What are you doing with homebrew today?

Getting ready to close transfer my Heady Topper Clone so I can bottle it.

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I proped open my fermentation chamber this morning when things were at about 67°... when I got home I went into my 50° cellar to find the the fungus herd going nuts at 72° and change .....holy cow! I'm not feeling too bad now about being a gallon shy ...who was asking about the Scottish Ale yeast?
 
Ward Chillington said:
I proped open my fermentation chamber this morning when things were at about 67°... when I got home I went into my 50° cellar to find the the fungus herd going nuts at 72° and change .....holy cow! I'm not feeling too bad now about being a gallon shy ...who was asking about the Scottish Ale yeast?
Click to expand...
Wyeast? Pretty good stuff.
 
I timed it about right there. Just caught up on the last several pages here. It wasn't me asking about Scottish Ale Yeast but I am sure interested with my plans for Scottish beer in 2024. Been revising my brewing schedule partly to make sure I don't go past any BBE dates - I got extra stocked up than usual during lockdown.

Finished the labelling on my Pear Cider which I bottled yesterday on day 17. OG 1.048 FG 1.004 at four days straight when the advice was a typical 'below 1.000'. I think I stopped it in its tracks as it was going down .002 a day when I added the pear flavouring. Advice was also to add this when fermentation stopped but it was already four days over. Virtually clear on the surface - no doubting it was ready. So glad that I started using hydrometers a few years back. I switched the yeast sachet provided for this kit with a standard cider one that normally accompanies a nutrient as it was labelled yeast/sweetener and I wanted a dry cider this time - I have other plans for that sachet next year to go with an Apple kit from the same series. Anyhow, the Pear was dry as a bone ala Chardonnay before the flavouring which at bottling had already rounded it out slightly intriguingly. Designated two test bottles for this batch rather than just the usual single one as I want to monitor this batch a bit closer. And that is my cider shelf space filled up with a nice variety which won't get touched very much through the winter excepting I sometimes make mulled cider New Year's Eve.

Sanitized everything and got straight on with a Festive themed Ruby Ale (Tinsel Toes from Woodfordes) going which was bubbling through the airlock. Testing myself to see if I can produce a Christmas beer at short notice. Delivery of that order was delayed due to exceptionally high Black Friday orders but I got my kits so can't complain as I never stopped to think it may affect matters. It was bubbling steadily late into this evening. I have gone over the beer style gravity charts and woodfordes seem to have a few darker variants on British Golden Ale - the Bure Gold being straw/gold, the Admirals; copper and Tinsel Toes which has Cascade hops like the Bure minus the Amarillo to combine with (I am assuming the Amarillo is what gives the Bure floral notes). Hoping this ferments out by 18th December at latest, 3-4 days conditioning giving it roughly a fortnight before opening late into the holiday. Will probably split the 21 pint batch between a one gallon mini keg and bottles saving the keg for Easter.

Hope I aren't tempting fate after the crap earlier this year but all kegs seem to be behaving themselves at last few checks. Plans working out again :)
 
Getting ingredients gathered for an upcoming brew later this week. It's a Belgian dubbel, loosely based on this one from Brulosophy. Essentially the same grain bill but I'm subbing 1 lb. of muscovado sugar in place of the candi sugar. Just Hallertauer Mittelfrueh for bittering. Also using dry yeast, 2 packets of Lallemand Abbaye.

With winter here in MN, I'll move brewing operations indoors to the stovetop. I can do a full 5 gallon BIAB batch in an 8 gal kettle on the electric stove, with the help of a 1500W elec. bucket heater to bring it up to a boil.
 
Thinking I may have majorly blooped somewhere and still managed to come up smelling of roses.

Airlock stopped bubbling on day 3 of my Ruby Ale - didn't touch it as day 4 (today) was adding hop pellets. Took lid off and it looked well progressed so did a hydrometer reading before adding the Cascade hops. Firstly being partially colour blind I don't always pay too much attention to the actual colour - I am more a shades type of guy which is of course a cop out. Secondly I defo need to get on with the camera idea - although this is absolutely NOT ruby coloured it needs to be seen - pale copper/champagne I would say.

Said blooper I suspect being that I am so far splitting these twin canned woodfordes kits having assumed both cans contain exactly the same thing - me now thinking that this is likely incorrect. Only went one pint over top up guidelines so that doesn't count enough for the result. No problemo as even at this stage it tasted great. And also reason for airlock stopping is reading already 1.013 [target range 1.013-1.006] from Original Gravity of 1.040 which was near the bottom end of British Golden Ale range: 1.053-38. One thing I did get right before I started was that this clearly is a variant of a Golden Ale.

I don't have a barometer for room temperature but the start temperature of my beer was 23 degrees Centigrade. Normally I would get it as near as 20 degrees as possible but we've had a couple of significant temperature drops November-December here so it would be down towards that pretty soon after adding the yeast anyway. Normally also expect a fortnight for a brew at this time of year. This one could of course slow down now and bottom out around 1.006 if not lower (their two other Golden Ales have come out at 1.008 & 1.007. But at the moment feeling well surprised and pleased with the progress if not quite so much the colour although as stated that isn't usually my number one priority anyhow.

Off to scratch my head whilst cooking and think what beer might go before Beef en Daub and red wine ;)
 
I splitting my Helles into 2 small kegs. Half was kegged to get to lagering. Rest I’ll keg tomorrow since I want to clean extra in the second keg.
For the taste, still early but imagine a simple germ lager with 34/70 and malt it up without actually malting it up. Used Imperial harvest. Can’t wait to drink this one in a month.
 
Brewed today, a basic Dubbel, based loosely on a Brulosophy recipe. Brewed on the stovetop--too damn cold to sit in the garage this time of year.

Pilsner, Barke Munich I, Special B and a little honey malt. I added 1 lb. muscovado at the end of the boil. Scooped up about a quart of hot wort and dissolved the sugar. Then poured it back after flameout. Bittered with Hallertau Mittelfruh. After chilling, pitched 2 packets of rehydrated Lallemand Abbaye. Have 5.5 gallons in a Brew Bucket in the ferm chamber at 66F. Will ramp up the temp tomorrow when fermentation takes off. I have a blowoff tube on it--Belgian yeasts can get crazy.

Only took one pic, heating the strike water. I always forget to take more pics. Having too much fun.
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I just decanted the beer off the S-33 yeast I used in Frankenbeer II. It was absolutely clear, and smelled wonderful, so I couldn't help myself. I had to taste it. OMG it was SO good. Natural carbing, not fizzy (much). No priming whatsoever. That was a YUMMY sip.

Getting ready to make Frankenbeer III. Same as Frankenbeer II, with the following substitutions/omissions

Changed the 6-Row to Maris Otter Pale, at the suggestion of my LHBS. Looks like the FG might be a little higher with MO.
Bumped the corn content to 2.0 pounds.
Omitted the coriander.
Using the slurry (about 8 oz / 250ml) to ferment this time. It's gonna be a wild one., I'm sure. There's LOT of nice clean yeast in that jar. Perhaps an over pitch, but hey, they'll quit when they run outta something to do.

Sparge water warming on the left, mash on the right. Gonna run the mash at 140 for an hour, then bump to 145 with the sparges. Double batch sparge, Vorlauf through mash and sparges..

HOLY MOLIES! Water temperature when I started typing this was 60F. By the time I was done, and took the photo, it was already at 130F. On the smaller burner! I like less time and less gas to do the same thing!

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I switched the batch temperature controller over to Celsius scale. It offers bandwidth adjustments in .1 degree increments, meaning .18 degrees F per step. That's a lot better control than +/- 1 F. That should lower the temperature swings a bit. I already have a second Inkbird that I'm going to use to control chamber temperature, sort of like an override on the batch temperature controller, so that I get rid of the big temperature swings in the chamber as well. In other words, don't let it overreact to the need for cooling or heating. Let the chamber temperature deadband be a little wider than the deadband of the batch temperature, and that will make sure the temperature goes in the right direction and doesn't just sit there.
 
Possible setback in my Dubbel. No yeast activity after 28 hours, when it should be going crazy. I popped the top off the Brew Bucket to have a look--and no krausen. None.

I had rehydrated and pitched 2 packets of Lallemand Abbaye yesterday. The exp. date was Jan 2024, so not expired. I can only assume that the yeast was DOA. I had ordered it from Label Peelers last month. First time I've ordered anything from them, and will be the last.

I live about 30 miles from Midwest Supplies, so I'll have to run over there tomorrow to pick up some yeast. Grrr.
 
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