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What're you brewing right now?

Post your own tasty recipes or homebrewing advice here.

Moderators: Craig, Cass

atomeyes
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Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:39 pm

Post 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

-Liam-
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed May 20, 2015 9:03 pm

Post by -Liam- »

Brewed my first attempt at a Headstock clone yesterday. Good brew day and it's fermenting away happily...

mahcinesquad
Posts: 167
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 7:09 pm
Location: Guelph

Post by mahcinesquad »

Trying a partigyle this morning. English Barleywine and then a bitter.

zaireeka
Posts: 67
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:18 pm

Post 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.

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grub
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Post 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...
@grubextrapolate // @biergotter // http://biergotter.org/

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Swampale
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Location: Peterborough

Post by Swampale »

Brewing another Pilsner and Kolsch.
TaxFreeBeerTastesBetter

zaireeka
Posts: 67
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:18 pm

Post 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.

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J343MY
Posts: 321
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 12:40 pm

Post by J343MY »

yesterday I brewed an IPA with grapefruit juice & zest, hopped with amarillo, simcoe, and galaxy.

pinot_casey
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 5:01 pm

Post 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.

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Craig
Seasoned Drinker
Posts: 1943
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:23 am

Post 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.

mahcinesquad
Posts: 167
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 7:09 pm
Location: Guelph

Post 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.

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Swampale
Posts: 102
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:43 am
Location: Peterborough

Post by Swampale »

Brewed a Kolsch and a Pilsner. All fermenters are full, but all kegs are empty :(
TaxFreeBeerTastesBetter

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J343MY
Posts: 321
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 12:40 pm

Post by J343MY »

I brewed sort of a margarita inspired IPA today with lime, agave nectar, and fleur de sel.

icemachine
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Post 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
"Everything ... is happening" - Bob Cole

icemachine
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Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:20 am
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Post 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
"Everything ... is happening" - Bob Cole

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