What are you doing with homebrew today?

@sunfire beat me to it!
I am still to worried to do so as I know of a couple of people managing to mess up their fridge by making a hole in it.
One was making a lock on a chest freezer and they other got a shot wound (the gardener fired a gun at the fridge for no known reason)
 
Getting water up to temperature
IMG_20240605_113553_784.jpg
 
She's chilling very slowly

Note to self: check on hops before you decide which ones to use.
Spalter select has now been changed to Galena at first hop and Perle at 30 and 5 minutes
No idea how it will work out, but since I'm using a Belgian yeast I should be fine
IMG_20240605_142050_159.jpg


Almost had to decide on having to go for Voss as it took some hours to locate my inkbird...
I'll only need it tomorrow morning, so I'm in time :)
 
She's in the fermentation fridge.
Little nervous moment again to see if the fridge actually still worked.
She does, but obviously not so well when you plug the fridge in the heating side of things (duh).
Anyway, all is working.
Yeast is T58 and I put the fridge to 17.5, meaning it will probably be 18.5 oC during fermentation (65 F)
 
Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews said:
Trying an experiment with scaling up my tavern ale, should be close to capacity of the system and finish up with around 11 gallons…View attachment 29591
Click to expand...
Are you pumping into your hop spider for any particular reason? Is this the mash, or heating up for boil? Just catching sludge? I’ve done this too, but silly me waited until I was transferring to the fermenter and found out(the hard way) just how much goo can be produced by a combination of hops and grist. I had to empty the spider a couple times before the transfer was done. Seems the grist is a bit more gelatinous when cooled down. It’s also AMAZING how much sludge a couple ounces of hops pellets can produce. How well does BIAB work for keeping the flour out of the final wort?

Gonna try to finish off my mash temp controller today and test again. Might brew a stout tomorrow to try it out, but hoping the grain hasn’t gone stale. Will have to check it closely for weevils and other critters. Haven’t brewed in a while and already had all the ingredients for a batch. Kept the hops and yeast in the fridge, so should be good there. Might have to add a little something to tweak it up. Im thinking maybe a bit of brown sugar to go with the oatmeal. That would also give it a little boost in ABV.
 
RoadRoach said:
Are you pumping into your hop spider for any particular reason? Is this the mash, or heating up for boil? Just catching sludge? I’ve done this too, but silly me waited until I was transferring to the fermenter and found out(the hard way) just how much goo can be produced by a combination of hops and grist. I had to empty the spider a couple times before the transfer was done. Seems the grist is a bit more gelatinous when cooled down. It’s also AMAZING how much sludge a couple ounces of hops pellets can produce. How well does BIAB work for keeping the flour out of the final wort?

Gonna try to finish off my mash temp controller today and test again. Might brew a stout tomorrow to try it out, but hoping the grain hasn’t gone stale. Will have to check it closely for weevils and other critters. Haven’t brewed in a while and already had all the ingredients for a batch. Kept the hops and yeast in the fridge, so should be good there. Might have to add a little something to tweak it up. Im thinking maybe a bit of brown sugar to go with the oatmeal. That would also give it a little boost in ABV.
Click to expand...
Biab does not really catch flour at all. Anything fine enough for that would clog in 5 minutes
 
Minbari said:
Biab does not really catch flour at all. Anything fine enough for that would clog in 5 minutes
Click to expand...
Kinda what I figured. My hop spider is very similar to @Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews so I was curious about his shown technique. Part of my upgrading process is to improve clarity, so I’m studying means to get rid of some of the suspended grist past before boil so that maybe I don’t have quite so much to precipitate with Whirlfloc. I’ve already improved it some since I started recirculating the mash. Now I’m hoping I don’t have to stir the mash as much (thus stirring up the paste) since I will be mitigating scorch risk. A stout probably isn’t the best beer to check clarity improvements with, but it’s what I have ingredients for. I’ll get some other stuff and try it when we get back from NZ and Oz.
 
Bottled my latest M54 Cali yeast enhanced budget lager last night. Once again seems to have worked well, ABV: 6.46 (7% after priming). Developed a slight bready element at the end of primary, banana has faded a little but the overall aroma plus taste is very promising. Never tried Steam Beer but after reading through some recipes the colour and data seem to be pointing in that direction.

Thoughts are once again veering towards brewing with dry grain although the reality of doing so still seems some way off for me. It is interesting to guess but deep down I am a person who likes to know. Basically it was bugging me a little then I had a minor epiphany.

Just made up a kit of Munton's 'Oaked Ale'. Well I know that isn't a recognised beer style and is a little vague. Anyway amazing aroma, dark and treacly with a slight spiciness. Instantly reminiscent of the Strong Suffolk Old Ale (ABV 7%) I made last Spring OG. Just outside that range at 1.054. So my limited experience isn't quite as limited as I thought. I've gone through a lot and aren't sure what else it could be tbh. This by contrast is underlined as mellow, estimated ABV: 4.5-5%. I won't dry hop this brew as I whacked all the 10g of oak chips in and want to get the full effect (famous last words maybe). I have used oak in wine and cider and been a bit sparing the effect of which has turned out to be slightly pointless.

I saved the sediment from the lager and am thinking of adding that at around 1.014 as somewhat surprisingly the oaked old ale came with American Ale Yeast. Not tried this technique before but it seems like the obvious opportunity to do so. Will see how confident I feel in several days.
 
Kegged a Buckwheat Pale Ale. Hopped with the classic combo of Cascade and Centennial. Fermented with WY1450. Finished just a tick under 5%. Smells and tastes extremely promising. Got the fermenter cleaned and then crushed some Pils for a Cream Ale tomorrow. Likely will be kicking @Zambi ’s Belgian Pale shortly, so probably cleaning a keg in a bit as well. Things are humming in the brewhouse. :)

IMG_2007.jpeg
 
RoadRoach said:
Are you pumping into your hop spider for any particular reason? Is this the mash, or heating up for boil? Just catching sludge? I’ve done this too, but silly me waited until I was transferring to the fermenter and found out(the hard way) just how much goo can be produced by a combination of hops and grist. I had to empty the spider a couple times before the transfer was done. Seems the grist is a bit more gelatinous when cooled down. It’s also AMAZING how much sludge a couple ounces of hops pellets can produce. How well does BIAB work for keeping the flour out of the final wort?

Gonna try to finish off my mash temp controller today and test again. Might brew a stout tomorrow to try it out, but hoping the grain hasn’t gone stale. Will have to check it closely for weevils and other critters. Haven’t brewed in a while and already had all the ingredients for a batch. Kept the hops and yeast in the fridge, so should be good there. Might have to add a little something to tweak it up. Im thinking maybe a bit of brown sugar to go with the oatmeal. That would also give it a little boost in ABV.
Click to expand...
I use a hop basket to catch any grain particles that make it through the pump below the mash tun. After I finish with the sparge I just remove it from the boil kettle and I don't have to worry about those particles getting through my false bottom and into my plate chiller. Usually wind up with between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of spent grain in the basket.
 
Tim Bulin said:
I use a hop basket to catch any grain particles that make it through the pump below the mash tun. After I finish with the sparge I just remove it from the boil kettle and I don't have to worry about those particles getting through my false bottom and into my plate chiller. Usually wind up with between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of spent grain in the basket.
Click to expand...
Kinda what I thought, but felt the need to ask.
 
Kegged my latest Helles. I split it into 2 mini kegs. One will lager until mid July. The other will be consumed fresh akin to Kellerbier
 
Sunfire96 said:
24 hr cold crash for the pale ale and Vienna lager. The pale ale is at 16 days and the Vienna is at 14 days...that's a long time for me to ferment a beer! Very excited to try them tomorrow.
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That is a short lifetime of waiting. Good on you for having that level of patience.
 
I'm just thinking about logistics.
I want to brew the Q2. My ferm fridge is operational so I can use bry-97.
But the fermenter has a T58 on the go and I want to re-use the trub.
So, if I take @Sandy Feet suggestion, I could do that without temp control and do the BRY with control.
But the coolerbox needs to be used for mashing....
I'll manage, just got to time it right and get it correct in my head
 
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