What are you brewing/bottling/kegging?

[ScrewyBrewer]

Ive always LOVED rye beers
And Ive really been into ESBs lately
I think 4 of my last 6 have been ESB

Brewed my Crystal Rye ESB, pretty much to the recipe. The efforts to improve it have all failed, though I couldn't resist adding a little Mittelfruh at flame out.
The sun set halfway through my brewday, so I finished by the light of a pressure lamp.

I had Triumph Brewing's Jewish Rye Ale, it was really tasty. Their secret to mimicking the flavors of Jewish Rye is adding Caraway seeds to the recipe. I may have to brew a small batch this winter.

[John Sand]

That sounds interesting.
And I love the name of your brew "Sloop Juice Bomb".

[TonyKZ1]

Today, I bottled a 5G recipe from Adventures in Homebrewing, a Cream Ale with Apricot flavoring/aroma. I tasted it after filling up all the bottles and it sure smelled and tasted good. So I'm thinking this one will be pretty good.

[mashani]

So I still have a bunch of those South African hops.

So to use up some I made a 3 gallon batch.

I steeped some Caramunich, added 3# of MoreBeer Extra Light LME, and boiled that for about 5 minutes, and then just threw in 2oz of hops at flameout, and did a 30 minute lid on hopstand, starting @flameout temps. Trying to not have it be too bitter, although it should still be plenty since these hops are 15% AA, so I will still get a lot of utilization from the hop stand.

The hops were described as having goose berry, blue berry, sweet fruit, cinnamon, chamomile, and lemon grass flavors.

I used SafeAle K-97, so I'm calling this "BerryBier".

Will it be good? Only God knows. But I got rid of hops.

[Kealia]

The hops were described as having goose berry, blue berry, sweet fruit, cinnamon, chamomile, and lemon grass flavors.

Wow, that's quite the range of flavors, there. I've only had the SA hops in one of the Firestone Luponic Distortion beers but I really liked them. I can't say that I picked up all of those nuances, though. I wish I had a better pallette.

[mashani]

The hops were described as having goose berry, blue berry, sweet fruit, cinnamon, chamomile, and lemon grass flavors.

Wow, that's quite the range of flavors, there. I've only had the SA hops in one of the Firestone Luponic Distortion beers but I really liked them. I can't say that I picked up all of those nuances, though. I wish I had a better pallette.

Well there are a bunch of varieties of the SA hops, some are described more as citrusy and tropical, and some have weird descriptions like coconut or butterscotch mixed in with stuff and some are more like European lager hops. (I used those already in Belgians, they were fine but nothing "special").

I have no idea what out of that list will actually be noticeable in this beer when its done. It will be a surprise.

I'm going to mix some of the citrusy/tropical kinds with some Simcoe I think in another batch.

[TonyKZ1]

I bottled a Northern English Brown Ale, a 5G extract w/steeping grains recipe from AIH, in 12oz bottles. Then I brewed a NB 1G Zombie Dirt Pale Ale, apparently from what I've read it's a clone of the 3 Floyds Zombie Dust. Lots of Citra Hops, it made the whole house smell good.

[mashani]

So I brewed a quick 2.5 gallon batch of something. 3# of Vienna DME (MoreBeer sells it), boiled for 5 minutes, and then I tossed in 1oz of Mosiac and 1oz of South African Experimental Hop N169 @flameout and did a 40 minute lid on hop stand. N169 is described as "Kool-Aid, Juicy Fruit, mango, citrus, plums, dank, and pungent". I'll get plenty of IBUs since the hop stand started at boiling temps and I didn't actively cool until 40 minutes and my hops were 13% and 15%.

So that should be exciting.

I used Nottingham as my yeast.

I know that someone recently said they didn't like Vienna in a hoppy beer they had, but FWIW I'm fairly sure that Victory Hop Devil has a large amount of Vienna malt in it and I like that beer, so I don't think I will dislike it. I figure it will give me about the right amount of malt backbone since I didn't use any crystal at all.

We shall see.

[Kealia]

I know that someone recently said they didn't like Vienna in a hoppy beer they had, but FWIW I'm fairly sure that Victory Hop Devil has a large amount of Vienna malt in it and I like that beer, so I don't think I will dislike it. I figure it will give me about the right amount of malt backbone since I didn't use any crystal at all.

We shall see.

That was me - and I assumed you *would* like it, so I was right (in theory). It's funny you mention Hop Devil as I can't drink that beer at all - it really puts me off and is one of the identifying beers I think of when I think of Vienna-forward beers.

This past weekend I brewed a 15-minute boil Simcoe/Amarillo beer. 3lbs MoreBeer Light DME + 1lb MoreBeer Amber DME. Simcoe @ 15, Amarillo @ 5 + Amarillo hopstand. I'll dry hop with some Simcoe just because I like the mix (ala the Simply Simarillo recipe in Advanced).

Quick, easy, and tasty.

[John Sand]

There was a recent Brulosophy experiment which found Vienna and Munich hard to tell apart. In the comments, several posts quoted commercial maltsters saying that Vienna is simply Munich+Pilsner.

[mashani]

That was me - and I assumed you *would* like it, so I was right (in theory). It's funny you mention Hop Devil as I can't drink that beer at all - it really puts me off and is one of the identifying beers I think of when I think of Vienna-forward beers.

Yeah, I know that some people really don't like Hop Devil. It is really much more like a British IPA in many ways, except with more American IPA levels hop flavor/aroma. But I like British IPAs, so that's probably why I like it. It is nothing at all like a West Coast IPA.

Do you like authentic German Vienna lagers? (just wondering if you really hate the malt, or just don't like it with hops).

There was a recent Brulosophy experiment which found Vienna and Munich hard to tell apart. In the comments, several posts quoted commercial maltsters saying that Vienna is simply Munich+Pilsner.

I think this would be true of baseline Munich but if you were to try to compare it to the darker types (it comes in many flavors) I think the differences would become more noticeable. But the darker types of Munich can't be 100% of your grain bill (not enough enzymes), only the lightest baseline stuff can self convert.

[TonyKZ1]

Today I brewed a NB Caribou Slobber Brown Ale 1G Extract w/steeping grains recipe. A clone of Big Sky Moose Drool. I apparently didn't read the recipe close enough and added the 15 min Willamette hops at 30 min instead, well they did say 30 mins later. Ah well, I had some East Kent Goldings on hand so I added 3g (yeah I know a very small amount) of those hops at the 15 min mark. One thing I do like about the 1G brewing is how quickly it comes to a boil and cools down, of course it's a lot less wort to boil and cool.

[RandyG]

Hey Borgistas, Brewed my last batches for this year. A 4.4% Pacific Jade amber ale w/ steeped grains and Saf-05 yeast,and a 5.3% amber ale with grains and Cascades also w/ Saf-05. I'm getting to like the simplicity of just steeping some grains,using one malt and one kinda hops. Results have been pretty tasty on the ones I did before,so I have high hopes for these. Hope you all have a Wonderful Holiday Season. Cheers. Randy G.

[TonyKZ1]

Today I brewed a 1G extract w/steeping grains Oktoberfest recipe from CraftaBrew.

[mashani]

The hops were described as having goose berry, blue berry, sweet fruit, cinnamon, chamomile, and lemon grass flavors.

Wow, that's quite the range of flavors, there. I've only had the SA hops in one of the Firestone Luponic Distortion beers but I really liked them. I can't say that I picked up all of those nuances, though. I wish I had a better pallette.

I bottled this, but I have no idea what I was tasting besides the fact that it was very dank and earthy with berries on top.

We will see what it tastes like once it carbs and conditions a bit.