What are you doing with homebrew today?

I kicked the keg:(
I was going to clean it, but it was raining like hell. I'll clean it tomorrow after work.
I guess I need to plan a brew day before I start working 6 days without someone to help me with chores anymore.
 
My keg(s) are empty as well.
Gotta check on grains & hop....
 
Probably set up to weight out grain for my Bohemian pilsner. I have to rack the same to keg. This one will use Czech floor malted pilsner. I would like to have them both on tap to do a real side by side instead of by memory.
 
Last night I emptied the cleaner out of the keg and filled it with Star San. I am going to leave it in there, and I will wait on a later date for Sunfire's "I told you so".
I ordered the recipe for my next beer today which I will pick up this weekend. I actually am excited about the concept of this beer. It is something I found online that I modified a little bit. They were calling it a Dortmunder Helles Export, but my software doesn't quite put it there. 74% Pils, 18% Vienna, 8% Munich I. I am using Hallertau with three 1 oz additions at 60, 30, and 10, but that may change based on alphas. My software currently has me at 32.5 IBUs. Going to use 34/70 and pitch big. It is planned at 5.8%. I like the idea of a 30ish IBU beer in a German lager style around that alcohol level, so we shall see. Hell, for $48 plus water, I will drink it. I also need to get propane and Co2 next week, yikes!
I did go for the Floor Malted Pils.
 
yes well yesterday transferred my Czech Pilsner made with standard Weyeyerman Pilsner Malt to make room for my next one with Weyerman floor malted Pilsner. Both used a decoction mash and adjusted to reach the same OG. May have gotten a touch more efficiency out of the FM Pilsner. Brewing in my basement so watching some college football. Good way to start the 1st dayof the year brewing. Have a few construction projects coming up so need to get a jump and build up stock. Happy New BrewYear everyone
 
Half way through the mash on my first brew of the year, Vienna Garage Lager A.D., an homage to my late father. The brew day has gone well so far. For a change, I am keeping the kettle on the stove with the usual fleece wraps, and the heat turned to its lowest setting in an attempt to avoid the 5-6 degree F heat loss that usually occurs. After 40 minutes, the temp has dropped only 1.3F, and S.G. (by refractometer) appears slightly elevated above projection.
image.jpg
 
Herm brews said:
Half way through the mash on my first brew of the year, Vienna Garage Lager A.D., an homage to my late father. The brew day has gone well so far. For a change, I am keeping the kettle on the stove with the usual fleece wraps, and the heat turned to its lowest setting in an attempt to avoid the 5-6 degree F heat loss that usually occurs. After 40 minutes, the temp has dropped only 1.3F, and S.G. (by refractometer) appears slightly elevated above projection.View attachment 31124
Click to expand...
I use 3 heavy towels wrapped around the kettle without the fire on. It holds the temp within - 1 degree.
 
Herm brews said:
Half way through the mash on my first brew of the year, Vienna Garage Lager A.D., an homage to my late father. The brew day has gone well so far. For a change, I am keeping the kettle on the stove with the usual fleece wraps, and the heat turned to its lowest setting in an attempt to avoid the 5-6 degree F heat loss that usually occurs. After 40 minutes, the temp has dropped only 1.3F, and S.G. (by refractometer) appears slightly elevated above projection.View attachment 31124
Click to expand...
Well, my lack of practice revealed itself in an error. If I had just taken the time to actually look at my targets, I would have realized that my mash complete was really not complete. Thinking my pre boil gravity was supposed to be 1.030, when I saw 1.033 I shut down the mash, drained the bag, collected my sample and started the boil. Only when I recorded the brew step and saw the low conversion rate did I realize I was 3 points low, not 3 points high. Oh well, I just need more practice, and I have grains and hops and yeast for another batch of my dry hopped IPA - just kicked the keg on the last batch of that beer. More rain is in our forecast, and rainy days make good brew days.
 
Over The Cliff Brewing said:
Checking gravity on my dark mild. It's at 1.012 and hasn't moved in 2 days. I was anticipating 1.010. Is a 2.9% ABV reasonable for this style?
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What yeast did you use? If I recall you said Verdant. I get a slow point or 2 when I think that yeast is done after day 3 or 4
3% or higher for style so close enough. I can’t remember but there is a famous one in Britain that is 2.8%
 
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I used a S-04 slurry. It took off immediately and chugged for a day and a half then stopped.
 
Over The Cliff Brewing said:
Checking gravity on my dark mild. It's at 1.012 and hasn't moved in 2 days. I was anticipating 1.010. Is a 2.9% ABV reasonable for this style?
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Definitely fine for a Mild. Just don't tell the style police. They're annoying. :D
 
Some good brewing news and bad brewing news today. The good news is that I bottled a double dry hopped IPA with Simcoe, Chinook, Mosaic, and Amarillo, and everything went smoothly. I was concerned about this beer because I was getting some weird hydrometer readings until I realized that my hydrometer was cracked. The beer fermented down nicely from 1.068-1.012 (7.35% ABV) and the sample tastes delicious.

I used Magnum hops for bittering, and I understand now what people mean when they say this is a "clean" bittering hop. The last 2 beers I made were bittered with Chinook and Centennial, and they were quite abrasive. I also cold crashed this in a bucket of cold water and rotating ice bottles for 48 hours because it was very cloudy from the dry hops. I had some gelatin lying around so I added this as well. All in all, I feel like I learned a lot from this brew, and feel great about it, considering it is my 3rd all-grain.

Now the bad news is that I made a bit of a mistake when I was getting malt for a new oatmeal stout (link below) that I am planning to brew this week. I filled up my grain bucket with the base malt on the bottom and the specialty grains on the top. When I went to pour it into the mill, I didn't have the bag underneath set up correctly, so like half a pound of the milled malt spilled on the floor. I'm thinking now that I should have just picked it up off the floor, but I threw it away, and added half a pound of my base malt, Maris Otter instead.

So, I basically have no idea how much of the specialty malts ended up in the trash and how much is in the bag. I can definitely see some dark grains and taste highly kilned malts when I eat a pinch, but I'm kind of bummed that this could maybe be more of an amber than a stout. I had the roasted barley on the top, so I might go back to the homebrew store before I make this and buy a couple ounces of roasted barely and crystal 80--Idk. Any thoughts of what to do in a situation like this? I always appreciate the help!

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1531110/new-year-s-oatmeal-stout
 
I see your dilemma. Personally I'd jus brew it as is and hope for the best. If you spilled mostly dark malt you would see it on the floor. Probably a mix.
If you're really concerned with the color maybe a touch of de bitterd black malt.
I'd be more concerned that it comes out awesome and you can't replicate it
 
Brew Cat said:
I see your dilemma. Personally I'd jus brew it as is and hope for the best. If you spilled mostly dark malt you would see it on the floor. Probably a mix.
If you're really concerned with the color maybe a touch of de bitterd black malt.
I'd be more concerned that it comes out awesome and you can't replicate it
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think this is the way to go. At least I have a good name for the beer now: Mystery Stout lol
 
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