helles in Lagering Mode
Maibock in Lagering Mode

American Amber carbing in the keg

On Tap:

Extra Pale Ale (OG 1.056, FG 1.008, 75 IBUs)

Sweet Coffee Stout

Cream Ale

German Pils

Aging:

Baltic Porter

Wines:

Cab Sauv and White Zin are in clearning mode

Mead:

Blackberry Mead in aging mode (OG 1.115 FG LOW!)

[rack04]

Brewed a 10.50 gal batch of Tim's Cleveland Steam. Fermenting now at 58 degrees. I pitched at hybrid rates to ensure that the yeast will perform at the low end of the temperature scale. I will probably hold this temp for 10-14 days and then ramp up to 64 for a couple days.

[CigarSquid]

Cooking some Happy Camp Hellesbock from a local store.

[St. Lou Stu]

Got a few things going:

Dark American Lager fermenting
Cascadian Dark Ale fermenting

Munich Helles in Lagering Mode
Maibock in Lagering Mode

American Amber carbing in the keg

On Tap:

Extra Pale Ale (OG 1.056, FG 1.008, 75 IBUs)

Sweet Coffee Stout

Cream Ale

German Pils

Aging:

Baltic Porter

Wines:

Cab Sauv and White Zin are in clearning mode

Mead:

Blackberry Mead in aging mode (OG 1.115 FG LOW!)

Wait... you still get to brew? AND wine AND mead?
Snap, I'm doing something wrong!

Brewed a 10.50 gal batch of Tim's Cleveland Steam. Fermenting now at 58 degrees. I pitched at hybrid rates to ensure that the yeast will perform at the low end of the temperature scale. I will probably hold this temp for 10-14 days and then ramp up to 64 for a couple days.

How's it? Should be close to done, no?

I'm bummed... done brewing for a while.
I've got 3 weeks off work, but our water has turned to ****. River levels are so low that it smells like dirt... even after filtering.

Found out last Saturday that I was named St. Louis Homebrewer of the Year.
Pretty cool, but I have no clue what's going on... I was not able to attend the awards ceremony. :(

[Salvelinus]

Sucks about the water, but congrats on the prize!

[yachties23]

My Fiance got me a home brewing kit from Brooklyn brewing company for xmas, and I'm going to break it out this weekend. I've thumbed through the posts here, and watched all the videos on their site, I'm hoping to turn out some good brew!

[kaisersozei]

Had to start the new year off right, even though the weather was not cooperative for an outdoor brew session. Good thing I cobbled together a 3-tier from scrap back in the fall, for just such an occasion:

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii88/kaisersozei/DBCCEFE9-0EBB-4103-88C8-183BFEE45DF7-50563-00000E7F1386BA44.jpg

I have 5 gallons of "3 Crops, 3 Hops" cream ale bubbling away this morning, hope to be ready in time for the Superbowl

[Salvelinus]

Took advantage of a near 50F day to get some outside brewing time in. 10 gallons of Marzen and 10 gallons of Dunkel into the basement for some lagering.

[CigarSquid]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/niSssEanR/IMAG0474.jpg

Happy Camp Hellesbock. 1 month before I can crack one open.

[hazydat620]

I see Home brewing in my near future, even though I don't really drink.

[CigarSquid]

I don't drink a whole bunch either Chad.. So the 2 cases this makes.. Last me quite a while.

[hazydat620]

I told the old lady about my plan to home brew after we move, she just rolled her eyes
"another one" she say's. Time to start researching.

[yachties23]

Just bottled my first gallon, a smoked wheat ale. Should be ready just in time for the big game.

[hazydat620]

^^^
a smoked wheat ale, sounds tasty, don't think I've ever tried that before. Just read your signature, I don't always drink beer, but when I do its a New Castle.

[kaisersozei]

Anybody manage to get entries registered for this year's National Homebrew Competition? The site was fubar yesterday, but I was successful in submitting entries to the Atlanta regional: a chocolate cherry stout, dark saison, American brown, and an IPA (with a Two Hearted Ale malt base + DFH 90 hopping schedule, currently being dry hopped.)

After last year's judging disaster in Pittsburgh, I swore off the AHA comp, but decided to test my luck in a different region. Maybe I'll at least get some valid feedback this year :sh For $12/entry, I hope so.

[Salvelinus]

A fellow homebrewer sent me the link yesterday. I didn't enter anything though. I wish I had realized that the homebrewers conference was in Philly this year, might have tried to get tickets. Guess I'll save my pennies for Belgium comes to Cooperstown this year.

I'd be interested to hear what the judging disaster was? I had a pal that was very worked up that his beer scored a 38 in our homebrew comp but got a 27 in the NHC.

[kaisersozei]

I had heard lots of negative feedback about the quality of the judging in the Pittsburgh regional last year. My anecdote: I entered 6 beers, a total of 12 judging sheets returned. Less than half of my judges were ranked BJCP. Three of my forms only had scores, without any commentary in the sections to back them up. Two of my beers (completely different categories) were judged by the same 2 individuals: a Novice and a volunteer. Both of their written comments critiquing both beers were almost exactly the same on each of their sheets. This was not what I had ever encountered at NHC, so I was quite disappointed, especially after AHA had jacked the entry fees. So I wasn't upset about the scores themselves, just in the lack of value in the judging.

[ksknnr]

Send a few my way and I will judge them for you :D

Just ordered my first beer making kit last week, looking forward to the weather getting nicer so I can get to it.

[Mikes]

I have been brewing/kegging every weekend for the past 9 weeks ;o). Don't have the clipboard in front of me to tell you exactly what in which order but the stand out of batches would have to be a DFH 90 min clone as well as IIPA I came up with using the Tricerahops grain bill and 8 oz of Belma and Cirta hops. DFH was so good it popped in 3 weeks so I brewed another kit this past weekend. All of this and I still have 4 empty kegs to fill muahahhahahahaha.

[Salvelinus]

Thanks for the details Gerard. Not a good thing to hear.

Ten gallons of a Kern double citra clone and ten gallons of a simcoe IPA into fermenters today.

[Salvelinus]

Used 5 gallons of syrup in a 10 gallon oatmeal stout batch today.

I call it syrup, but it came out of the arch of the system friends evaporate on. It is a little more watery than syrup and darker in color (SG 1.088). Has a strong flavor that should come through in the beer, and it was free. No way I'd dump 5 gallons of syrup in a beer at current prices! Hope it works out.

[Porch Dweller]

I'm a home brewing noob. I just opened my first bottle from my first batch today, an Irish stout. It's tasty but needs more time to develop some more carbonation.

[St. Lou Stu]

Got three going now
5 gal - Belgian Dark Strong (1.100 OG on WLP500)
55 gal - Oud Bruin (1.087 OG primaried on WLP500, now sitting in a Jack Daniels barrel on WLP665)
5 gal - Belgian Dark Strong (1.096 OG on WLP500)

Next week I'll knock out a 10 gallon batch of Classic American Pils.

[The Dakotan]

Got three going now
5 gal - Belgian Dark Strong (1.100 OG on WLP500)
55 gal - Oud Bruin (1.087 OG primaried on WLP500, now sitting in a Jack Daniels barrel on WLP665)
5 gal - Belgian Dark Strong (1.096 OG on WLP500)

Next week I'll knock out a 10 gallon batch of Classic American Pils.

Does everyone know about St. Lou Stu winning a silver medal at the The fifteenth annual Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing Championship event for the 2012 calendar year. Take a look at Category 7 here (http://masterhomebrewer.org/MCAB_XV_winners.htm).

There is a master brewer among us!

[Salvelinus]

Just put 10 gallons of a Hop Rod Rye clone in primary. Sitting on a cake of pacman from a simcoe pale ale. I expect this one to ferment out very quickly.

[Chainsaw13]

Tomorrow we're brewing a all-grain batch of a Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout. Can't wait to try this one.

[cobra03]

Tomorrow we're brewing a all-grain batch of a Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout. Can't wait to try this one.

That sounds very interesting Bob. Keep us posted on how that turns out. As for me it looks like my centennial hops are ready to be picked so as soon as they are dry im looking at working on a nice pale ale.

[replicant_argent]

I have 2 fermenters (IPA and an EPA) both with seeming stuck fermentations.....

[jwoodz777]

10 gallons of Kolshe gonna brew another 10 tomorrow need lots of beer for sharkathonthis year. Plus I have my own personal stash.

[kickerb]

5 gallon batch of American Pale Ale (APA) fermenting away...

http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r605/kickerb/apa-91113_zps8550592a.jpg

[cobra03]

Looks nice Bryan. I have a APA going as well. Tried my hand at wet hopping this time around. Never done it before. Threw in a bunch of Cenntenial hops I grew in my backyard during the boil. Its got atleast a 1 1/2weeks before im ready to bottle. Very interested to see how this one comes out.

[kickerb]

Looks nice Bryan. I have a APA going as well. Tried my hand at wet hopping this time around. Never done it before. Threw in a bunch of Cenntenial hops I grew in my backyard during the boil. Its got atleast a 1 1/2weeks before im ready to bottle. Very interested to see how this one comes out.

Thanks, I'm still pretty new to this home brewing thing.

Yesterday when I got home the fermentation process was slowing down (like it should), but I've got some odd looking stuff sitting on top. It's like whitish chunks. I wasnt sure if that is normal, or a sign on contamination.

Never heard of wet hopping, but I am interesting to hear about your results.

[cobra03]

Thanks, I'm still pretty new to this home brewing thing.

Yesterday when I got home the fermentation process was slowing down (like it should), but I've got some odd looking stuff sitting on top. It's like whitish chunks. I wasnt sure if that is normal, or a sign on contamination.

Never heard of wet hopping, but I am interesting to hear about your results.

It sounds like just a normal part of the krausen (foam from the yeast) but with out seeing it its hard to say but it should be just fine.

[kickerb]

It sounds like just a normal part of the krausen (foam from the yeast) but with out seeing it its hard to say but it should be just fine.Yeah, I think you are right. I checked today and those little clumps have dissipated. I tried to get a picture, but that proved difficult.

[kaisersozei]

Just transferred my experimental small batch "Backyard Brown" into secondary: it's an American brown ale with roasted acorns, rosemary, and wet-hopped with Cascades, all from my backyard.

[cobra03]

Just transferred my experimental small batch "Backyard Brown" into secondary: it's an American brown ale with roasted acorns, rosemary, and wet-hopped with Cascades, all from my backyard.

Damn Gerard that sounds very interesting. Have to let us know how that turnes out.

I got to serve as a judge in a home brew competiton today. Very interesting time. Got a chance to try a few that were absolutly amazing. Wish i could buy them in the store.

[BeerAdvocate]

Brewed an Imperial Pumpkin Ale made with Brown Sugar, Maple Syrup and Dark Rum.
Probably wont be ready until Christmas but I am looking forward to it.

[baust55]

I need to brew before its to cold . I brew all grain usually 10 gal batchs

[cricky101]

I've got 5 gallons of an English bitter in the fermenter. Should be in the keg already but I've been lazy. Hopefully it'll be on the gas this weekend.

[kaisersozei]

A Munich Helles is bubbling away, should be ready on New Year's Day

[Arval512]

Just got into this hobby a couple weeks ago. I did some reading and started my first batch last weekend. I bought an ingredient kit from the local supply store and my first one will be an American wheat ale.

I thought I did enough research, holy ish was I wrong. Every step I took I had a question about that I felt I needed to do more research on.

[BeerAdvocate]

Today I kegged an Amber, transferred my Imperial Pumpkin onto some Kraken rum, and brewed a Nut Brown Ale

[insurgus]

Amber and a Pale. Getting stocked up for spring. :)

[RWhisenand]

We just got 2 five gallon batches into the fermenter, one is a dark brown my wife picked out and the other is an IPA I picked. Hers is fermenting now, mine looks like it's trying, just not going crazy yet.

[gravel]

I bottled a 5 gal batch of coffee stout and a 5 gal batch of an anchor steam clone earlier this week. A 5 gal DIPA is in the primary right now and moving slow. I'll transfer it to secondary in two weeks, ferment for 9 weeks and then dry hop for one week before bottling that batch.

[cobra03]

Just put a Belgian IPA into the fermenter and shes slowly chugging along. my pantry where i keep it smells amazing. I have 2oz of citra that i need to use up so i think im going to dry hop it with them

[JohnnyKay5]

Transfered an Amber Ale yesterday into the secondary with 2 oz. of Cascade

[gravel]

The DIPA has been transferred to secondary to sit another 9 weeks before dry hopping for one week.
The coffee stout and steam clone have been in the bottles for two weeks, time to try them out! :)

[BeerAdvocate]

This weekend I brewed an IPA with Citra & Galaxy hops

[cobra03]

This weekend I brewed an IPA with Citra & Galaxy hops

Nice, let me know how that comes out. I have a IPA on deck that i want to dry hop with Galaxy.

Right now im between beers. I have a belgian IPA dry hopped with citra bottle conditioning and Im waiting on the ingredients for a Blackberry Wheat.

[BeerAdvocate]

I want to do a Belgian IPA next. Care to share your recipe?

[cobra03]

I want to do a Belgian IPA next. Care to share your recipe?
Certainly:
Ingredients : 8 lb. Belgian Pilsner malt, 1.5 lb. Wheat malt, 8 oz. Cara-20, 4 oz. Acidulated malt, 1 lb. Clear Candi Sugar, 2 oz. Sterling, 3 oz. Ahtanum pellet hops, 2oz. citra hops, Wyeast 3724 Saison yeast.

Used a standard single infusion mash at about 150-155.
Boil: 1.5 oz. sterling @ 60 mins, .5oz sterling 20mins, 1oz ahtanum & belgian candy sugar 15min, 1oz ahtanum 10 mins, 1oz antanum 5 min.

Dry hopped with 2 oz citra for 7 days.

My OG was about 1.066 and FG came in at 1.017. Came out really nice. Just cracked the first bottle last night. The citra added a really nice citrus note to it. Goes nicely with the fruity saison yeast.

[cobra03]

Just bottled a blackberry wheat beer. Let the wife pick this one out and she helped me brew it. It overwhelmed the air lock and exploded all over my pantry on day 2 of fermentation. Used an American Hefe base put over 3lbs of mashed blackberry in the secondary for 2 weeks. No flavoring added. We shall see how it turned out in a couple of weeks.

[cricky101]

I've got a kolsch in the fermenter right now. Should be ready for a keg this weekend. I've got ingredients for a late-hop pale ale, oatmeal stout and hefeweizen, but need more time to get some brewing done.

[James2014]

Right now fermenting my "Black IPA" with cascase and frugel Hops that have grown for a few years. CANT WAIT!! Also have a "Smoked Porter" Fermenting as well. It will be a good few months!!

[Porch Dweller]

An Irish stout.

[baust55]

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[cricky101]

Brewed a hefeweizen this weekend and it got a little explosive. Caught it before the pail lid blew off, but made a bit of a mess already.

[cobra03]

Brewed a hefeweizen this weekend and it got a little explosive. Caught it before the pail lid blew off, but made a bit of a mess already.

I brewed an american hefe a few months back and it exploded in my pantry. Got krausen all over the ceiling, doors and walls. Sealed it back up and it keep right on going. On the other hand im fermenting a petit saison using White labs farmhouse ale yeast. Its a saison/brett combo.I dont think ive seen a single bubble in the airlock but its now down under 1009. Its amazing the difference in the yeast strain.

[jhedrick83]

Looking for a bit of advice here. I've been wanting to get into home brewing for a couple of years and I'm hoping start of next year I'll start to have some time to dive in. My question is what level of starter kit should I go with? A simple Mr. Beer, your basic 5 gal. Starter kit or a step up with a 2 stages of fermenting carboys? Do I need a wort chiller or am I good without to start? If it matters I usually drink (and would most likely be making) Porters, Stouts, Irish Reds and the occasional IPA. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

[Porch Dweller]

Just bottled a Porter. It's my first time doing that style. Now the hard part, waiting...

[badbriar]

Looking for a bit of advice here. I've been wanting to get into home brewing for a couple of years and I'm hoping start of next year I'll start to have some time to dive in. My question is what level of starter kit should I go with? A simple Mr. Beer, your basic 5 gal. Starter kit or a step up with a 2 stages of fermenting carboys? Do I need a wort chiller or am I good without to start? If it matters I usually drink (and would most likely be making) Porters, Stouts, Irish Reds and the occasional IPA. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Go with simple, quality materials and equipment. You can start with fermenting in a closed bucket to start with. Eventually, you definitely want to move to fermenting in a glass carboy. difference is that in the bucket, you will not be able to blow-off the fusel oils, which is the byproduct of fermentation. In a closed carboy system, you will blow-off this byproduct, which results in a cleaner tasting beer. Read up on this.
A very important thing to remember when steeping grains is the temperature of the water. The water temperature needs to be no more than 150 to 160 degrees. If you steep above that, you will likely get a bitter note to your beer from tannins leaching from the grain husks.
Another good tip is to look into Wyeast liquid yeast packages. Great stuff! You can make the exact same batch with a different yeast strain and get a very different style beer/ale.
Read up on your hops and their IBU's. Some hops like Cascade and Perle are very bitter and can result in overtopping what otherwise would be a great porter, stout or brown ale. The Noble hops are good ones to start with. Very forgiving, lower in bitterness, can be used for bittering or finish hopping. Great favors, too!
Good luck!

[Gabe215]

Argentinian Malbec w/ grape skins (WinExpert kit)

[bkv04fsu]

Coffee Porter, Strawberry Blonde, Cookie Monster Stout, & a Hoppy Amber

[stearns]

I forgot all about this thread. I've been getting more and more into homebrewing recently, and have just started all-grain and making/modifying recipes. Currently in the fermenter (brewed last weekend) is an imperial amber, similar to troegs nugget nectar. I also have some double ipa's, similar to lagunita maximus ipa, that were bottled a few weeks ago and are ready to be tested. This one I split into two fermenters and did slightly different dry hopping to try to see what the noticeable difference is. I'm still experimenting around but it's been a lot of fun so far, hopefully we can get a little more movement in this thread, I'm always interested in learning more :tu

[bkv04fsu]

I forgot all about this thread. I've been getting more and more into homebrewing recently, and have just started all-grain and making/modifying recipes. Currently in the fermenter (brewed last weekend) is an imperial amber, similar to troegs nugget nectar. I also have some double ipa's, similar to lagunita maximus ipa, that were bottled a few weeks ago and are ready to be tested. This one I split into two fermenters and did slightly different dry hopping to try to see what the noticeable difference is. I'm still experimenting around but it's been a lot of fun so far, hopefully we can get a little more movement in this thread, I'm always interested in learning more :tu

Nice! Yeah, I moved to all grain about a year ago and have never looked back.

[stearns]

I was trying to baby step my way into it, learn one thing really well before moving on to the next. I'm still using my friend's setup for the actual brewing, which he has been piecing together. I keep a lot of good ideas in the back of my mind to make some cool stuff when I end up taking the plunge and building my own setup. For now I live in an apartment with little free space and he has a house a mile away, so I'm fine just using his stuff :D

[bkv04fsu]

I was trying to baby step my way into it, learn one thing really well before moving on to the next. I'm still using my friend's setup for the actual brewing, which he has been piecing together. I keep a lot of good ideas in the back of my mind to make some cool stuff when I end up taking the plunge and building my own setup. For now I live in an apartment with little free space and he has a house a mile away, so I'm fine just using his stuff :D

I hear ya. I used to brew in an apartment. Now I have a garage and I have a electric HERMS system using keggles. Love this system.

[Chainsaw13]

After helping my friend with a couple of 10 gal all grain batches, I've decided to get back into the hobby. I used to do partial grain years ago. Picked up a pico kit yesterday at the lhbs. Does 1 gal batches, which is perfect for me as I don't really drink more than 3 bottles in a week. Plus it will let me try some really experimental stuff, without making such large batches in case I have to pitch it. I plan on doing a brew in a bag (biab) setup, using a grain bag in the brew pot. That way I have one vessel for mashing, sparging and the boil.

First up I think is a Mexican Chocolate Stout.

[stearns]

Nice, definitely let us know the results.

I did a small (~2gal) batch of a Jade IPA clone when I first started on all-grain in case it got screwed up, came out as one of the best I've made. After wishing there was more I decided I can't do small batches any more :D

[Genetic Defect]

Scotch ale

[Chainsaw13]

Scotch ale

:tu

Just finished the boil of a Thanksgiving Cranberry Wheat. Currently cooling before pitching the yeast. My Mexican Chocolate Milk Stout is bubbling away nicely.

[Chainsaw13]

Racked the stout into the secondary. FG was a bit high at 1.021, likely due to the too high of mash temps. Sample in the hygrometer tasted good though. :D

Gonna be chocolatety. Made a "tea" of 1C water, boiled then cooled to 180F, added and ounce of cacao powder, 1/4tsp cinnamon and an ancho chile. Steeped for 20 mins then filtered. Only got 1/2C of tea. Added that to the secondary with another half ounce cacao nibs, another ancho chile and 1/8tsp cinnamon. I'll bottle in two weeks.

Tomorrow is another brew day. My Xmas ale, a carrot cake dessert ale.

Also picked up the cranberries for the wheat, which I'll rack tomorrow into a secondary.

[stearns]

Sounds good Bob :tu

I brewed up what will become a vanilla oatmeal porter on Sunday, I used 1lb of oatmeal for a 5gal batch (approx. 16lb total of grains), I like my stuff really oatmeally so I'm guess that it wasn't enough, but I think it will be a good base to judge for future oatmeal porters. I plan on putting 5 split vanilla beans I the fermenter about a week out from bottling. This is my first time making an all-grain porter, but I did a partial mash a while back that used that many vanilla beans, I'm gonna use that as my guide and hopefully use the results to be able to fine-tune for future batches. This is one of my favorite style of beer, so if I can get it down I see many batches in my future :al

[Chainsaw13]

Just bottled my first two batches, the Mexi-stout and cranberry wheat. If the conditioned bottles taste anywhere near as good as the samples, both are winners.

[MarkinAZ]

Also picked up the cranberries for the wheat, which I'll rack tomorrow into a secondary.

That sounds delicious Bob. The yeast that you're using for the wheat brew, is compatible with the cranberries? Just thinking of balance with the cranberries being a smidge more noticeable than the wheat.

Give us a report after it bottle conditions:tu

[Chainsaw13]

That sounds delicious Bob. The yeast that you're using for the wheat brew, is compatible with the cranberries? Just thinking of balance with the cranberries being a smidge more noticeable than the wheat.

Give us a report after it bottle conditions:tu

I used Safale US-05, a dry yeast. It's supposed to be very clean/crisp which is what I was wanting since I knew I'd be adding adjuncts.

[MarkinAZ]

I used Safale US-05, a dry yeast. It's supposed to be very clean/crisp which is what I was wanting since I knew I'd be adding adjuncts.

...:tu

[Chainsaw13]

Bottled my Xmas Carrot Cake Ale this evening. Not a bad first attempt. Tasted the sample in the hygrometer flask. Needed more vanilla. Still pretty happy with it.

Next up to brew is a Fluffer Nutter Porter.

[stearns]

Started pouring my attempt at a two hearted clone, filled up a growler going out of town last weekend and it is a little hoppier than the original, I did use a little bit more hops than the recipe I was basing off of but that's just because I thought it was low from the start. gonna call his one a Two Hearted IPA :D

Also a week or two out from my vanilla oatmeal porter being ready to drink, bottled it last week. Very excited about this one, ABV only around 6.2% but I think it's going to be very tasty. If it does work out I'm going to try to use the same base recipe but make it some sort of coffee porter, since that's possibly my favorite style of beer. Anybody have any experience making a coffee porter or stout?

Next up on the chopping block is a Jade IPA redux, I made this as my first all-grain brew at the start of he year in a small batch and it was really good, I think now that I have 6-7 runs done and almost know what I'm doing, a full run of the Jade is necessary. Oddly it doesn't use a lot of Jade hops, but it is very tasty :tu

[Chainsaw13]

Brewed my Fluffer Nutter Porter this evening. Did a double mill of my grains. Bumped my efficiency up just over 80%. :tu

OG into fermentor was 1.072. I hope my yeast (WLP013) can handle it. If need be, I'll pitch another pack. Or maybe the bit of dry Safale yeast I have in the freezer.

[Chainsaw13]

Sampling my first two batches, after about two weeks of bottle conditioning.

Mexi-chocolate milk stout - meh. Hoping more time might help. I went with low priming in the bottle, but there was no carbonation in this bottle. Got a bit of a "phfst" when I cracked the cap, but nothing in the glass. Very little of the cinnamon or chile flavor. Just a weird tasting milk stout.

Thanksgiving Cranberry Wheat - Wow! Better carbonation, but a citrus flavor bomb. Tart from the cranberries, sweet from the apple, big time orange flavor. I used more priming tabs in these bottles and it showed on the pour, but it' dissipates quickly. Hmm... Can't wait to try this in another week or two.

[stearns]

those sound very interesting Bob, I still need to get a good understanding of carbonation. I've been trying out bottling vs. keg but not consistently, this next batch I'm doing half in bottles and half force carbonation through a keg, I'm excited to do a side-by-side. I've only had one brew that was too carbonated, it was an amber that would overflow when you open it and give mostly foam when it's poured, but it still tasted fine.

Brewed up a redux of the Jade IPA, the first all-grain brew I did, which was on a pretty small scale. This time went ended with about 5.5gal, around what I normally do. It will probably be right around 5gal when the fermenting and filtering is done. I screwed up the hops, only got half as much Jade as I really needed and used centennial instead of cascade, but it's still got 9oz total after dry hopping so I think I'll be ok. The centennial vs. cascade could be an interesting twist, but it's mostly citra and jade so I don't think it's going to be too noticeable

[Chainsaw13]

When I was brewing before, I had switched to egging. Now that I'm back in the game, but doing really small batches, it doesn't make sense to keg. I'm using priming tabs. Basically sugar tablets. Supposed to use between 3-5 for differing carb levels. I did 3 in this stout, 4 in the wheat.

Just cracked open bottles of each again, after a couple more weeks of conditioning. Wow, time does make a difference. The wheat is still right on point. Maybe tone down the orange in the secondary on the next batch. But the stout is shaping up nicely. Still no head retention, most likely due to the cocoa fat from my first cacao addition. Oh well, next time I'll fix that. But the hop flavor has subsided to let the chocolate and chili flavore to come thru. I'm liking it now.

[stearns]

Hmm.. I've never used priming tabs, I always just make some simple sugar using priming sugar and water then add the whole thing into the batch after fermentation right before bottling. I think the package we use is 5oz, and I always do the same amount. I guess that's the next thing I need to look into, and how it effects the ending carbonation. Is it a one tab per bottle type of thing?

[Chainsaw13]

Hmm.. I've never used priming tabs, I always just make some simple sugar using priming sugar and water then add the whole thing into the batch after fermentation right before bottling. I think the package we use is 5oz, and I always do the same amount. I guess that's the next thing I need to look into, and how it effects the ending carbonation. Is it a one tab per bottle type of thing?

I'm using the type that are 3-5 per bottle. They're about the size of a aspirin.

[stearns]

Ah I misread, thought you meant there were different "strength" tablets, not that you use a different amount of them :fp

[Chainsaw13]

Ah I misread, thought you meant there were different "strength" tablets, not that you use a different amount of them :fp

No worries. My LHBS has the other types of tablets, where's it's one big honkin' tablet for each bottle. With that, you're stuck with one level of carbonation. These smaller tablets allow you to customize based on the style of beer.

[Chainsaw13]

Brewed my latest batch this morning, a maple pecan brown. Just aerated and pitched the yeast. If the taste from the hygrometer is any indication of how this one will taste, we have a winner. And I haven't even added the maple syrup yet. That's for the secondary.

[Chainsaw13]

Intersting. An hour after pitching the yeast, I already had a bubble in the airlock. It's 3.5 hours later and it's picking up frequency. :D

[stearns]

Did some beering yesterday. Bottled my Jade IPA (did half in bottles and half in a keg to force carbonate, I'll see how that holds up in a side by side). I also brewed up some White IPA, pretty similar to a basic IPA but with a lot more wheat in the grains. Everything looked fine, although it calls for lemon grass and sage with the dry hops. I don't know if I want to go down that road, I might keep it as-is, but I'll sleep on it a little and see how I feel.

[Chainsaw13]

White IPA? Interesting. Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

[stearns]

The recipe I used was similar to this. (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=315024) The main differences were that I didn't use any sugar in the brewing process (don't know what the purpose of that is unless you were trying to boost abv), and I used a heffeweizen yeast instead of the one listed there. Other than that it was mainly halving the recipe to make 5gal and some minor adjustments on the hops to make it fit better to what I had and needed. I have absolutely no idea how it's going to turn out, but it should be interesting.

[Chainsaw13]

So planning my next brew. Was thinking either a porter or stout. Probably a stout since I just drank the last of my Mexi-chocolate stout. Just bottled my maple pecan brown on Sunday. Used maple syrup as the priming sugar. I hope the flavor carries through, although. I don't think it'll be a big flavor. Only used ~1.5 oz for the 1.5 gallons. Still a great pecan flavor.

[stearns]

Interesting, so no traditional priming sugar at all, just the maple syrup?

I just dry hopped the white IPA today, put in 50g of lemon grass and 1g of fresh sage. I'm not sure how the sage will infuse (it was only a few leaves) but the lemon grass should give it a light kick that I think will complement the heffeweisen/wheat style. Another few weeks and I'll report back with the results

[Chainsaw13]

Interesting, so no traditional priming sugar at all, just the maple syrup?

I just dry hopped the white IPA today, put in 50g of lemon grass and 1g of fresh sage. I'm not sure how the sage will infuse (it was only a few leaves) but the lemon grass should give it a light kick that I think will complement the heffeweisen/wheat style. Another few weeks and I'll report back with the results

Correct. Based on everything I read, it's 70% fermentable, compared to table sugar at 100%. So a little more is used. Northern Brewer has a nice calculator to figure it all out. I just hope my redneck fermentation setup carbs the bottles better this time. Using a seedling mat inside a plastic tote. Bottles are then placed inside there, with the top put on the tote. Seems to be holding around 64-66°F.

[Chainsaw13]

Drank the last of my 12oz Xmas Carrot Cake Ales. Finally starting to get some carbonation. These I didn't put in the tote. Tastes great though. I have 4-5 more 22oz bottles left.

[Chainsaw13]

Brewed a milk stout today. I'm dialed in on efficiency with the brew in a bag setup. Hit 82% this batch (80% on the last two). Now I just need to get my volumes right. Had to boil it down to get to my batch size for the fermentor. Over shot the OG by 5 points. :D Pitched some extra S-04 to make sure there was enough yeast in the batch. Used Wyeast 1084 as the main yeast. Going to be interesting how the two ferment it out.

[Chainsaw13]

Bubbling away. :tu

[8zeros]

I got a kit for Christmas. A one gallon sized oatmeal stout brew.
This ain't another one of those "slippery slopes" is it?
I want to brew a German bock or doppelbock since they have become scarce after the ale craze that's seem to taken hold.
I haven't found the time to start my brew yet. It's tough for me, I have to spend most of my time making a living, the rest of the time I have to fix things.

[Chainsaw13]

I got a kit for Christmas. A one gallon sized oatmeal stout brew.
This ain't another one of those "slippery slopes" is it?
I want to brew a German bock or doppelbock since they have become scarce after the ale craze that's seem to taken hold.
I haven't found the time to start my brew yet. It's tough for me, I have to spend most of my time making a living, the rest of the time I have to fix things.

It can be, if you decide you need all the big, fancy gadgets to brew. But you'd be amazed at what you can do with the 1 gallon kit.

A bock or dopplebock might be hard to do without specialized equipment. Being a lager, it needs to ferment at lower temps (50F). You might be able to get away with it in a cold basement this time of year.

[8zeros]

It can be, if you decide you need all the big, fancy gadgets to brew. But you'd be amazed at what you can do with the 1 gallon kit.

A bock or dopplebock might be hard to do without specialized equipment. Being a lager, it needs to ferment at lower temps (50F). You might be able to get away with it in a cold basement this time of year.

OK, I've got some learnin' to do. Must be why it's known as a winter beer.

[stearns]

There's no end to the learning Roger, I'm a relative newbie as well but I've fallen into it pretty hard. Lagers are definitely tricky with the temp control, I haven't ventured down that path yet although I've been tempted.

I brewed up a batch of black IPA yesterday, or "Dark Side IPA" as I'm going to call it. While making my recipe I ran across he debate between black IPA and hoppy stout. it was an interesting topic, but it basically comes down to brewers choice for naming. This was a pretty basic IPA recipe (although I think I got overly complicated with the five types of hops), but with about 5-6% weyermann carafe III special in the grain bill. This stuff had a really interesting small, almost like a caramel popcorn, although after sparging I swear the whole thing smelled like sesame oil. The beer in the fermenter looks lie chocolate milk, but I'm trying to get the texture down to the thinner side. Really looking forward to this guy being ready :dr

Thinking about using this design for the cap:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1350356318_dark_side.png

[BigBruce]

I got a kit for Christmas. A one gallon sized oatmeal stout brew.
This ain't another one of those "slippery slopes" is it?
I want to brew a German bock or doppelbock since they have become scarce after the ale craze that's seem to taken hold.
I haven't found the time to start my brew yet. It's tough for me, I have to spend most of my time making a living, the rest of the time I have to fix things.

Sweet mother of god! If you have not started yet do not do it. I just brewed my first batch and of course I just moved back from Germany so guess what I want to brew. So I've started looking at online brew forums and have seen all kinds of cool stuff. Primary fermentatiors, keezers, and other cool man stuff. So now my wife is mad I'm spending money on a new hobby. So when I look at all this stuff on my iPad I have to hide like I'm looking at ****. If this sounds like the life you want to live than brew up your first bag. Prost!!!

[8zeros]

Sweet mother of god! If you have not started yet do not do it. I just brewed my first batch and of course I just moved back from Germany so guess what I want to brew. So I've started looking at online brew forums and have seen all kinds of cool stuff. Primary fermentatiors, keezers, and other cool man stuff. So now my wife is mad I'm spending money on a new hobby. So when I look at all this stuff on my iPad I have to hide like I'm looking at ****. If this sounds like the life you want to live than brew up your first bag. Prost!!!
I haven't even had the time to brew up the kit and I already had a few hundred dollers of equipment earmarked online. I am ready to get a swapmeet fridge for lagering. Checking out where to get the best deal on grist, etc. ...
My wife would be like "What are you doing? I thought you had to order some parts to fix the gear, are you through with the customer's project, the car isn't fixed yet, the garage is a mess, where you gonna put that,...,...,...,...?!"
OW! Make you want to drink beer.

[stearns]

I haven't even had the time to brew up the kit and I already had a few hundred dollers of equipment earmarked online. I am ready to get a swapmeet fridge for lagering. Checking out where to get the best deal on grist, etc. ...
My wife would be like "What are you doing? I thought you had to order some parts to fix the gear, are you through with the customer's project, the car isn't fixed yet, the garage is a mess, where you gonna put that,...,...,...,...?!"
OW! Make you want to drink beer.

And thus we come full circle :D

[stearns]

The black IPA was ready to try this weekend, I think it's up there with the best I've made, but it was a little too hoppy. The color was as black as it can get, held it up to a light in a clear glass and could barely see through it. I will definitely be making this again with taking about an ounce of hops out (I think I had 5-6oz for a 5gal batch but I need to check what I ended at with the recipe).

I made an attempt at a tripel yesterday, a friend came by and did a brew alongside it as well so that was pretty cool with 2x 5gal batches going. Both of us ran into the same issue though, we started with 6-6.5 gal in the hop boil but both ended around 3-3.5gal of ending wort. He boiled some water and added it to it to get his up to 5gal, I kept mine at the level it ended at, somewhere just under 4gal. I figure I would rather end with less of what I intended rather than diluting it with water before adding yeast.

I also made a started for the yeast since it was going to be high ABV, I didn't have any DME so I used sparge runoff from the batch, let it cool down then added the liquid yeast to the cooled down runoff. it will get added to the fermenter tonight, I figured that starting the fermentation one day later was better than possibly not having enough active yeast to get up to the ABV I was targeting. I made three additional starters this way for future use, putting them in a mason jar and into the freezer to defrost the day before the next brew.

I really don't know how this is going to turn out, there are a lot of uncertainties around the brew process but I'll report back in about a month when it gets done bubbling :tu

[BigBruce]

Brewed a dunkel today! Hope it comes out good.

[cricky101]

Brewing up a SMaSH pale ale with Marris otter and HBC-438 hops tonight. First brew in quite a while. My poor keferator hasnt gotten much use lately.

[Chainsaw13]

First brew in a while. A standard Wit (50% flaked wheat/50% pale 2 row), some EKG hops and orange peel/coriander near the end of the boil. Plan is to add a hibiscus tea at bottling. Per brewers friend, I hit 82%+ efficiency.

Drank the last of my cranberry wheat from last thanksgiving. Wow, the tartness of the cranberries comes right thru. Got better with some age. :tu I'll be making this one again soon.

[Chainsaw13]

Bottled the hibiscus wit. Hope I didn't create bottle bombs. Underestimated the amount in the secondary by about 1/4 gallon for a 1.7 gallon batch. Was shooting for 2.7 vols of carbonation. Closer to 3.0. :D

[stearns]

Hoping for no broken glass :tu

Dry hopped my two hearted clone last weekend, I used a recipe I had used before but swapped in a couple pounds of honey malt, I don't know if it will make much of a difference but I was curious what effect it might have. It didn't really look like it was fermenting, we still dry hopped but I'm hoping it ends up being more booze than iced tea

I also brewed up what I am going to refer to as an "Oat Brown APA," I was planning on it being a black IPA but we switched up the specialty grains when we were at the store and it ended up being more on the brown side, with what looks to be a pretty chewy body. I'm really curious about this one, the girlfriend wanted to do one to celebrate finishing grad school, and just told me to make it an IPA with oats and Jade/Mosaic hops. I finagled a recipe up and things looked good, I tried a makeshift starter that hopefully didn't screw anything up.

[Chainsaw13]

Went by the local HBS to get a few things for my next brew. Was going to get a 3gal carboy, but that has this. It'll hold 2.5gal. Perfect for what I do.

[Chainsaw13]

Brewed a Deschutes Black Butte Porter clone today. Hydrometer sample is tasty. :tu

Sampled my first bottle of my hibiscus wit. Needs more hibiscus. But still a good beer, more like a typical wit. Finally got a good carbonation level.

[Chainsaw13]

Question about using alcohol soaked oak cubes in a secondary. How long do you soak for, before adding?

[stearns]

I haven't done it myself, but I did do some research on it when I was planning an oak brew a few months back and I believe it was something like 2-7 days, and add the cubes as well as the alcohol to the secondary (I was planning on using evan Williams for the alcohol, but that could just be because I'm cheap, other recipes called for Makers and other similar whiskeys)

[Chainsaw13]

Brewed a White Russian Imperial Stout today. Calling it, "The Dude Abides". It's a blonde stout that'll be flavored with Kaluha soaked oak blocks and coffee beans. Missed my efficiency by about 5%, but still a big beer. OG was 1.092. Pitched two packs of Denny's 1450 and have airlock activity in about three hours. :D

Plan is to add the Kaluha, oak blocks and whole coffee beans into secondary and age for four weeks.

[Porch Dweller]

Just bottled an American Pale Ale brewed with a bit of warrior hops for extra bittering.

[Chainsaw13]

Went to bottle the first of a 5 gallon batch of a Scottish ale my friend and I brewed. My half of a 10 gallon batch which he got half of. I split into thirds, flavoring one with Scotch soaked oak blocks, one with heather tips and the last plain. Today was the plan one. When I opened the bucket, there was a film across the top. Something infected it, most likely some type of lacto bacteria. Well crap. Still bottled anyway. I'll see what it tastes like after conditioning. Checked the others, looks like they have it too. Not sure where it came from, but likely I didn't do a good enough job sanitizing something during the transfer.

[stearns]

That sucks Bob, nothing worst than waiting weeks/months to find out something went wrong. I unfortunately am done brewing for a while, my friend with the space and equipment moved to a new house without space, and with my move coming up to a place that also has no space (and no equipment) it'll probably be a while before I get back up with it. Gotta brew vicariously through you :al

[BlackDog]

Ive got a bourbon vanilla Porter ready to bottle. I've made it before, it's excellent. I'll get it bottled in the next few days, and should be ready to drink for Thanksgiving.

[Chainsaw13]

Brewed up v2.0 of my Thanksgiving Cranberry Wheat. It's more a NEIPA hybrid. Used Magnum hops for bittering, with Citra, Calypso and Galaxy for aroma. Plan to rack into secondary on top of the cranberries and dry hop with more of the aroma hops. Should be interesting.

[Chainsaw13]

Brewed a White Russian Imperial Stout today. Calling it, "The Dude Abides". It's a blonde stout that'll be flavored with Kaluha soaked oak blocks and coffee beans. Missed my efficiency by about 5%, but still a big beer. OG was 1.092. Pitched two packs of Denny's 1450 and have airlock activity in about three hours. :D

Plan is to add the Kaluha, oak blocks and whole coffee beans into secondary and age for four weeks.

Finally cracked open a bottle of this a couple months ago. Coming along nicely. :tu

[Porch Dweller]

Brewing a pecan porter today.

[Chainsaw13]

Brewing a pecan porter today.

I’ll be right over. :dr

[icehog3]

Brewing a pecan porter today.

I’ll be right over. :dr

Yup, sounds really good. :)