What are you brewing/bottling/kegging?

[mashani]

Brewing "Darth Patersbier" AG version, 6 gallons worth. Basically a "session dubbel". Previous results have all been winners, so I expect this to be as well.

Bottled this, and based on how good the sample tasted it will be totally delicious.

[mashani]

I brewed a frankensaison, to use up my pre-crushed base malt which was getting old. So for a 6 gallon batch it was 5.5# of 2-row, 5# of light munich, and 0.25# of acid malt, and I used German Saphir hops.

And it took an extra hour to make because of me being an idiot. See no-post thread.

I'm going to pitch Bella Saison into it. I'm going to intentionally split 1 pack of the yeast across 2 fermenters instead of pitching the whole pack of yeast in each and see if I can get less attenuation like BlackDuck reported. But I doubt it. I have absolutely no idea how anyone who uses this yeast gets less then 90% attenuation let alone not 97% or more. I've never been more then 1.003, and usually more like 1.002 to 0.997 and this is regardless of OG.

I am just going to do what I normally do with that yeast otherwise, stick my fermenters in a place with 70something degree ambient temperatures and then totally ignore it for 2 weeks.

[Ricklust]

Currently fermenting & Lagering an Oktoberfest Märzen Recipe from LHBS. Scaled to a 3 gallon batch

https://brewstock.com/beer-recipe-book/

Holding temp at 55 *. I was given and used S-23 Yeast. Did a little research on the S-23 and read where a lot of brewers don’t like it. Some say " best way to pitch S-23 is to pitch in a garbage can". [emoji3064][emoji33]
Read a few good reviews on it. Well it’s to late now. Fingers crossed.
Anyone have an opinion on the S-23 yeast ? Any recommendations for another good Lager yeast for future brewing ?
Prost [emoji481]


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[BlackDuck]

I used S-23 quite a while ago and remember not liking it too much. It's been a couple years so I don't remember the details on why I didn't like it, but I think it gave off a funny flavor of some sort. After that, I started using their Saflager 34/70 yeast and have had very good success. Now, the 34/70 is my go to lager yeast. I brew 5 gallons and ALWAYS pitch two packs. In fact, my next one up is a Munich Dunkel, which I hope to brew next week. I'll use the 34/70 in that one too!!

EDIT...I will also add that both require a bit of lagering too. I let mine lager on the gas for about 3 weeks before tasting. For my Czech Pilsner, the 34/70 really comes into it's prime after about 6 weeks of lagering.

[Ricklust]

@ BlackDuck
I have read some good reviews on the Saflager 34 /70 and Mangrove Jack lager yeast.
Wish I woulda did a little research first but I already
"Put the baby in the bath water". Just hoping for the best as a few people liked it. (Not many) [emoji3064]



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[mashani]

So my take on S-23 is fermented cool like low 50s, it gives off weird fruity flavors, but fermented more like 57-59 it's just dandy. I don't know about 55...

I do like 34/70 better though.

I pretty much only make "lagers" at 57-59 these days, they get done faster, don't need a D-Rest, and taste the same, so I see no point in pushing them down to low 50s...

[Ricklust]

@Mashani
Thanx...I’m on day 6 of fermentation. I went for 55-56 because the "ideal" range is 53-59 for the S-23. Do u think I should raise the temp a bit to 58* ?
This is my first shot at lagering since I now have temp control.
From what I understand about the lager process is let it ferment about 3 weeks...Do a D-rest at 65* for 2-3 days then slowly decrease temps back to 55 and ferment for 3 more weeks.
Any advice is appreciated. [emoji482]


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[BlackDuck]

For my lagers, I ferment in the low 50’s. When the fermentation is about 75% complete I raise the temp into the 60’s for a D rest. I let it finish at that temp. When it’s done, I reduce the temp 4 degrees per day until the temp reaches 35 degrees. I let it sit at that temp for about 4 days. Then I keg it, put it on gas and let it lager for 3 to 4 weeks before tasting. This has worked really well for me.


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[swenocha]

Surprise brewday. A local brewpub went out of business in the last week or so. They had a lot of premilled grains ready for brewday already, and one of our homebrew clubs bought it all to help them with their costs. They sold a recipe (base, specialty, hops) from the ingredients for $15 to recoup costs. I bought one (even though I have a bunch of grain on hand, as well as my two kegs already half full). Brewing this weekend since it's already milled.

This will be a good test to see if I can do a bigger grain bill in this setup. Two premilled grain bags. 8% abv dark frankenbier from the recipe. Turkey fryer is more full than it's ever been. Mashing low (147) to maybe recoup what lower efficiency I expect (at least that is my theory). If I get 6%, I'll be happy.

This recipe is... interesting. So much crystal and choc malt. 15% choc malt, 29% crystal malts, 5% flaked oats. Base is 2 row and victory. Hmm. Only hop addition they have are bittering hops (wow, so many in the mix), and I am adding backyard Perle and cascade hops as a flavor addition beyond the recipe below. I assume the bitter addition was all of the hops simply blended together and then separated, so who knows what I really got. Grain seemed measured as listed though mixed in the bags.

This may suck. Or maybe not. RDWHAHB

Brewday breakfast beer. Pour is better for the most part now. Thx for the advice...

[swenocha]

Ok, so my trusty turkey fryer has bitten the dust apparently. While the display seems to work, I can't get the heating element to produce heat. So.... anova only brewday, and thus getting to a boil is taking for-frickin-evah. Sigh. Guess I need to read the mash and boil threads and join the club...

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[swenocha]

so that was the worst brewday I've ever had. Spent a couple hours trying to get to boil with the Anova. Finally decided that 190 degrees was going to have to be good enough. So went ahead with hop schedule. Then, when transferring to the carboy, I dropped some transfer tubing into the wort. Of course, I had starsanned the tubing, so I'm just going to leave it in there at this point. So... dead electric fryer, wort that didn't reach boil, hop schedule that was way off of schedule, low OG (looking like 1.063 OG... doesn't concern me much)... Really don't care much if the beer doesn't turn out, so it will be a happy accident if it actually turns out. I had some Munton's packets that weren't expired, so I decided to use those instead of a more expensive yeast. Ah, well... Like I said, I didn't intend to brew today anyway. At least the fryer dying happened on a brewday I didn't really care about...

[Ricklust]

Swenocha...
I hope it turns out to be one of ur best batches ever. However it will be hard to duplicate if it does [emoji1]
Keep on brewing....Cheers [emoji481][emoji481]


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[mashani]

Swen that sucks.

FWIW, I have made a good number of no-boil beers now that have all turned out great, but they were never heated above 150. At 190 a lot more DMS precursors were probably produced (something like 12 to 16 times more I'm afraid). I would suggest if you can, pitching an extra huge amount of yeast and/or trying to keep your fermenter as free venting as possible scrub off as much DMS as possible during fermentation. The more crazy active you can get your fermentation the better. Maybe ferment a bit warmer to encourage it too.

That said with all that crystal malt in there you might not really notice it so much anyways, and maybe it will be great who knows.

[Kealia]

Wow, that's a lot of crystal malt....color me curious. Sorry to hear about the rough brew day.

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[Beer-lord]

Oh yeah, way too much Crystal but you never know how the beer gods change things. Doesn't look good but you never know. Can't wait to hear how things work out.