What are you doing with homebrew today?

Herm_brews said:
I hope it turns out well for you. Is your final recipe public?
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Ended up using the one I posted for feedback. Although I would have liked to include Belgian Candi as you suggested, it would have required a week delay. This article gave me some hope I might be okay as planned: https://www.jaysbrewing.com/2012/01/18/belgian-candi-sugar-vs-table-sugar-for-beer/
I will give some thought to simplifying the mash process next time.
Other needed improvements- filtering my wort through hop sacks takes lots of time. I need to get what I can and just leave the sludge behind (or dump it all and not filter). Definitely need to install my ball valve using the step bit I picked up at harbor freight - wort transfer is way too exciting just pouring.
 
Rockhead said:
Ended up using the one I posted for feedback. Although I would have liked to include Belgian Candi as you suggested, it would have required a week delay. This article gave me some hope I might be okay as planned: https://www.jaysbrewing.com/2012/01/18/belgian-candi-sugar-vs-table-sugar-for-beer/
I will give some thought to simplifying the mash process next time.
Other needed improvements- filtering my wort through hop sacks takes lots of time. I need to get what I can and just leave the sludge behind (or dump it all and not filter). Definitely need to install my ball valve using the step bit I picked up at harbor freight - wort transfer is way too exciting just pouring.
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I dump the entire contents from my kettle into the fermenter. After a 3 week fermentation, I usually end up with a compact cake of trub and yeast that generally remains undisturbed when I transfer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. However, if I dry hop during fermentation, then I use a sanitized hop sock at the end of the transfer tube to keep hops debris out of my bottling bucket.
 
Getting ready to begin my Brew Day, with HAPA (Herm’s Azacca Pale Ale) the beer to be brewed. As usual, I prepared oatmeal for breakfast, mashing steel cut oats as a base for an apple compote with Greek-style yogurt. My stove is cleaned and sparkly, RO water, brewing salts, milled grains, hops and yeast are all on hand. The weather is cool with rain on the way, so it looks to be a good day.
 
Herm_brews said:
Getting ready to begin my Brew Day, with HAPA (Herm’s Azacca Pale Ale) the beer to be brewed. As usual, I prepared oatmeal for breakfast, mashing steel cut oats as a base for an apple compote with Greek-style yogurt. My stove is cleaned and sparkly, RO water, brewing salts, milled grains, hops and yeast are all on hand. The weather is cool with rain on the way, so it looks to be a good day.
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I'm excited to hear how this batch turns out! :)
 
Sunfire96 said:
I'm excited to hear how this batch turns out! :)
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I will let you know. I started the mash, and was right on my target temp of 152F, so that is a good start.
Taking advantage of the mash time to eat some lunch - a vegetarian curry (butternut squash, chick peas, green beans and kale) over brown rice.
 
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Hot break and boil, almost time for bittering hops addition.
 
Herm_brews said:
I will let you know. I started the mash, and was right on my target temp of 152F, so that is a good start.
Taking advantage of the mash time to eat some lunch - a vegetarian curry (butternut squash, chick peas, green beans and kale) over brown rice.
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That lunch sounds good, but probably entirely too healthy...
 
Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews said:
That lunch sounds good, but probably entirely too healthy...
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I always try to have meatless Monday, except when my wife leads me astray. It was very good, especially as leftovers, so the flavors have had plenty of time to meld.

As far as home brewing, I have completed the boil, a 20 minute hop stand, and now have the kettle in an ice bath to cool. My fermenter is sanitized and ready to receive chilled wort. The yeast is ready and waiting to get to work.
 
Just finished putting this Kona Big Wave knockoff down for ferment. Will add the dry-hop (1 oz Galaxy pellets) next Monday. Hoping this turns out as good as the real thing, 'cause that stuff's expensive. I can brew it for half the price if this works out. Otherwise, guess I better start finding someone with pigs to feed the swill to.

Still got a little washing and cleanup to do.
 
RoadRoach said:
Just finished putting this Kona Big Wave knockoff down for ferment. Will add the dry-hop (1 oz Galaxy pellets) next Monday. Hoping this turns out as good as the real thing, 'cause that stuff's expensive. I can brew it for half the price if this works out. Otherwise, guess I better start finding someone with pigs to feed the swill to.

Still got a little washing and cleanup to do.
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Good luck with it and please keep us posted as to how it comes out. Trying to clone Big Wave is a noble undertaking indeed!

I have a kegged Blonde Ale right now that was also hopped with Galaxy and Citra (yep, the hops were inspired by Big Wave). I used Galaxy to bitter at 60, and then equal Galaxy/Citra additions at 10 and 0. No dry hops. The good news is that this is an awesome combination of hops. I’m getting a nice citrus/tropical/grapefruit thing that is just super enjoyable and a noticeable bitterness. The downside is that this has far too heavy handed a hop presence when compared to BW. Nothing wrong with that of course, the beer is still really nice, but I’d have to dial it back some if I wanted to mimic Big Wave.
 
west1m said:
View attachment 17979 Kegged up my Blue Moon Clone today.
A taste from the tap seems to missing the orange taste.
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I have thought of doing a transfer like that with my speidels, but I figure that the dry hops will block up that liquid post, and ruin my day...
 
Megary said:
Good luck with it and please keep us posted as to how it comes out. Trying to clone Big Wave is a noble undertaking indeed!

I have a kegged Blonde Ale right now that was also hopped with Galaxy and Citra (yep, the hops were inspired by Big Wave). I used Galaxy to bitter at 60, and then equal Galaxy/Citra additions at 10 and 0. No dry hops. The good news is that this is an awesome combination of hops. I’m getting a nice citrus/tropical/grapefruit thing that is just super enjoyable and a noticeable bitterness. The downside is that this has far too heavy handed a hop presence when compared to BW. Nothing wrong with that of course, the beer is still really nice, but I’d have to dial it back some if I wanted to mimic Big Wave.
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I'm thinking what my distributor gave me was possibly a half-ounce of Warrior to bitter at 45, then a half ounce each of Galaxy and Citra for flavor at 10. I'm assuming the 1 ounce of Galaxy for dry hop is going to do all the aroma work. The only thing I can think the 15 minutes in front of the bittering was for is to reduce volume. The bittering could have been Galaxy, but I've heard/read on a few occasions that bittering with Galaxy is a waste of money. I'm a hops idiot, so won't begin to pretend I know, though. I do know Warrior does a great job of bittering, but lends very little else to the flavor unless you put it in VERY late (5-10 minutes before flame-out). He's a big fan of ear wax flavored beer, so his go-to bittering hops is Warrior for most American pales. I'm not a huge fan of bitter, but absolutely love that tropical taste (mango/citrus?) in Big Wave. That's a very yummy beer to have after a hot day on the mower. Gonna let the krausen drop before I add the last ounce of Galaxy. There was a LOT of green stuff floating from the pellets when I drained the kettle to the fermenter, and looked like I got a good bit in the fermenter, too. I may ask the distributor for something to clarify it when I bottle it, if there's something that can be added late. Right now, I don't wanna mess with the recipe too much. If I add a flocculent, I'll try to remember to add that to the notes. I want it to be benign in taste so it doesn't mess with all that hard work. That was a lot of grain to handle without a mash tun.

I'm going to brew again on Saturday, a Leffe Abbey Blonde. I did that one with extract last time, and decided to do it all grain this time. Holy smokes there's a lotta grain in that batch. 16 pounds of it. I don't think I'm gonna be able to put that in my brew kettle, so may be buying a 10 gallon Igloo water cooler between now and then for a mash tun. Otherwise, I think I'll have to do the mash in two batches and co-mingle them. I don't think I can put 16 pounds of grain and 5 gallons of water in my 8 gallon kettle. The 8.75 lbs and 4 gallons today filled it pretty darn full by the time the grain swelled up. I might be wrong, but my brain tells me double that simply won't fit.
 
west1m said:
View attachment 17979 Kegged up my Blue Moon Clone today.
A taste from the tap seems to missing the orange taste.
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Ahhh, another Blue Moon fan. I have one called Rapier Wit which is a Blue Moon knock-off. Stoopid easy to make the one I do, and VERY quick. I usually throw one of those in if I'm short on time on brew day. I think my last batch was less than 3 hours including the time to walk out to the shed for the burner and gas bottle, to get it for the brew, and to put it back up.

Next time ya brew one, if you want something really tasty, along with the desiccated orange peel, grate some fresh lemon peel and add to it to make the orange peel really pop. Just get the yellow part of the lemon peel, not the white. Give the lemons to the kids to make some lemonade with afterword. I may experiment with some lime next time, just for a variant, or maybe some mango. Also considering a dry-hop twist to it to see if I can conjure up something from the past.
 
Gravity test on Dubble Trubble. Yeast w fermax supplement went gang busters over last three days. OG at 1.065 was spot on, and am currently at 1.012, only 2 points from target. Fastest big beer fermentation ever for me, with star San bubbling out the top of a quart bottle for two days straight. And it tastes good, a bit of an alcohol bite, being around 7% and not aged. Fingers crossed this will be a good one.
 
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