What're you brewing right now?

ritzkiss · Post by **ritzkiss** » Sat Jan 11, 2014 4:31 pm

Not so much brewing per se but transferred my first attempt at a sour ale onto cranberries for a few more months there. Initial sips were promising though needing more time to hopefully sour a little more. Nowhere near as face melting as Cantillon or Drei Fonteinen…

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Sat Jan 11, 2014 6:03 pm

Got 2 batches of mead going last week. 1.070 and 1.140.

Picked up some local sour cherries today, 1lb/gallon in the light mead, 2lb/gallon in the sack mead.

Also kegged up a batch of kombucha with guava, pineapple, blueberries and cranberries. Holy shit it tastes good!

J343MY · Post by **J343MY** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:18 pm

just kegged my brett fermented wheat beer with a 7oz galaxy dry hop.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:28 am

I bottled a black IPA, a third of which got Brett in the secondary last night. I messed up the hops, so it's not as bitter as it should be, but I think that will actually work with the Brett nicely.

Next weekend I'll bottle the IS that's sitting on chocolate and vanilla right now.

Scottatron · Post by **Scottatron** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:36 pm

J343MY wrote:just kegged my brett fermented wheat beer with a 7oz galaxy dry hop.

Sounds delicious. How did it taste?

J343MY · Post by **J343MY** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:56 pm

Scottatron wrote:
J343MY wrote:just kegged my brett fermented wheat beer with a 7oz galaxy dry hop.
Sounds delicious. How did it taste?

I haven't tasted it yet, but I expect it will be delicious. I will probably let it cold condition for 2 weeks and then start drinking.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:31 am

The local club is attempting a fat tug clone...

Targets:
===================================
OG - 1.070
TG - 1.016
ABV - 7%

13.5# Pils
1.5# carastan

60min 1oz Summit (17.2%AA)
15min 1oz Centennial (10.6%AA)
10min 1.5oz Citra (13.7%AA)
10min 1oz Cascade (5.9%AA)
5min 1oz Centennial (10.6%AA)
Steep15 1oz Centennial (10.6%AA)
Steep15 1oz Amarillo (8.7%AA)
Steep15 1oz Cascade (5.9%AA)
Dry 1oz Centennial (10.6%AA)
Dry 1 oz Amarillo (8.7%AA)

Mine started at 1.064 and finished at 1.011. Not sure what happened to my efficiency.

I just racked to secondary... Tastes a little too citrusy, and not quite dank enough. I split the batch and dry hopped half with Columbus as well. I don't know if I'd use cascade in this again...

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:18 am

Derek wrote: Mine started at 1.064 and finished at 1.011. Not sure what happened to my efficiency.

the story of my life.
since i changed my brewing equipment, my efficiency sucks. even the other day, i changed my mill setting to a slightly tighter grind, hoping to get more efficiency. nadda.

just ordered in a thermopen. hoping that will affect my efficiency via more accurate temp readings. going to fuck around with BeerSmith as well to see if i've set it for too much loss due to trub

blakee · Post by **blakee** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:28 am

derek, nice work on the fat tug clone! i've been trying to piece together a recipe myself from all the available information on the net. apparently driftwood divulged that the hops are summit, centennial, amarillo, and cascade... maybe citra pushed it over the edge?

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:42 am

Ever since I got my new brew kettle, I've been getting lower efficiency. I also struggle to get a real rolling boil, just because the larger pot holds more liquid and my pos stove just can't keep up. I think for next time I'll have to shell out for a proper burner. That would probably make the wife happy too, since it would move the whole process outside.

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:12 am

squeaky wrote:Ever since I got my new brew kettle, I've been getting lower efficiency. I also struggle to get a real rolling boil, just because the larger pot holds more liquid and my pos stove just can't keep up. I think for next time I'll have to shell out for a proper burner. That would probably make the wife happy too, since it would move the whole process outside.

i have an insane burner, but i'm using a keg as my kettle. on a cold day, the keg stays too cold to get a great boil going. think that, plus me being at the end of my propane tank, resulted in less evaporation than calculated.

the end result is me having my beer percolating out of my fermenting bucket. it's leaving a delicious mess of molasses and coconut.

grub · Post by **grub** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:19 am

atomeyes wrote:i have an insane burner, but i'm using a keg as my kettle. on a cold day, the keg stays too cold to get a great boil going. think that, plus me being at the end of my propane tank, resulted in less evaporation than calculated.

do you have anything to shield the burner from wind? that'll help your cause.

when the tank starts getting low, shake it. the combo of low temps and low volume makes the pressure drop, and shaking it up helps wring every last bit out of the tank. Either that or just swap it for your full backup tank... you do have one of those, right?

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:33 am

blakee wrote:derek, nice work on the fat tug clone! i've been trying to piece together a recipe myself from all the available information on the net. apparently driftwood divulged that the hops are summit, centennial, amarillo, and cascade... maybe citra pushed it over the edge?

Yeah, a few of us pieced it together from the web and info from the staff. I think their first batch used citra, but they got rid of it when it became a high volume, regular production brew.

They bitter with summit, then I think it's mostly centennial. They do change it up a bit according to hop availability.

I think there are 9 of us brewing this same recipe. It'll be interesting to get together and compare the final results.

I typically don't use nearly that much crystal, so I am surprised it finished that dry. I mashed at 154f too... Will definitely check thermometer before next brew.

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:07 pm

grub wrote:
atomeyes wrote:i have an insane burner, but i'm using a keg as my kettle. on a cold day, the keg stays too cold to get a great boil going. think that, plus me being at the end of my propane tank, resulted in less evaporation than calculated.
do you have anything to shield the burner from wind? that'll help your cause.

when the tank starts getting low, shake it. the combo of low temps and low volume makes the pressure drop, and shaking it up helps wring every last bit out of the tank. Either that or just swap it for your full backup tank... you do have one of those, right?

the backup was drained by our neighbours during the power outage. didn't realize how much of it they used.

i did a foil paper shield around the burner. that is fine unless it's an insane wind storm. it's the cold weather's effect on our keg.

more interested in why my efficiency's sucked ass as of late

J343MY · Post by **J343MY** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:50 pm

atomeyes wrote:the story of my life.
since i changed my brewing equipment, my efficiency sucks. even the other day, i changed my mill setting to a slightly tighter grind, hoping to get more efficiency. nadda.

just ordered in a thermopen. hoping that will affect my efficiency via more accurate temp readings. going to fuck around with BeerSmith as well to see if i've set it for too much loss due to trub

I don't think a better thermometer will make any difference for efficiency. As long as you are getting full conversion, the temperature won't matter for efficiency. good chance you are leaving more wort behind in the kettle than you think. Could also be a sparge issue. How are you sparging?