The Bar Towel

cannondale wrote:I'm putting together a recipe for a Galaxy single hop IPA that I will be brewing this weekend.

Galaxy IPA (11 gallons):

Fermentables (target OG 1.080):
85% Pale malt (2°L)
5% Munich malt (9°L)
5% Victory malt (25°L)
5% British Crystal malt (55°L)

Hops (target IBU 80):
3 oz. Galaxy hops (13.0% AA) @ 60 min.
2 oz. Galaxy hops @ 10 min.
2 oz. Galaxy hops @ 5 min.
2 oz. Galaxy hops @ 0 miin.
2 oz. Galaxy hops @ dry hop

Single infusion mash at 152°F.

Yeast:
Safale US-05

Brewing this one again this morning, but scaled to 5.5 gallons. This time I'm going to use a little less hops for bittering and dry hopping, with a little more in each of the late additions. I'm also going to ferment with S-04 at 66°F this time round.

Galaxy hops are great.

That looks like a fine recipe for a Galaxy DIPA, though I do think S-04 is disgusting, and would never ever think of using it in anything, but particularly not a DIPA. Just my opinion of course...

I brewed a Flanders Red last weekend. 5th batch in 5 years, it is my longest running annual brew, and the recipe hasn't really changed much.

Will be brewing 10-12 gallons of "Regina-style" lambic next weekend. Two of my friends have large gardens, so we made some starter wort and tossed some grapes from each garden into 2 portions, and also put another portion uncovered in one of their greenhouses overnight. The greenhouse portion was dumped, but the grape portions are promising; one was a little earthy/tart, the other is very fruity. We are further building up these starters at the moment, and then doing 2 seperate fermentations. Should be pretty damn interesting.

After that, will be brewing my Sour Cherry Mead for the second year in a row using local honey and local sour cherries. And then I'm done brewing until next April!

markaberrant wrote:That looks like a fine recipe for a Galaxy DIPA, though I do think S-04 is disgusting, and would never ever think of using it in anything, but particularly not a DIPA. Just my opinion of course...

Of course. And I used to feel the same way. However I've found that if you keep the fermentation temperature relatively low, those fruity/wood esters are significantly suppressed, and you can enjoy the excellent floculation properties of this strain. You get this much above 70 and it turns into a real mess.

Brewing my 50th batch tomorrow, just a simple Imperial Red Ale.

Not quite as interesting as last weekend,
- Bottled a Belgian Pale Ale that had been in secondary for six months with Brett B.
- Transferred a Wild Ale (soured with Lactobacillus, and fermented with Brett L) onto raspberries.
- Brewed a "Lemon Meringue" Dessert Pale Ale with Sorachi Ace, Lactose, Graham Crackers, and a bit of Acid Malt.

cannondale wrote:That looks like a fine recipe for a Galaxy DIPA, though I do think S-04 is disgusting, and would never ever think of using it in anything, but particularly not a DIPA. Just my opinion of course...

I used it once last year, started at 64F, let rise to 68F. It threw a ton of diacetyl that would not go away, I even pitched some Nottingham hoping that would clear it up. I dumped almost the entire batch, but used some of it to top up a carboy of Flanders Red, figured the bugs would chew it up (they are known to consume most yeast by products)... and wouldn't you know it, after a year of aging, I can still pick up a faint hint of friggin' diacetyl. Yuck.

herrorara wrote:Brewing my 50th batch tomorrow, just a simple Imperial Red Ale.

Congrats, I just bottled my 20th all-grain batch, an all-centennial IPA just over 6% - "Tri-Centennial, Man"

phirleh wrote:

herrorara wrote:Brewing my 50th batch tomorrow, just a simple Imperial Red Ale.

Congrats, I just bottled my 20th all-grain batch, an all-centennial IPA just over 6% - "Tri-Centennial, Man"

Nice! I did an all centennial IPA for batch #13. "Huron Centennial IPA". (went to Huron Centennial Public School from grades K-8, )

Racked an Ommegang Hennepin clone to secondary. Very happy with the flavour/aroma profile. The WLP500 got it down to 1.007. Now chilling it to 35F for 2 weeks of conditioning/flocculation.

Also whipped up yet another batch of Apfelwein. I may add some spice to this once fermentation is complete. Cinnamon, nutmeg?? Any experience in spicing ciders fellas? What stage? Amounts?

Spent the afternoon blending some kegs, and eating english raw milk cheddar as a palette cleanser. I had the following kegs on hand:

- 2/3 keg of wet hop cascade pale ale - tasty, but a little too carmelly
- 2 2/3 kegs of "german pale ale" - started out as seperate batches of pilsner ale and altbier (both heavily hopped with Mt Hood). I blended them several months ago, then recently added 1oz of Crystal dry hops to each keg. Ok, but Crystal is not the greatest choice for a dry hop, and the overall character is too bitter.
- full keg of porter, hopped with Mt Hood, doesn't really work, and a little too thin/bitter. Tried experimenting earlier in the day with adding various amounts of vanilla, but the hop bitterness is just too much.

Ended up with the following kegs:

2/3 german pale ale, 1/3 wet hop pale ale
2/3 german pale ale, 1/3 porter
2/3 porter, 1/3 wet hop pale ale

I'm liking all of them at the moment, at least they don't have any rough edges. Plus it freed up a keg for my Cherry mead!

Also tasted a bit of Old Ale that just went into the kegerator 2 days ago. Brewed it 2 months back, was going for something resembling Great Divide Hibernation Ale. Seems to be in the ballpark, which makes me quite happy.

I won a box of Festa Brew Red Ale at the SOB Learn2Brew event last week and dropped it on top of my yeast cake of WL 007 that I got from the Amsterdam. Like dropping a match into a tank of gasoline, good thing I had a blowoff tube.

yesterday was a beautiful day for brewing. whipped up a mild and our first lager, a doppelbock. the decoctions made for a long day, but both were right on target. might have been the last brewday for the year, but we've got another pair on the back burner if we get another warm day before winter sets in.

Brewer's Best Falconer's Flight Extra IPA kit. IT ISN'T BUBBLING YET OH MY GOD I HOPE EVERYTHING IS OKAY...

Post-brew panic. Hasn't quite been 24h yet, though, so hopefully it'll be fine.

Brewed an all Centennial IPA on Friday, as well bottling up the Chocolate Chip Cookie ale.

cannondale wrote:

markaberrant wrote:That looks like a fine recipe for a Galaxy DIPA, though I do think S-04 is disgusting, and would never ever think of using it in anything, but particularly not a DIPA. Just my opinion of course...

Of course. And I used to feel the same way. However I've found that if you keep the fermentation temperature relatively low, those fruity/wood esters are significantly suppressed, and you can enjoy the excellent floculation properties of this strain. You get this much above 70 and it turns into a real mess.

I stopped using as well... I find it has a musty flavour that I'm not fond of. But taste is so personal & subjective. The last time I used it was a dry stout... I hated it, but Bobsy thought it was one of my better brews.

markaberrant wrote: Plus it freed up a keg for my Cherry mead!

Have you done much mead? What yeast do you use? I've never done one, but I have fond memories and cravings for a buckwheat mead: http://www.applewoodfarmwinery.com/

So I'm considering brewing a pale ale, then using some of the yeast cake for a couple gallons of mead. Or I might just brew a big Braggot with some Gambrinus honey malt.