The Bar Towel

i just BOTTLED an all-brett belgian blonde I made back in february.
used East Coast Yeast's brett strain.
it behaved quite unusual. i tasted it 1-2 months after brewing and it still had residual sweetness, which is strange, since brett as primary acts like sacc.
so i set it and forgot it. literally. my lazy habit/disdain for bottling.
sampled it this week and it had that Orval hint to it with a peppery rye finish.

of course, a lesson learned for everyone: don't bottle beer after a saturday afternoon nap. pretty sure i forgot to StarSan my bottling bucket thoroughly. that's a first after 3 years of brewing. i should be fine, but still. for fuck's sake.

Ipa I finished with Galaxy... Good, but I need to work on my water & add some salt.

Took advantage of the warmer weather today and wrapping up a robust porter, decided to go Citra on the hop profile (what I had) though. Also going to split off half of it to let it sit on some rum aged oak. Not sure if it will all meld together but good to get out & brew!

Brewing a Best Bitter today. Aiming for an easy drinker, lots of EKG in the kettle, and a nice mix of Fawcets Crystal I and Dark II.

For fun I'm taking a pH measurement at each point in the process to get a better idea how how pH changes.

Cheers.
Eric

today I brewed 5 gallons of Wee Heavy and 5 gallons of Scottish Stout

I added some of fresh 2 row, Melanoidin and a blend of dark malt to the mash after i ran off the first runnings for the Wee Heavy. Ended up with OGs of 1.096 and 1.062

pitched wyeast 1728 for both

I bottled a mild, which is tasting great, today and racked an IS (that I messed up with a stuck mash and missed my gravity target by a mile) to secondary. The stout tastes fine, but it's hardly the imperial it should be.

On the side a friend and I have pitched the following yeast strains spread out over 8 batches of cider to share:

1. WLP775: Dry cider yeast, will ferment cider to completion.

2. WLP775 with Brett in secondary (see 3)

3. Brett: Brettanomyces isolated from a Canadian wild beer (that Bar Volo/TDD sour)

4. A wild Brett(?) we isolated from apples.

5. WY3726PC: Farmhouse strain

6. Wild yeast taken from a crate of self-fermenting apples: This yeast is oxidative and will only ferment to ~2% alcohol by volume. (We'll pitch WLP775 onto it after a few days)

7. Blend of Sacc, Brett, and Lacto isolated from Hill Farmstead Phenomenology of Spirit.

8. Wild ferment. I did this last year with apples from the same source and it turned out terrific.

Craig wrote:
3. Brett: Brettanomyces isolated from a Canadian wild beer (that Bar Volo/TDD sour)

4. A wild Brett(?) we isolated from apples.


6. Wild yeast taken from a crate of self-fermenting apples: This yeast is oxidative and will only ferment to ~2% alcohol by volume. (We'll pitch WLP775 onto it after a few days)

7. Blend of Sacc, Brett, and Lacto isolated from Hill Farmstead Phenomenology of Spirit.

8. Wild ferment. I did this last year with apples from the same source and it turned out terrific.

lacto and cider may be weird. sour cider?

pretty sure the Trou du Diable barrel-aged beer is all pasteurized prior to bottling. that likely isn't brett that you isolated and is the sacc used to bottle condition.

wild ferments: that's the traditional way to ferment cider. i don't like the variability and potential for it to taste like a camel's dong. this year, i heated my cider into the 70s (C) for 20 min and then pitched yeast. it's early, but so far, it tastes great. it also eliminates the E Coli risk you can get with unpasteurized cider.

"wild yeast taken from a crate of self-fermenting apples" - you sure it isn't lacto? or, worse, acetobacter?

atomeyes wrote:

Craig wrote:
3. Brett: Brettanomyces isolated from a Canadian wild beer (that Bar Volo/TDD sour)

4. A wild Brett(?) we isolated from apples.


6. Wild yeast taken from a crate of self-fermenting apples: This yeast is oxidative and will only ferment to ~2% alcohol by volume. (We'll pitch WLP775 onto it after a few days)

7. Blend of Sacc, Brett, and Lacto isolated from Hill Farmstead Phenomenology of Spirit.

8. Wild ferment. I did this last year with apples from the same source and it turned out terrific.

lacto and cider may be weird. sour cider?

pretty sure the Trou du Diable barrel-aged beer is all pasteurized prior to bottling. that likely isn't brett that you isolated and is the sacc used to bottle condition.

wild ferments: that's the traditional way to ferment cider. i don't like the variability and potential for it to taste like a camel's dong. this year, i heated my cider into the 70s (C) for 20 min and then pitched yeast. it's early, but so far, it tastes great. it also eliminates the E Coli risk you can get with unpasteurized cider.

"wild yeast taken from a crate of self-fermenting apples" - you sure it isn't lacto? or, worse, acetobacter?

I love sour ciders, I'm happy to take the gamble given how many other batches we have on the go.

It's brett. Those beers are gushers, I'd be surprised if they're pasteurized. But we know it's Brett, we looked at it under a microscope.

I really liked the wild ferment I did last year, but I guess there's always that risk. I figure at least one of these attempts will suck, but I'm getting like 8 different things here so I'm not likely to run out.

I'm told it's Hanseniaspora apiculata. I don't know anything about it really, my buddy picked that one. These are his full notes:

This yeast is oxidative and will only ferment to ~2% alcohol by volume. However, it will impart many flavours typical of spontaneously-fermented ciders, including some great fruit esters. To use, this yeast should be added to well oxygenated cider, mead or fruit wine, one to two days before pitching conventional yeast. This yeast will be readily killed by wine or beer yeasts, and as such must be added prior to pitching these yeasts

Craig wrote:I bottled a mild, which is tasting great, today and racked an IS (that I messed up with a stuck mash and missed my gravity target by a mile) to secondary. The stout tastes fine, but it's hardly the imperial it should be.

On the side a friend and I have pitched the following yeast strains spread out over 8 batches of cider to share:

1. WLP775: Dry cider yeast, will ferment cider to completion.

2. WLP775 with Brett in secondary (see 3)

3. Brett: Brettanomyces isolated from a Canadian wild beer (that Bar Volo/TDD sour)

4. A wild Brett(?) we isolated from apples.

5. WY3726PC: Farmhouse strain

6. Wild yeast taken from a crate of self-fermenting apples: This yeast is oxidative and will only ferment to ~2% alcohol by volume. (We'll pitch WLP775 onto it after a few days)

7. Blend of Sacc, Brett, and Lacto isolated from Hill Farmstead Phenomenology of Spirit.

8. Wild ferment. I did this last year with apples from the same source and it turned out terrific.

Richard gave me some of this one and I brewed a beer with it back in August. I should check how its doing soon.

I just finished brewing a Saison with Hibiscus, and Meyer lemon juice & zest. Most delicious wort I've ever tasted. It was kind of like pink lemonade.

Bottled up my Lagunitas Sucks clone (it falls far short) for the GTA Brews advent swap, and yesterday with Brew York we took a stab at a Weihenstephaner Dunkel clone

was supposed to attempt a BCBS clone today, but have to postpone the brew due to HANGOVER

atomeyes wrote:was supposed to attempt a BCBS clone today, but have to postpone the brew due to HANGOVER

I've always found being hungover to be an important part of the brewing process.

As for me, on Saturday I did a simple, minimally hopped beer and left it in my coolship over night. The resulting block of ice is now thawing in the basement.

Today i made an Oatmeal stout.

J343MY wrote:

atomeyes wrote:was supposed to attempt a BCBS clone today, but have to postpone the brew due to HANGOVER

I've always found being hungover to be an important part of the brewing process.

As for me, on Saturday I did a simple, minimally hopped beer and left it in my coolship over night. The resulting block of ice is now thawing in the basement.

Today i made an Oatmeal stout.

Have you ever thought of adding a heat pad to your cool ship to stall the cooling process from 3-4 hours to 12 hours? Jean Van Roy mentioned that idea in a Basic Brewing podcast. Would extend the exposure time.

He also mentioned that doing it when cool outside is key to get the right microbes.

atomeyes wrote:was supposed to attempt a BCBS clone today, but have to postpone the brew due to HANGOVER

I, II or III?