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Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 8:33 am
by atomeyes
grub wrote:
zaireeka wrote:Does someone here have a watermelon wheat beer recipe that involves reducing the watermelon juice? I recently came across such a recipe but cant seem to remember where.
I recommend against reducing watermelon juice. I brewed with it a few years back and figured that the sugar content would be low, so figured i'd want to boil it down to concentrate that and the flavour. started by dicing up the watermelon, removing seeds, and mashing it all, then pushing through a wire mesh strainer to get most juice with little solid matter. the result was sweeter than i expected and had a great watermelon character. But since I had already planned/prepped for reducing it, I continued down that path - more sugar, smaller volume, and more concentrated watermelon flavour all sounded like good things. however, once it reached a boil, there was a quick and very pronounced change - the colour turned more orangey and the flavour/aroma became distinctly non-watermelony. this non-watermelon character carried through to the finished product and I didn't like it at all.

Were I to do it again, I'd probably try to carefully bring a small amount up to pasteurization temp and see if it was still "good" before doing the whole batch. worst case I'd skip this step and throw it into secondary and live with a bit of funk if it came up.
not surprisingly, watermelon turns into a squash-like flavour when baked/grilled

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 5:20 pm
by -Liam-
Brewed my first attempt at a Headstock clone yesterday. Good brew day and it's fermenting away happily...

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 5:06 am
by mahcinesquad
Trying a partigyle this morning. English Barleywine and then a bitter.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:21 pm
by zaireeka
grub wrote:
zaireeka wrote:Does someone here have a watermelon wheat beer recipe that involves reducing the watermelon juice? I recently came across such a recipe but cant seem to remember where.
I recommend against reducing watermelon juice. I brewed with it a few years back and figured that the sugar content would be low, so figured i'd want to boil it down to concentrate that and the flavour. started by dicing up the watermelon, removing seeds, and mashing it all, then pushing through a wire mesh strainer to get most juice with little solid matter. the result was sweeter than i expected and had a great watermelon character. But since I had already planned/prepped for reducing it, I continued down that path - more sugar, smaller volume, and more concentrated watermelon flavour all sounded like good things. however, once it reached a boil, there was a quick and very pronounced change - the colour turned more orangey and the flavour/aroma became distinctly non-watermelony. this non-watermelon character carried through to the finished product and I didn't like it at all.

Were I to do it again, I'd probably try to carefully bring a small amount up to pasteurization temp and see if it was still "good" before doing the whole batch. worst case I'd skip this step and throw it into secondary and live with a bit of funk if it came up.
Yes, it was your recipe that I found. Thanks for the info against reducing the juice. At first I thought cooked watermelon won't be so good then a couple days later I thought it might be good and at that point forgot where I found the recipe.

I'm going to play around on a small scale with dehydrating thin watermelon chunks then secondary them, see how that turns out. If that doesn't work I will just dump raw juice in the secondary. I like your kolsch route too, intialy I was planing on a wheat beer but the yeast would likely hide the watermelon flavor.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:41 am
by grub
zaireeka wrote:I'm going to play around on a small scale with dehydrating thin watermelon chunks then secondary them, see how that turns out. If that doesn't work I will just dump raw juice in the secondary. I like your kolsch route too, intialy I was planing on a wheat beer but the yeast would likely hide the watermelon flavor.
what do you think you'd gain via dehydration? i'd worry that it would pull out a whole bunch of flavour.

FWIW, I didn't much enjoy this batch - we generally do the kolsch with pineapple, but on that particular week watermelon was $0.99 and pineapples were $4.99, so I decided to give it a whirl. I'd probably like it more without the funky reduced watermelon flavour, but still not sure i'd be in love...

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 7:32 am
by Swampale
Brewing another Pilsner and Kolsch.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:03 am
by zaireeka
grub wrote:
zaireeka wrote:I'm going to play around on a small scale with dehydrating thin watermelon chunks then secondary them, see how that turns out. If that doesn't work I will just dump raw juice in the secondary. I like your kolsch route too, intialy I was planing on a wheat beer but the yeast would likely hide the watermelon flavor.
what do you think you'd gain via dehydration? i'd worry that it would pull out a whole bunch of flavour.

FWIW, I didn't much enjoy this batch - we generally do the kolsch with pineapple, but on that particular week watermelon was $0.99 and pineapples were $4.99, so I decided to give it a whirl. I'd probably like it more without the funky reduced watermelon flavour, but still not sure i'd be in love...
I have a dehydrator that produces very little heat. So my hopes are it will concentrate the flavor well still having it taste good. I'm going draw off 2L of homebrew and experiment with that to start with.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 10:41 am
by J343MY
yesterday I brewed an IPA with grapefruit juice & zest, hopped with amarillo, simcoe, and galaxy.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 3:07 pm
by pinot_casey
BA RIS base.
Have to do this over a few days, as my system is just tiny!

Mashing now, smells great!

It will spend about 3mo in barrel and be bottle conditioned for enjoyment around thanksgiving.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 9:23 am
by Craig
On Saturday I:

- Kegged a Saison.
- Bottled a saison that was split into three carboys. One had lacto, one had Brett and the other was supposed to be clean but ended up infected. They've been running for...8 months now? The lacto one is nice and tart, they all turned out actually. Even the infection.
- Brewed another batch of saison and put it on the yeast cakes from the last batch. When they hit half gravity or so I'll pitch some really healthy 3711. I'm hoping for similar results, but in a faster time frame to the last batch.

I was a little worried that the three yeast cakes wouldn't have the umph to start up fermentation right away. I needn't have worried, the lacto made a mess of my kitchen floor this morning and the basement infection one was going early Sunday, although I pitched fresh 3711 into that one so no surprise there. Still no sign of activity from the Brett one, but I'm betting by the time I get home tonight it will be bubbling away.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 5:18 pm
by mahcinesquad
Brewed a hefeweizen yesterday. First attempt at a decoction mash. Everything seemed to work out alright - I guess I'll see in a few weeks when it's bottled and carbed.

Thursday I'm brewing an IPA loaded with Falconer's Flight.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:35 am
by Swampale
Brewed a Kolsch and a Pilsner. All fermenters are full, but all kegs are empty :(

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:33 pm
by J343MY
I brewed sort of a margarita inspired IPA today with lime, agave nectar, and fleur de sel.

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:51 pm
by icemachine
Brew York club brew on Sunday was a 10G Wit (straining my system at 1040 OG), going to be split between a fresh batch on fruit for the next meeting and a sour/funk blend for next spring/summer sometime

Re: What're you brewing right now?

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:51 pm
by icemachine
Brew York club brew on Sunday was a 10G Wit (straining my system at 1040 OG), going to be split between a fresh batch on fruit for the next meeting and a sour/funk blend for next spring/summer sometime