Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I'll be AG for both because I want to get a better handle on a few of my recipes. I'm gonna redo my abbey ale at Winston's and want to roll AG for that. I haven't finalized my decision for the cluster brew, but gonna do my xmas beer there.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Can't wait to get everything unpacked so I can start brewing again!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Putting in my order for 6 gallons of fresh pressed cider. Not a big cider fan myself but pals seemed to like it at thanksgiving last year. Decent change of pace, and can't get much easier.

1. Fill carboy with cider
2. Add yeast

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Picked up a lb of 2012 crops:

Belma leaf hops
Cirta leaf hops

from www.hopsdirect.com Pretty good prices imo.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Let us know how that Belma works out. It sounds like it is right up my alley hop wise.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Well my hops came in and I opened the Belma bag and it was an instant room filling aroma of citrus! I think this is going to be the new hot hops for the up coming year..... My bag was 1.7 oz over a lb ;). Hoping the citra bag will weigh over as well. While splitting up the bag into 4 oz packages the resins just covered the bags and my fingertips.

Here is what I made tonight:

Mini mash 45 min soak
2 1/2 lb 2row
1/2 lb crystal 20l

6 lb extra pale extract

1 oz belma hops 60 min
1 oz belma hops 15 min
1 oz belma hops 5 min

Pitched wlabs californa ale 001

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Brewed a brown ale with 2lbs of a friends honey today. Hadn't brewed in what seemed like ages. Nice to get a day in.

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:dr:dr

Dang, that sounds good! I love fresh honey, and mixing it with a grerat brown ale...wow!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I can only hope so. I came home to yeasty foam pushing through the blowoff tubes from both carboys so it'll at least have booze in it. Should be good paired with turkey and help further induce that early afternoon nap!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Have any of you guys qualified for the MCAB finals in May?
A Mini homebrewers herf in Minneapolis would be cool.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Got a Xmas ale in the fermentor currently....did a semi-clone of Great Lakes Brew Co. Xmas Ale, which I like a lot. I tweaked it a bit so I'm sure it'll be different, but hopefully close. I'm supposed to be brewing this Sun, but now we have another "perfect storm" apparently going to destroy the East Coast so I don't know if it's going to happen.

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lol... jackalope. Did you get your new fermentors today? Mine showed up... helluva deal!

Is 635 still all jammed up? You should take than on over to 35 and shoot right up to Minneapolis in May! It can be any more than a two hour drive!:D

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Haven't received the fermenters yet.

Two hour! HA!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Just thought I would post up my initial findings on the Belma hops. I went from the primary to the keg after 2 weeks in the fermenter @65 deg and can see how these hops compair to citra. They are less in your face and I don't really get the orange taste that is in the description on hops direct website...what I do taste is a nice change of pace citrus based hop that seems to be a bit better at bittering than citra/simco....that pine is there in the finish along with the citrus.

I did float an extra oz of Belma in the keg for a dry hop so that will help amplify this new hops T F S profile. Will post back after it is carbed with more.

Brewing up a Falconers Flight IIPA tonight and a Galaxy Pale Ale tomorrow. ;o)

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Falconer's Flight is a great hop.
Belma reminds me of a more tropical/mango citrus Aussie hop.
Both should be good stuff.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Just got back from a run to Northern Brewer for some supplies. 2 batches of Dry Irish, one EPA and one Two Hearted clone with a slight twist are on deck. I suppose if it is a clone with a twist, it isn't a clone at all.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

5.5 gallons of Saison du Noel is bubbling away, just added D-90 and 16oz of wildflower honey last night. Smells great, should be ready to drink by Christmas.

Will be bottling up my holiday ale this weekend: an American Imperial Chocolate Cherry Stout, fermented with Duvel's Belgian strong ale yeast that I harvested from a bottle of Blue Mountain Brewery's Dark Hollow.

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I'm hoping someone could help me out! I know nothing about home brewing but my dad keeps expressing interest but won't pull the trigger.. So I'm thinking for xmas I'll give him a little nudge down the slope.

I was just wondering if I were to make him a "starter kit" what are the things I would need? Doesn't have to be anything to make mass amounts all at once or anything like that. Something simple to get him started. Thanks in advance!

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Some folks express interest but aren't really interested. There are forums for such things.

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Northern Brewer now has 1gallon brewing starter kits

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/b...arter-kit.html

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I think I could handle it on this scale. :banger

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Basement is finally cool enough for lagering! Just put in an order for grains to make a German Pils and a Vienna lager.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Got a few things going:

Dark American Lager fermenting
Cascadian Dark Ale fermenting

Munich Helles in Lagering Mode
Maibock in Lagering Mode

American Amber carbing in the keg

On Tap:

Extra Pale Ale (OG 1.056, FG 1.008, 75 IBUs)

Sweet Coffee Stout

Cream Ale

German Pils

Aging:

Baltic Porter

Wines:

Cab Sauv and White Zin are in clearning mode

Mead:

Blackberry Mead in aging mode (OG 1.115 FG LOW!)

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Brewed a 10.50 gal batch of Tim's Cleveland Steam. Fermenting now at 58 degrees. I pitched at hybrid rates to ensure that the yeast will perform at the low end of the temperature scale. I will probably hold this temp for 10-14 days and then ramp up to 64 for a couple days.

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Cooking some Happy Camp Hellesbock from a local store.

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Wait... you still get to brew? AND wine AND mead?
Snap, I'm doing something wrong!

How's it? Should be close to done, no?

I'm bummed... done brewing for a while.
I've got 3 weeks off work, but our water has turned to ****. River levels are so low that it smells like dirt... even after filtering.

Found out last Saturday that I was named St. Louis Homebrewer of the Year.
Pretty cool, but I have no clue what's going on... I was not able to attend the awards ceremony. :(

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Sucks about the water, but congrats on the prize!

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My Fiance got me a home brewing kit from Brooklyn brewing company for xmas, and I'm going to break it out this weekend. I've thumbed through the posts here, and watched all the videos on their site, I'm hoping to turn out some good brew!

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Had to start the new year off right, even though the weather was not cooperative for an outdoor brew session. Good thing I cobbled together a 3-tier from scrap back in the fall, for just such an occasion:

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...7F1386BA44.jpg

I have 5 gallons of "3 Crops, 3 Hops" cream ale bubbling away this morning, hope to be ready in time for the Superbowl

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Took advantage of a near 50F day to get some outside brewing time in. 10 gallons of Marzen and 10 gallons of Dunkel into the basement for some lagering.

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http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...R/IMAG0474.jpg

Happy Camp Hellesbock. 1 month before I can crack one open.

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I see Home brewing in my near future, even though I don't really drink.

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I don't drink a whole bunch either Chad.. So the 2 cases this makes.. Last me quite a while.

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I told the old lady about my plan to home brew after we move, she just rolled her eyes
"another one" she say's. Time to start researching.

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Just bottled my first gallon, a smoked wheat ale. Should be ready just in time for the big game.

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^^^
a smoked wheat ale, sounds tasty, don't think I've ever tried that before. Just read your signature, I don't always drink beer, but when I do its a New Castle.

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Anybody manage to get entries registered for this year's National Homebrew Competition? The site was fubar yesterday, but I was successful in submitting entries to the Atlanta regional: a chocolate cherry stout, dark saison, American brown, and an IPA (with a Two Hearted Ale malt base + DFH 90 hopping schedule, currently being dry hopped.)

After last year's judging disaster in Pittsburgh, I swore off the AHA comp, but decided to test my luck in a different region. Maybe I'll at least get some valid feedback this year :sh For $12/entry, I hope so.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

A fellow homebrewer sent me the link yesterday. I didn't enter anything though. I wish I had realized that the homebrewers conference was in Philly this year, might have tried to get tickets. Guess I'll save my pennies for Belgium comes to Cooperstown this year.

I'd be interested to hear what the judging disaster was? I had a pal that was very worked up that his beer scored a 38 in our homebrew comp but got a 27 in the NHC.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I had heard lots of negative feedback about the quality of the judging in the Pittsburgh regional last year. My anecdote: I entered 6 beers, a total of 12 judging sheets returned. Less than half of my judges were ranked BJCP. Three of my forms only had scores, without any commentary in the sections to back them up. Two of my beers (completely different categories) were judged by the same 2 individuals: a Novice and a volunteer. Both of their written comments critiquing both beers were almost exactly the same on each of their sheets. This was not what I had ever encountered at NHC, so I was quite disappointed, especially after AHA had jacked the entry fees. So I wasn't upset about the scores themselves, just in the lack of value in the judging.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Send a few my way and I will judge them for you :D

Just ordered my first beer making kit last week, looking forward to the weather getting nicer so I can get to it.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

I have been brewing/kegging every weekend for the past 9 weeks ;o). Don't have the clipboard in front of me to tell you exactly what in which order but the stand out of batches would have to be a DFH 90 min clone as well as IIPA I came up with using the Tricerahops grain bill and 8 oz of Belma and Cirta hops. DFH was so good it popped in 3 weeks so I brewed another kit this past weekend. All of this and I still have 4 empty kegs to fill muahahhahahahaha.

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Thanks for the details Gerard. Not a good thing to hear.

Ten gallons of a Kern double citra clone and ten gallons of a simcoe IPA into fermenters today.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Used 5 gallons of syrup in a 10 gallon oatmeal stout batch today.

I call it syrup, but it came out of the arch of the system friends evaporate on. It is a little more watery than syrup and darker in color (SG 1.088). Has a strong flavor that should come through in the beer, and it was free. No way I'd dump 5 gallons of syrup in a beer at current prices! Hope it works out.

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I'm a home brewing noob. I just opened my first bottle from my first batch today, an Irish stout. It's tasty but needs more time to develop some more carbonation.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Got three going now
5 gal - Belgian Dark Strong (1.100 OG on WLP500)
55 gal - Oud Bruin (1.087 OG primaried on WLP500, now sitting in a Jack Daniels barrel on WLP665)
5 gal - Belgian Dark Strong (1.096 OG on WLP500)

Next week I'll knock out a 10 gallon batch of Classic American Pils.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?
 

Does everyone know about St. Lou Stu winning a silver medal at the The fifteenth annual Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing Championship event for the 2012 calendar year. Take a look at Category 7 here.

There is a master brewer among us!

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Just put 10 gallons of a Hop Rod Rye clone in primary. Sitting on a cake of pacman from a simcoe pale ale. I expect this one to ferment out very quickly.

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Tomorrow we're brewing a all-grain batch of a Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout. Can't wait to try this one.

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That sounds very interesting Bob. Keep us posted on how that turns out. As for me it looks like my centennial hops are ready to be picked so as soon as they are dry im looking at working on a nice pale ale.