What are you doing with homebrew today?

I'll be very curious to hear how your ginger beer turns out. I'm a big fan of Bundaberg, and wouldn't mind trying to clone that some time.

Lots of interesting sugars to play around with. I added a pound of muscovado late boil to a Dubbel I recently brewed, waiting for that to bottle-condition. Never brewed with brown sugar, but used it for bottle-carbing once. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference, so I went back to corn sugar for that. Brown sugar is just refined white sugar with some molasses added back, after all.

I ordered my jaggery from Amazon, but if you have an Indian grocery, they often stock it.

Have you tried making invert sugar? It's easy and you can control how light or dark you want it. I've made a few inverts (one amber, the other a deep ruby color) that I added to brews. It adds a little dimension.

If you have Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing, he covers the various sugars fairly well.
Yeah I made some invert for Aharpers Maniquin pees Belgian dubble I think it was.

Yeah I'm sure bunderburg ginger would have to use unrefined cane sugar as their based in Bundy also set up next to the Rum Distillery.
 
I gave my speidel fermenter a chlorine rinse (20 minutes, 5 ml/litre)
Now ready to try a small batch simple cider to see if the infection is gone.
It will be tomorrow as I want to pitch Voss Kveik at the heat of the day
Here's hoping.
 
Simple Speidel Cider is tucked in ;)
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I usually don't plan a lot of brews in advance, and just brew whenever and try to keep the pipeline filled. But now I'm strategizing about brews for the next few months. Right now, I have a Scottish strong that needs to age a few more months, a dubbel that should be ready in 2 or 3 weeks, and an oatmeal stout I brewed a few days ago. I have 30 or so bottles of English brown in the fridge, but that's all I have that's drinkable at this time. It's just my wife and I drinking those, and we just have one or two each day and not every day. We're good for a few weeks. In coming weeks I should have the stout and dubbel to enjoy as the brown runs out. I need to keep the pipeline going.

Good thing I don't work for a brewery, as my timing probably wouldn't be the best. ;)

This weekend I will brew a dark mild, something around 3.8% ABV that should be grain-to-glass fairly quick. That way, in Feb I'll have a shiatload of beer to drink--mild, oatmeal stout, dubbel-- because I need to be well-stocked as I plan a few upcoming lagers that will tie up my ferm chamber for a while. Late Feb or early March I want to do a double-header brew day of a Festbier and Schwarzbier. My chamber holds 2 Brew Buckets so I want to maximize that. Late winter is a good time for lagers as my ground water is really cold and it's not hard to chill below 60. I want those two lagers for spring/early summer drinking. Not waiting till fall for those :) Then on the heels of those, brew a Lion Stout clone (tropical stout) that will need to lager a while. Hopefully, I will have those done in time to do some summer IPAs and such.
 
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I just filled these eleven half liter bottles with hard cider. The transformation in clarity and color from the starting point is impressive. I primed these with a solution of locally sourced honey, and look forward to seeing how the final product might be affected. Now the other half of the batch is still sitting in the fermenter, waiting until I get more swing top bottles, or I break down and fill 12 ounce beer bottles.
 
I bottled the PG Brown from my parigyled session in November....only a gallon and a half but at 7.3% who cares ...which is were I am about right now after downing the last of the bottling bucket ala soda stream...ok...Walter Raleigh and Chris Columbus...where's the recline button?
 
My cider is still nicely in the coolerbox.
First time having a simple thermometer attached to the fermenter and the temperature is surprisingly stable. 29.7 oC early morning, 30.4 late afternoon (85.5 to 86.7 F) And that is without the lid on it!
Outside is 23 to 34 oC (73 -93 F):cool:
 
I was going to go clear some more brush and pull up the stumps today, but looks like Mother Nature isn't cooperating. Already soggy and raining more this morning. SO, maybe I go brew up a batch of Chocolate Oatmeal Stout instead. Have to park the tractor out in the rain, but I just spent nearly an hour day before yesterday getting a couple hundred pounds of mud off it after working out back. Soggy season is here.
 
Close enough.

Time for a beer or three.

Ufff...I can relate...day 2 of bottling here ...I really should have just kept going last night but the the back yard logging operation was calling..55°F and sunny...what would you do? Anyhow..cool indoor set up there @MaxStout ...is the always or just during the chilly weather?

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I also pulled about a quart of slurry from the scottish ale yeast to see if it can be revitalized after being in 6.8% environment or if it's just time to buy more.
 
Ufff...I can relate...day 2 of bottling here ...I really should have just kept going last night but the the back yard logging operation was calling..55°F and sunny...what would you do? Anyhow..cool indoor set up there @MaxStout ...is the always or just during the chilly weather?

I also pulled about a quart of slurry from the scottish ale yeast to see if it can be revitalized after being in 6.8% environment or if it's just time to buy more.

Indoors during cold weather here. I could sit out in the garage to brew in winter (and I've done it more times than I care to remember) but I just don't enjoy it and this hobby's supposed to be fun. So, it's kitchen brewing from about Nov until March or April. With the 8 gal kettle and heat stick I can get to a boil fairly quickly on the elec stove. When it hits 40-ish or so outside I'll be ready to move back to brewing out there.

One advantage to our cold winters: the ground water gets really cold, like mid or upper 40s by Feb. Late winter becomes lager season for me, as it's easy to chill to near pitch temp.

I'm envious of your 55 & sunny. Enjoy. We might have a "heat wave" this week and crack 30. If it was 55 here, I'd be outside, grilling and drinking.

Good luck with the Scottish ale yeast. How long had it been sitting in that brew? Was it the first generation? If it's a little weak you could always step it up in a starter to build up the population.
 
Ufff...I can relate...day 2 of bottling here ...I really should have just kept going last night but the the back yard logging operation was calling..55°F and sunny...what would you do? Anyhow..cool indoor set up there @MaxStout ...is the always or just during the chilly weather?

View attachment 23781I also pulled about a quart of slurry from the scottish ale yeast to see if it can be revitalized after being in 6.8% environment or if it's just time to buy more.
Love the color.
 

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