Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Celebrated National Homebrew Day/Big Brew yesterday by brewing up an American Imperial Stout small batch. Pitched it on top of some yeast I harvested out of Blue Mountain Brewery's Dark Hollow, flavor profile makes me think it's some kind of Belgian strain although I'm not sure. It's bubbling away this morning, and will eventually age on top of some bourbon soaked oak chips.

Also, racked MixMash #2 (Saison + Oktoberfest) to secondary yesterday, and it tastes great! The Blue Mountain yeast dropped the gravity from 1.038 to 1.011, so I guess there were still fermentables in that "second runnings."

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I helped out with our clubs competition all day yesterday. I helped out judges that did amber lagers (Viennas and Marzens) and Belgian dark strongs (Blonde, Dubbel, Triple, Dark Strong). It was interesting to hear the comments from the judges on the various beers while tasting them. Some were great, and there were some absolute stinkers that I give the judges credit for working through to make comments on.

I had five beers in, two won ribbons. I entered my citra/galaxy pale as an IPA because it was on the edge of IPA and pale ale hoppiness. It won the IPA category which was one of the biggest of the show. My German Pils scored a 37 but took second place in the pilsner category. I also learned that my keg to bottle process needs fixing, all the beers I entered from my kegs had hints of infections that killed their scores. This tells me I'm not cleaning the bottles well enough before bottling those because the beer in the keg has no sign of an infection.

I'd definitely suggest joining a competition if you haven't, and to try to volunteer at the competition. I learned a ton yesterday, and got to drink beer from 9am to 6pm for free!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I intend to enter a competition at some point. I need to refine my processes a bit still though.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

work party tonight. brought various different homebrews. someone else brought a growler of harpoon leviathan imperial ipa. as he said at the end of the night "pretty impressive that yours are almost gone and no one drank the leviathan".
it was a nice chance to try my various beers all at once. i'm digging the cda/black ipa.

brendan, i'm such a noob i have no clue if it's a good method, but i bake my bottles... to me it just sounded much more likely to end up at a satisfactory result than trying to wash them....

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

That's an awesome idea that I had never thought of. I've never had an issue when bottling just using starsan. There is something about going from the keg to a bottle. I think I just didn't let the starsan coat the bottles for enough time, and I didn't take time to sanitize the faucet so I could have introduced something there as well.

Usually I drink bottles I fill from the keg on the day I fill them. It was 3 weeks from fill to competition so whatever it was had time to grow.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I need a like button for your consumption record, my friend.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

for anyone who wants to bake bottles, here's what i do:
- rinse with water right after pouring beer
- keep in this "clean but not sanitized" state until i have enough collected up to bake
- take a square of aluminum foil and press it over the top of each bottle
- put bottles in cold oven
- set to 350, bake for 90 minutes after it reach temp
- leave in oven for slow cool down over night

then when i bottle all i have to do is remove foil. Also nice that it means sanitation can be done on a different day than bottling.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Awesome showing in your competition, congrats on the IPA and 37 is a great score for the pils!

Can't help you on sourcing the infection, as I'm still stuck in the bottling dark ages. :D

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Thanks! I definitely liked both of those beers, IPA more so than Pils, so it's good to know I don't have a complete gutter palate :D

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

yeah, awesome about the contest - so when are we trading?
;)

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Just put about 4.5 gallons of Berliner Weisse into bottles. Nice and tart, going to be killer over muddled raspberries on a hot summer day. I shot for 3 volumes of CO2 in the bottles, hope I don't wind up with a bunch of bombs...

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Added my lemon zest to the Weisse and bottled my very promising chocolate vanilla coffee stout

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Got a nice stong IPA fermenting in the pantry. Smells awesome when you open the door.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I have a mint lemongrass hefe and a Belgian Quad 154 IBU IPA fermenting, bottling this week

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Added oak chips & bourbon to my imperial stout last night, need to let it sleep for about a month.

Have a Belgian Blond (another small batch) just finishing up primary fermentation, plan to rack over the weekend and dry hop with some dried Jasmine flowers from my yard. Should be ready in time for my daughter's birthday: when she was born, I brewed "Jackie's Jammin' Ale" to give to friends and families. She turns 18 in July, so I figured a "Jackie's Jasmine Ale" would be appropriate.

Bottled my Two-Hearted Ale clone over the weekend. The Bell's yeast gave me close to an 80% attenuation, way past my expectation, so I probably should have mashed a bit higher than 148. Hopefully it's not too dry, but it tasted great coming out of the secondary. :banger

Need to bottle MixMash#2 this weekend.

Next up is a Rosemary Saison, and I've planned to return to my brewing roots with one of my first ESB recipes that I found archived on an old hard drive.

And I had to buy two fermenters for my wife--she has 6.5gal of pinot noir taking up space in one of my bottles. Can't have that!

Been a busy time around Castle Hollow Brewery... :chr

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I have been on a Saison kick, so I brewed up a 2nd 5gallon batch yesterday.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Which yeast are you using? Seems like everyone that did well at our competition had used Dupont dregs.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I have not attempted to harvest yeast from a bottle yet. If I ever did, I think I would start with yeast from a bottle of BLVD Tank 7. For my last 2 Saisons I used Whitelabs WLP568 Belgian Saison Blend.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I poked around a bit and I don't necessarily think it was dregs now. I guess WLP 565 is the Dupont strain as is Wyeast 3724. I hadn't realized that before.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Bottled my Boss Porter and my Tooth Fairy Hef this morning. Gonna finish sighting in my bows then hit the lake... its gonna be a good day!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

midwest starter kit deal on groupon:

http://www.groupon.com/deals/midwest-homebrewing-albany

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Just racked my saison into a keg after a week long cold crash. FG came in at 1.005...my little yeasties ate well. However, the brew came in at 8% abv....nearly 3% higher than the original recipe called for. Now I'm wondering how I'm going to finish off a whole keg of this joker. This is a night cap beer, certainly not the farmhouse ale I was going for.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Got some label work for my latest creations.

The label for my wicked strong saison.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...aisonLabel.jpg

with back label
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...eBackLabel.jpg

And the Kolsch I made for my lovely wife.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...olschLabel.jpg

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Awesome labels. It's hard enough for me to find time to bottle, let alone get creative with the labeling.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Brewed up my Scotch Oaked Ale on Sat, it should be around 8% ABV in about 6 months.

My Stout is finally ready to drink, it was brewed with 2 oz. of European Dark Chocolate, 2 Oz. Vanilla, and Nicaraugan Coffee at 4.4% ABV.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I like this one Jon! :tu

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Thanks Shane...I was very happy with that one as well.

I got my first beer commissioning yesterday! Gonna brew a summer honey wheat ale for my friend to give his groomsmen as part of their wedding gift. Pretty cool in my opinion.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Very nice jon. That reminds i have to check my IPA to see if its ready to bottle.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I've got a Wit and a Coffee Stout in my fermenters right now. Might try to bottle this weekend. On Monday I should be getting grains to do 3 different SMaSH's, but I'm not sure when I'll have the time to brew those. I got a temp controller wired up to the fridge in the garage, so now I'll have a stable ferm chamber, which is a good thing since the temperature outside is going up over 100 now.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I converted my old chest freezer into a temp controlled unit for lagering and general fermenting. Probably the best thing I've done, outside of my kegerator, to assist in my brewing. Getting stable temps and being able to cold crash has been very helpful.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Looks like everyone is getting ready for summer with all the Wits!

I also have a Belgian Wit going right now.
It was a simple recipe:
5 gallon batch
50% 6-Row (I used 5 lbs)
50% Unmalted Red Wheat (again, 5 lbs)
4oz. Acid Malt
1 pound rice hulls (unmalted wheat will cause a very sticky mash without these)
.75oz. Bitter Orange Peel
.75oz. Sweet Orange Peel
.75oz. Coriander
WLP 400

Mash @ 150°
Add spices last 5 minutes of boil
Hop to about 20 IBU with neutral to somewhat spicy hop such as Saaz, Sterling, Mt. Hood.
Also tastes good with a neutral Noble hop.

Grow yeast up in a starter to achieve ~250 billion cells (1.5l will work for fairly fresh yeast)
Ferment @ 70° for 15 days.

Carbonate to 2.5vols.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Yeah, it's a full size fridge and I've been using it to cold crash, but now I'll be able to hold temps anywhere I want them. Been sitting rock solid at 68° all week.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

what temp controller is everyone using and where did you get it?

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I did the homebuild of the ebay temp controller. I put it in a slick little radio shack project box. Total cost was about $25 and some time.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay...-build-163849/

Link has all you'd ever need to know about building it.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Got a mr beer chezch pilzner in the keg does that count :)

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

It's a darn good start!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Johnson A419 ABC-1C from PexSupply.
http://www.pexsupply.com/Johnson-Con...-120-240v-SPDT

The have a great price, but you'll need to be somewhat comfortable with 120v wiring.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Hell yeah. Your brewing beer at home are you not?

Checked my IPA yesterday and it tasted pretty damn good but needed a little cold crash to settle out some yeast, so its in the fridge waiting to be bottled tomorrow.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Just kegged an imperial dark belgian ale. Topped out at 12% ABV and is quite good.

Need a catchy name,maybe dealing with a dark knight or something. Any suggestions?

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Heart of Darkness
Into the Darkness
Left in the Dark
Scared of the Dark
Dark Matter
Shot in the Dark

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I built the exact same controller to that exact same thread.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Mine seems to work just fine and it is cheap. This is almost exactly what mine looks like (and rebel brewer is using the same controller), except I couldn't find a matching black outlet in my pile in the basement so my outlet is white, and no cool sticker. At the price they are charging you could build three.

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingc...hermostat.html

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I'm using the analog Johnson temp control unit right now....works well for me.
http://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Contro...ef=pd_sim_la_1

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Another vote for this model from Johnson Controls, however I bought mine pre-assembled from Northern Brewer:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/j...ontroller.html

Don't recall spending $84, though :sh It's a great unit, perfectly controls my fermentation freezer/yeast storage unit.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

You can find these ones cheaper online right now...I think I'm going to get another, digital this time, and I've found them in the 60s.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Jon, let me know if you find a good deal on a digital one. I have been searching for one also. Thanks

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

My Rosemary Honey Saison is just about finished primary ferment, got an ESB split batch (Dry English Ale and Burton Ale yeasts) from a 20 year old recipe sitting in secondaries, and yesterday brewed up a "Mid-Atlantic Transcontinental IPA": British malts + American hops (Falconer's Flight.) Pitched it on top of the ESB Dry English yeast cake and fermentation kicked off in 3 hours. :noon

Anybody have experience with Falconer's Flight? Specifically, whether they would make a good dry hop for the IPA.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

The Bobcat in Bristol, VT, makes a Falconers Flight single hop IPA that I always enjoy. Not sure if they dry hop it though. I tend to think any of the hops that add that citrusy character are great for dry hops. I love smelling fruit going into an IPA.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Must be the summer heat keeping folks from running a burner hours on end!

I'm brewing ten gallons of an Amarillo hopped saison as i type. I've got the ECY14 single strain saison to ferment it with. Tried to wake the yeast up last night with a small starter, no activity yet. Hopefully it's just a slow starter and not just dead...

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

yum! yeah personally i've stopped brewing and started drinking saisons for the summer ;)