What are you doing with homebrew today?

I just double milled 1.8 kg malt, meaning I have to bottle and brew tomorrow.
Previous 2 saison's were 2 kg 100 % pilsner malt. OG was on the high side, so now 1.8 kg in total. Too lazy to put it into brewfather. 740 gr lager malt/1060 pilsner. Lager malt was getting a bit old.
 
Played with my kettle and my mash tun thinking of a second pump for whirlpooling and cooling and a a better way to monitor mash temperature. Stay tun-ed.....get it??? TUN-ed....tuned???

I'll be here all week folks.....
Why isn't there a "groan" button here?? :p
 
Whipping up a starter of 34/70
Gunna be a two step starter this one's just to revive the yeast been sitting since the 4th
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Next step will be some RWS taken on brew day.

Also crashing the murgy straight down
Should be good to transfer in a day or two
Then start guzzling:)
 
Bottled saison & cider.
Bit of an issue as autosiphon came with bottling wand attached. So I tried it, knowing last time I did that it didn't work.
Nothing changed. It still didn't work, but now everything is full of beer.
Quickest solution was to cut through the plastic pipe.
Anyway, all is in bottles and cooler boxes for carbing.
I put new apple juice on the cake, so cider is on the go again.

Mash for the next saison is finished, currently boiling wort.
Very windy here...
 
Bottled saison & cider.
Bit of an issue as autosiphon came with bottling wand attached. So I tried it, knowing last time I did that it didn't work.
Nothing changed. It still didn't work, but now everything is full of beer.

Quickest solution was to cut through the plastic pipe.
Anyway, all is in bottles and cooler boxes for carbing.
I put new apple juice on the cake, so cider is on the go again.

Mash for the next saison is finished, currently boiling wort.
Very windy here...
I've used auto syphon style thing once in all the batches I've ever done always tried to avoid it like the plague I mean covid lol.
Not that I'm anything to go by just convoluted in my Kiss method books.

I'm for the tap but fully understand sometimes you gotta do the syphon thing.

You found a work around yay!:)
 
The siphon works fine. Just bottling wand in combination with it is a disaster. Unless you are an octopus :rolleyes:

2nd half of the brew day didn't go particularly well. But all's done and in fermenters and I didn't break the hydrometer
Yeah, my introductory 1 gallon kit came with a similar rig, but I could separate the wand from the siphon. Like you, I figured out real quick I didn't have enough arms and hands to do that. As big a pain as it is, and even though there's an infection risk, I still use a bottling bucket, and rack into that from the fermenter. The conical makes that easy by letting me remove most of the trub before gravity draining into the bottling bucket. The old bucket fermenters, not so much. I usually get some pretty cloudy results.

Speaking of which, gonna probably rack a batch of rapier wit to the bottling bucket today to see if a secondary ferment benefits clarity. Might go get some DME and build a starter for my oatmeal stout, too. Need to find out if I killed the WLP004. I got home from the LHBS on Tuesday, and completely forgot about the two recipe kits I'd bought. Too much distraction these days. The WLP004 got pretty warm in the truck. I hope I didn't ruin it, but I'll pick up another packet just in case. Much cheaper to spoil a starter than to lose a whole batch.
 
Some bottle & brew day pictures

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Vessels that need bottling. Simple cider in the white bucket, cascade saison in the milk can and the overflow went into a water bottle.
And if I would have been sensible, I would have done like that again. Instead I filled the milk can. Then decided that was going to go wrong (no head space) so poured everything in my 12 litre speidel. On the positive side.... I just checked (3 hours in and she's blowing starsan out of the air lock, so at least she's active)

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Primitive mash ;)
The pan with grains and water fits inside the igloo. There's an old duvet inside for extra insulation

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Bottled cascade saison + brew corner view
 
Moved a finished fermenting keg to the fridge and added gas (it was spunded so it won't need much). Once I finish the tropical IPA I'll transfer over Crystal Ball 10, then move a Calypso/Azacca pale to the fridge to chill and gas up. Then I'll have an empty fermenter for the next batch! I like having a pipeline to maintain :D much more fun

Here are the souvenirs from our beach trip. The bottles on the left are aged sours from Dogfish Head that are going into the cellar (aka closet) to enjoy at a later time. Some of them have been barrel aged for 2 years. I also picked up an oyster stout, IPA, and pale to drink much sooner :D
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Gunna be a two step starter this one's just to revive the yeast been sitting since the 4th

Hey Ben...can you detail your steps out on your 2 stager? I know I would like to see how you do it, what you based your steps and timing on, etc.


Digging that milk can and those cool blue crowns @Zambezi Special

Hey dere hon, @Sunfire96 looks like youd been down da ohshin! Didja go ta Ohchshin City, Merland ore Virginya Beech? Howcumno Thasher's Fries?
 
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Here's how I go about a starter https://www.brewersfriend.com/forum/threads/making-a-yeast-starter.14530/

Consulting the yeast calculator is a good idea.:)

No real ryme or reason I'm building a 2.5 ish starter for first step then I'll probably do the same for second it'll be a RWS taken on brew day pitched in once wort is chilled the following day.
It's just to get the yeast propped.

I'll probably start it at 12c but let it rise up after a day or two of primary capping fermentation at around 19c.
 
Milled grains for my Beach Comber IPA and will prolly mill grains for my "use up some old stuff" IPA
 
Just mashed in a Czech Premium Pale, Need to go pick up a bigger beer fridge this afternoon, found one at a sale yesterday for $25....
Wort’s in the kettle, time to kick the tires and light the fires…figuratively of course, my kettle is electric.
 

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