What are you doing with homebrew today?

I’ll be going to lhbs (Windsor) today to pick up grains and yeast to brew a Belgian Dubbel on Monday. While there, I will look at an Anvil Foundry 6.5 gallon rig, contemplating its possibilities in my brew house. A pint or two of craft beer there may affect my contemplation. When home, I’ll be stirring up a starter for Monday.
 
S-189 Lager fermentation 15c 5psi pressure 24 hrs post pitch looking happy as Larry to me!
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I love the terrain on top all hills and valleys all random. Cool
 
BarbarianBrewer said:
Cleaned about 120 bottles today...and questioned why I don't keg...and then remembered my bank account....and then went back to cleaning bottles! Tomorrow I'll bottle the "NOT JA's Irish Fling" as well as a "New Glarus Spotted Cow-ish" (cream ale).
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Keep fighting the good fight Barbarian!
 
BarbarianBrewer said:
Cleaned about 120 bottles today...and questioned why I don't keg...and then remembered my bank account....and then went back to cleaning bottles!
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A keg is just $39 (he states mischievously)...

I found cleaning bottles boring. A good bottle brush on a cordless drill, and a 3-tub system outdoors worked fine. My biggest issue was the lack of a bottle tree for drying.
 
Donoroto said:
A keg is just $39 (he states mischievously)...

I found cleaning bottles boring. A good bottle brush on a cordless drill, and a 3-tub system outdoors worked fine. My biggest issue was the lack of a bottle tree for drying.
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Rinse them thoroughly after use. Once clean, do this and never scrub a bottle again!
 
Nosybear said:
Rinse them thoroughly after use. Once clean, do this and never scrub a bottle again!
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In theory, that should work. My bottle cleaning process used to be just as you describe. However, I have found that there tends to be a fine layer of yeast scum left behind on the bottom of the bottle. I don’t want that scum transferring to my next beer.
My process has evolved: I rinse my bottles just after pouring, then put a drop of dish soap and some water, and then shake and swirl. Then I use a bottle brush and a special microfiber sponge wipe to ensure all yeast residue has been removed. After a thorough rinse, I invert the bottles in the dishwasher to drip dry. I always store my bottles inverted. On bottling day, all that is needed is a two minute soak in StarSan, then the bottle gets filled.
I wonder whether this process could evolve to using a “sand wash” in which “clean” sand would be used as the scrubbing agent. Always thinking.
 
Today I am monitoring my yeast starter for my Dubbel Switch to be brewed tomorrow. Since lhbs Windsor did not have my preferred choice (WLP500), I chose a relatively fresh pouch of WLP550 (Belgian Ale Yeast). Last night before dinner, I spun up the starter, and it had a developing Krausen within 90 minutes. Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up in bed and I could smell yeast. This morning I came downstairs to this
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I think I have happy, healthy yeast.
 
I have had an empty keg in the Kegerator for a few days. Busy shoveling snow and other projects.
The American Ale sitting in the fermenter has been calling me to get with the program. So in ended up getting a bit lazy this morning and just dumped the fermenter into the empty keg as is.
I might warn anybody doing this to remember to depressure the keg before hooking up the hose to the beer line. Amazing how far and wide 8 pounds of CO2 can spray a bit of leftover beer and trub.
 
Donoroto said:
A keg is just $39 (he states mischievously)...

I found cleaning bottles boring. A good bottle brush on a cordless drill, and a 3-tub system outdoors worked fine. My biggest issue was the lack of a bottle tree for drying.
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If that was the only cost, I'd be all in. It's the keezer/kegerator, 2+ kegs, CO2 tank, hoses, connections, faucets, inkbird controller, etc. that brings the pain.

Nosybear said:
Rinse them thoroughly after use. Once clean, do this and never scrub a bottle again!
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I do this periodically when I'm pressed for time, or am just being lazy. But, then I worry that there may be some crud hiding in the bottles.
 
Herm_brews said:
I wonder whether this process could evolve to using a “sand wash” in which “clean” sand would be used as the scrubbing agent.
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Don't you live near the beach? :D

I prefer the bottle brush, with bristles on the tip too, it gets everything.
 
Herm_brews said:
Nice surroundings there, Mr. Roach. Are your hops additions wrapped in muslin in those ziploc bags?
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Yep, not that they keep much particulate from coming out during the boil. New bags every recipe. The bags just make it a little more convenient to separate the hops and dispose of it so I don't kill any neighborhood dogs. What comes out through the muslin (especially the Warrior) usually settles in the bottom of the kettle while I'm chilling. After I get the brew into the fermenter, I take the kettle out to the compost pile, dig a hole in the pile, and pour the hops dregs into the hole to hopefully hide the smell that the dogs crave. Doesn't take but a little bit of hops to kill a dog dead, and they like the smell. The muslin helps most with the flavoring hops because they're not in the boil long enough to come apart like the bittering hops do. When I dry hopped my Kona Big Wave clone, rather than risk the muslin being a problem, I just dropped the pellets right into the fermenter. I keep a bottle of StarSan with a sprayer handy. If I touch that fermenter below 120F, the outside of it and my hands and anything else that's gonna touch it get sprayed, and everything gets wiped again when I close it up. I'm pretty meticulous about sanitizing.

Thanks for the flowers about my flowers. I've got nearly 3 acres, about 2/3 of it feral for the past 50 years. Trying to reclaim and landscape it for future downsizing plans. Nearby developments have more than doubled the value of the property in our subdivision. I have cut poison ivy vines big enough for firewood back there (but it would be a VERY bad idea to burn that stuff). I'm not allergic to ivy or sumac, so I get away with chopping on it. I built the deck about 6 years ago after having new vinyl siding put on the house. Spared no expense for the lumber and hardware (all stainless steel) because I wanted it to last. Unfortunately, thanks to poor quality of the best treated lumber, I will need to replace the two center stringers on the stairs this spring when it's a little dryer and not quite as likely to rain me out. I've already had to patch the flooring twice where the deck boards rotted through. We've kept it treated with water seal every year since I built the deck, but that doesn't seem to do much for preventing the rot. Both middle stringers on the stairs have some rot behind the toe boards in a few places, despite all the work I did to try to prevent rot. EVERYTHING was painted in pieces before assembly with water seal to try to avoid that exact problem. Well, that didn't work very well. The one I took down, though heavily weathered, still had no rot. I used some of the last bits of the flooring to form for the slab on my new shop for my tractor (my other retirement toy). I don't think there's any such thing as lumber that will stand up to the weather now.
 
Herm_brews said:
I brew pretty good beer, and I do it on the less expensive side. I use a single vessel for mash and boil to make small 2.5 gallon batches. Analog thermometer and refractometer serve me well, along with a digital thermometer. My fermentation is done in an interior closet without temperature control. I bottle my beer. Kegs, keezers and the like won’t fit in my home. In the end, I am cheap, and I make beer that I like to drink given the limitations of my brewing environment.
ETA I’m not cheap, I’m frugal, and can get by with less than best. I am open to a good bargain, though.
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I nearly asked the other day what size batches you typically run. I did a couple 1-gallon batches and figured out really quick that the cleanup for a 1-gallon batch isn't much easier than the cleanup for a 5-gallon batch. I bottle as well, and have entirely too many bottles now, being the packrat that I am. I keep the bottles in the cartons so they stay dark while conditioning. I have what appears to be something of an anomaly under my stairs. Bottled beer will carbonate in about 2 days down there.

The missus has agreed to letting me build a keezer so I can try some cold fermenting. We're looking at a newer upright freezer to replace the older chest that we have that is not frost-free. I've thought about kegging, but the kegerator would be something else to plug in and add continual cost to the enjoyment. Not opposed to it, but it's me being stingy, I guess. I just put 6 bottles at a time in the fridge we have to run anyway. A large percentage of my bottles are recycled from craft/import beers that I've had, but I originally purchased 6 cases of bottles so I could keep several batches on the shelf at a time. Building a new shop through the summer kinda pre-empted some of the brewing, but I'm hoping to get back into it more since I was basically forced into retirement. I also ferment in the coolest closet in the darkest and least used room in my house. I use an underbed storage container to put my fermenters in just in case they decide to puke. I just try to make sure the temperature doesn't get above 72 down there, and since heat rises, that isn't too difficult. Don't have the spectrometer yet, just analog thermometers (mercury tube and dial, as well as one on the kettle). So far, I've tried to target beers that can ferment without chilling. But i want to get into more advanced brewing to expand my palate and maybe one day submit one for a competition. I've gotta get a lot better at it before then.
 
RoadRoach said:
I nearly asked the other day what size batches you typically run. I did a couple 1-gallon batches and figured out really quick that the cleanup for a 1-gallon batch isn't much easier than the cleanup for a 5-gallon batch. I bottle as well, and have entirely too many bottles now, being the packrat that I am. I keep the bottles in the cartons so they stay dark while conditioning. I have what appears to be something of an anomaly under my stairs. Bottled beer will carbonate in about 2 days down there.

The missus has agreed to letting me build a keezer so I can try some cold fermenting. We're looking at a newer upright freezer to replace the older chest that we have that is not frost-free. I've thought about kegging, but the kegerator would be something else to plug in and add continual cost to the enjoyment. Not opposed to it, but it's me being stingy, I guess. I just put 6 bottles at a time in the fridge we have to run anyway. A large percentage of my bottles are recycled from craft/import beers that I've had, but I originally purchased 6 cases of bottles so I could keep several batches on the shelf at a time. Building a new shop through the summer kinda pre-empted some of the brewing, but I'm hoping to get back into it more since I was basically forced into retirement. I also ferment in the coolest closet in the darkest and least used room in my house. I use an underbed storage container to put my fermenters in just in case they decide to puke. I just try to make sure the temperature doesn't get above 72 down there, and since heat rises, that isn't too difficult. Don't have the spectrometer yet, just analog thermometers (mercury tube and dial, as well as one on the kettle). So far, I've tried to target beers that can ferment without chilling. But i want to get into more advanced brewing to expand my palate and maybe one day submit one for a competition. I've gotta get a lot better at it before then.
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Food for thought.
What's your average temp there atm Roadie?
In winter here in subtropical SE QLD I could and did ferment out in ambient wrapped in blanket with heat belt on for overnight cool downs to what maybe 7-8 c at the lowest.

Summer is a no deal but anyhow thought I'd throw it out there.
 
Trialben said:
Food for thought.
What's your average temp there atm Roadie?
In winter here in subtropical SE QLD I could and did ferment out in ambient wrapped in blanket with heat belt on for overnight cool downs to what maybe 7-8 c at the lowest.

Summer is a no deal but anyhow thought I'd throw it out there.
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Hard to project an average, really. Our weather this time of year is all over the map. Today started out around 55F, and right now, it's pretty close to 40F. It got colder when the clouds dissipated, like it normally does. Two days from now, it may drop to freezing and stay there, or, it might warm back up to 75F and get stormy. The storms that hit Kentucky the other day were at the northern end of the same front that hit us. We got thunder/lightning, and a buttload of rain, but only a few sticks knocked down by wind. Temperature the day before was nearly 80F, which is when we know we're gonna get some bad weather. Warm air comes up from the Gulf coast, and cool air from Canada comes in off the jet stream. The warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico rises through the cold air, and makes twisters and lots of nasty weather. Your winter is a little milder than here. Ours is slightly cooler than South Australia's winter, probably 10 degrees C or so cooler than yours, but is too erratic to try to ferment outside.
 
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