What's Brewing This Weekend - 12/9 Edition

When did you start working there?

BTW…my Woodinville Bourbon Barrel is due to arrive on my doorstep tomorrow.  :slight_smile:

What do you think happened to it?  Seems weird it’d ferment that low.

i’m guessing either overpitching (not likely - was maybe 50-100mL too much) or wild yeast/infection - it doesn’t taste infected, just tastes kinda lifeless/thin.

pretty disappointed since like I said it was a pretty good brew session.

Working there?  I’m volunteer labor, I think I get lunch and maybe a shirt.  And a free tasting I’m sure, just like anyone who wanders into the tasting room off of the street. :wink:

Let me know how you like the barrel!

Just finished the semester last night, and haven’t been able to do anything for a wile. So, I will be transferring a Wee Heavy, and a Doppelsticke to secondary. Bottling an Ordinary Bitter, and brewing a porter. Looking forward to 1272 in a porter.

No brewing, but I will be tapping two kegs (Munich belgian and IPA) for when my two brothers come into town Friday.  We’re going to the Red Wings game on Sat. and the Lions game on Sun. ;D

I’m judging a beer contest tonight and tomorrow.  I kegged a Scottish 70/- this morning, and will most likely brew a witbier this Sunday.

No brewing.  Will begin cold crashing DIPA from a couple of weeks ago and put up a Christmas tree.

Brewing a 10 gallon batch of American Amber.  I just doughed  that one in. And I’ll be kegging 10 gallons of my house bitter, a Special Bitter I call Dread Pirate Roberts Pale Ale.  As you wish…

The CAP is in the chest freezer coming down to pitching temps.  Hit everything exactly and almost all cleaned up too.  Think I’ll have a wee heavy to celebrate.

Bottling whiskey, I assume?

dry hopping a big red/IPA thing. it’s a split 10 gallon batch i brewed with a relatively new brewer. experimenting with different yeasts. we put 1056 in his. West Yorkshire in mine. eveything else exactly the same. dry hops are citra and sorachi ace.

also, teaching some new brewers tonight at their place how to make a stovetop partial mash. my cream ale recipe. should be fun!

Cause it’ll most likely kill you in the morning?

Brewed a SorachiAce session pale ale (OG 1.045) with 3 oz of Sorachi Ace at flameout.

No brewing as I’m running a BJCP prep class tomorrow (with a live webcast and remote tastings), and then preparing for a trip to the US to visit family.

Yes, un-aged whiskey.  500 bottles of cask strength white dog to go in their “age your own kits”, and 800 bottles of 80 proof white dog for sale.  I got lunch and a t-shirt for 3 hours, I think both sides are happy with the deal.  Although for the record, I’m the one who broke a bottle (an empty, pre-labelled bottle), and I’m the one whose leg hit the dump valve on the distiller and spilled hot mash on the floor (only about a 6 oz was lost). ::slight_smile:

Seriously, I’m a total spazz.  I should not be allowed around stuff like that.  Can’t wait to volunteer again :slight_smile:

To quote my son, “It makes my heart happy…” to see there are those in our homebrewing community who get it.

There is currently a revolution going on in the American alcoholic beverage community that is equivalent to the homebrewing revolution of the 1970s.  For the most part, we are not allowed to discuss it here on this forum.  I feel that this is a great disservice to the grassroots power of who we are as a community to change the status quo.

I ask that you please forgive me when I respond to kneejerk uninformed platitudes about distilling on this forum in a less than kind manner. There were those who spoke the same way about homebrewing, back in the day when it was illegal to homebrew.

I believe that homedistilling deserves a place in the shed right next to homebrewing. It is the next logical step in the process.  I think this community of homebrewers can again be an instrument of change to right a wrong foisted on the American people in the name of “lost tax revenue.”

I have been wanting to speak up about this since I have joined this forum.  The moderators have been kind in their tolerance of my allusions to homedistilling thus far.  I posted this rant in the “What’s Brewing This Weekend” thread because the thread goes away after a few days.  I hope the same doesn’t happen to me for speaking up about homedistilling.

Well, I made the decision Saturday morning after taking a sample and finding 1.008.  Dumped it - it actually was not bad, but it was overly dry and strong for Amber ale. :cry:

I looked thru my notes and replayed the session - I think my faux pas was when I got distracted and since I forgot to heat my sparge water I went ahead and sparged with room temp - I’ve done it before after Kai did an experiment with it and found no difference.  Anyway I think the longer time at low temps before getting to a boil (an extra 45 min perhaps ) plus slight overpitching caused the 84% attenuation.

The good news is yesterday was one of the best brewdays I have had in a long time - great weather and hit every number spot on from pH to mash temp to sparge temp to gravity.  I hated dumping the previous run, but this hopefully made up for it.

I just brewed my first all-grain batch yesterday after building a 10 gallon mash tun from a rubbermaid cooler. It was a Chocolate Mint Stout (requested by the wifey) recipe from Radical Brewing slightly modified. Everything went well and I nailed my numbers all along the way. Found out that having BeerSmith software is a huge help. I was really concerned with pH but was told really not to worry about it until I find out I actually have a problem which I did. I used Whole Foods 365 spring water since our tap water is heavily chlorinated and just takes like crap anyway. I was surprised that it only took 25 minutes outside in an ice bath to cool down 5 gallons of boiling wort to 72 degrees. I’m still going to build a wort chiller for my next batch though.

Made a 4 gallon batch of mead with California Orange Blossom honey yesterday.  I was hoping it would be a semi-sweet mead, but I ended up with an O.G. of 1.110 instead of 1.120.  It will likely ferment out to around 1.005, which is more on the dry side.  IN any case, it should be tasty!