What're you brewing right now?

[ritzkiss]

Brewed today with my four year old daughter (she'll tell you a whole lot about how to brew beer...), a Founder's Red's Rye type of ale, with a Toronto-centric label...

cool label. What program did you use?

10 day fermentation? Are you going to transfer to secondary and dry-hop in that time?

Thanks; I tinker around in Photoshop, learn as I go. I'm no graphic designer but I like being able to play around and learn a little as I do it.

The date was just a place holder, I'll adjust it when it's actually ready to go.

[Kekumba]

Did a single hop cascade IPA this afternoon. Unfortunately I don't have a wort chiller and forgot to buy some ice beforehand, so I had to wait a bit longer than I'd have liked to pitch the yeast. Looking forward to it, though. Gonna be my first time kegging so hopefully the batch turns out nicely.

[groulxsome]

Finalizing my Rye Saison recipe right now. I've got WLP 565 pitched into a starter for Saturday's brew day (1.5L). Here is the long recipe and reasonings, but here is the short form. It's basically another attempt to get my favorite yeast working with hops and starting to approximate my favorite wine, oaky-fruity Chardonay. Don't get at me with peppercorns, we don't need anymore peppercorn-rye-saisons!

8# 2-Row
4# Rye Malt
1/2# Victory Malt
(some rice hulls to prevent stuck sparge)
(Mash @ 152 for 60, Batch Sparge, start 90 boil)

10g Magnum (bittering) @ 60
14g Amarillo @ 15 (+ irish moss)
14g Nelson Sauvin @ 10
14g EKG @ 5
14g Amarillo @ 2

Pitch 1.5L starter of WLP 565. Once fermented (4-5 days) add 2 oz American Oak chips (pre-soaked in un-oak-ed Chardonay overnight) for 2 weeks. Bottle for ~2.8 carb vols.

1.055 OG, 6 SRM, 5.2% ABV.

Any thoughts folks? My hop schedule is pretty malleable and I'm tempted to either ramp it up or tone it down. I love how saisons age gracefully in a warm apartment (like mine), so I plan on brewing more of them throughout the summer!

[atomeyes]

i always like mashing saisons on the low end of the mash temp scale. i'd aim for 149-150 to get a dryer finish.

what temp you fermenting at? and the 4-5 days' fermentation is really too short. give it 3 weeks. then add oak.

[groulxsome]

i always like mashing saisons on the low end of the mash temp scale. i'd aim for 149-150 to get a dryer finish.

what temp you fermenting at? and the 4-5 days' fermentation is really too short. give it 3 weeks. then add oak.

Thanks for the info. I'll adjust my mash temp for sure.

I'm in a fairly warm apartment, so I'm stuck with fermenting near 20-22C for everything. I was hoping adding the wood as soon as primary fermentation is complete (not changing the vessel) would give it longer contact time, what would be the downside?

[atomeyes]

i always like mashing saisons on the low end of the mash temp scale. i'd aim for 149-150 to get a dryer finish.

what temp you fermenting at? and the 4-5 days' fermentation is really too short. give it 3 weeks. then add oak.

Thanks for the info. I'll adjust my mash temp for sure.

I'm in a fairly warm apartment, so I'm stuck with fermenting near 20-22C for everything. I was hoping adding the wood as soon as primary fermentation is complete (not changing the vessel) would give it longer contact time, what would be the downside?

it is easy to over-oak beer, especially if you're using relatively fresh wood chips. it is easy to add oak and taste once a week and then bottle when it tastes to your satisfaction.

it is very easy to make oak juice. very easy.

why not add it early? i mean, you can. fermenting in barrels happens. but the question i'd ask you is: why would you want to add anything when the fermentation process is still going on. you're risking infection by opening the airlock. 565 is a finnicky yeast. (read on). so you may be waiting a while for this to clean itself up.

when i brewed my saison with this, it was still cleaning up 3 weeks later. it is also suggested that you heat the wort during fermentation. white labs recommends a mid 60s to mid 70s threshold, but people will heat it well into the 80s to get that Dupont flavour.

hope this helps

[groulxsome]

i always like mashing saisons on the low end of the mash temp scale. i'd aim for 149-150 to get a dryer finish.

what temp you fermenting at? and the 4-5 days' fermentation is really too short. give it 3 weeks. then add oak.

Thanks for the info. I'll adjust my mash temp for sure.

I'm in a fairly warm apartment, so I'm stuck with fermenting near 20-22C for everything. I was hoping adding the wood as soon as primary fermentation is complete (not changing the vessel) would give it longer contact time, what would be the downside?

it is easy to over-oak beer, especially if you're using relatively fresh wood chips. it is easy to add oak and taste once a week and then bottle when it tastes to your satisfaction.

it is very easy to make oak juice. very easy.

why not add it early? i mean, you can. fermenting in barrels happens. but the question i'd ask you is: why would you want to add anything when the fermentation process is still going on. you're risking infection by opening the airlock. 565 is a finnicky yeast. (read on). so you may be waiting a while for this to clean itself up.

when i brewed my saison with this, it was still cleaning up 3 weeks later. it is also suggested that you heat the wort during fermentation. white labs recommends a mid 60s to mid 70s threshold, but people will heat it well into the 80s to get that Dupont flavour.

hope this helps

Thanks! It does help. I've used 566 before without issue, but I have seen some of the threads on 565 and I know of the trickiness of it. The oak-juice comment is well heard! I will wait a little until the beer is pretty much ready to add the chips. I have a small apartment, so heat control is the hardest part of homebrewing for me (I know it's a crucial part), but, yah, my goal is 22-24C for fermentation. My last saison was a Dupont clone and it came out pretty close, especially after a couple of months bottle conditioning.

[atomeyes]

Thanks! It does help. I've used 566 before without issue, but I have seen some of the threads on 565 and I know of the trickiness of it. The oak-juice comment is well heard! I will wait a little until the beer is pretty much ready to add the chips. I have a small apartment, so heat control is the hardest part of homebrewing for me (I know it's a crucial part), but, yah, my goal is 22-24C for fermentation. My last saison was a Dupont clone and it came out pretty close, especially after a couple of months bottle conditioning.

PetSmart. buy a $10-15 lizard tank heating cable. it looks like xmas lights without the lights. just a long, green cord.

i tape mine around my carboy (4 circles), making sure it isn't too close to the bottom (yeast cake) or top (krausen). i then wrap the carboy in an extra blanket. measure the temps and you can get it into the low 80s. the heat will apparently give a more peppery fermentation and better attenuation.

just food for thought.

[ritzkiss]

Brewing a Chai Milk Stout tonight:

2 Row 57.7%
Crystal 60L 17.3%
Chocolate malt 11.5%
Roasted Barley 5.8%
Lactose (Milk Sugar) 7.6%

US-05

Roasting whole cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorns, allspice, cloves and nutmeg to make a tincture I'll add at bottling.

[J343MY]

In pursuit of the perfect summer beer, yesterday I brewed an all citra hopped wheat beer fermented with brett B.

[phirleh]

Did a Blood Orange saison over the weekend. Might do a Nogne O 100 clone to put down until Christmas soon.

[atomeyes]

In pursuit of the perfect summer beer, yesterday I brewed an all citra hopped wheat beer fermented with brett B.

you'll be quite happy. that's my go-to pairing. funks nicely after 4+ months in a bottle (subtle). try with some acid malt in the malt bill as well. that tiny tartness is also nice.

[J343MY]

you'll be quite happy. that's my go-to pairing. funks nicely after 4+ months in a bottle (subtle). try with some acid malt in the malt bill as well. that tiny tartness is also nice.

I did use a little bit of acid malt, but it was mostly for lowering the PH of the mash.

I really doubt this beer will last anywhere close to 4 months, but I'm not really looking for funk. I just want to integrate the fruitiness of the brett with the fruitiness of the hops.

[atomeyes]

you'll be quite happy. that's my go-to pairing. funks nicely after 4+ months in a bottle (subtle). try with some acid malt in the malt bill as well. that tiny tartness is also nice.

I did use a little bit of acid malt, but it was mostly for lowering the PH of the mash.

I really doubt this beer will last anywhere close to 4 months, but I'm not really looking for funk. I just want to integrate the fruitiness of the brett with the fruitiness of the hops.

and it integrates really, really well. it is a natural fit. the brett yeast is pretty clean tasting so, depending on your hop additions, you'll have a pretty crisp blonde.

which company's yeast did you use? white or wyeast?

[J343MY]

and it integrates really, really well. it is a natural fit. the brett yeast is pretty clean tasting so, depending on your hop additions, you'll have a pretty crisp blonde.

which company's yeast did you use? white or wyeast?

It will be fairly hoppy, 4 oz of citra at flameout, and 4 oz dry hop. The yeast I used was WLP644.