BeerBorg

Berliner Weiss in the carboy for souring.

I'm planning my next batch now which will be my first on the new Mash & Boil.

Brewed a red today with Red X grain, the first time trying it. The color is great, A nice brewday but a little longer then should of been. Took longer to sparge then usual, not sure why but hit the numbers a couple points higher then projected.

Interested in your thoughts on RedX. I used it 4 times. 3 were good but I never really fell in love with it. Something I can't pin down though 1 of the 4 was very good.

I *love* the color Red-X gives you. I've been pretty happy with it the two times I used it. And when I did I went 100%.

So I made 6 gallons of Vienna Lager like substance in the Mash and Boil. Except instead of using my normal mix of Pilsner/Vienna/Munich and a bit of light crystal like Carafoam, I used Red-X in place of the Pilsner and Munich, and CaraRed in place of the Carafoam.

My hope is it turns out more red instead of orangish and retains some nice malty character.

I'm going to split it between 2 fermenters and pitch Mangrove Jacks M84 (Bohemian Lager) into one and M76 (Bavarian Lager) yeast into the other. Have not used either of them, so I will see which I like better. I'm going to ferment these around 56-57.

I'm calling then Krampus's Vienna Lager(s) for now. If it ends up not demon red, then I will re-think it LOL.

I had to do a more traditional mash because of volume, and I sparged it with 2 gallons and overshot my volume because I didn't figure it out right somehow.

So it was a 100 minute boil to get it down to where it needed to be. And it was the first batch ever where I almost had a "Mash and Boilover". I had to hit the 1000 watt switch and stir it to tame the beast cuz it was about to blow.

That will just contribute to it's wicked character.
I brewed an oatmeal stout yesterday for St. Patrick's Day.

Today I brewed a Spiced Winter Ale, a 5G Extract w/ steeping grains recipe from Northern Brewer. From the recipe description, Basically a Scottish Ale with spices, sounds good to me. This was also a Christmas present from my oldest Daughter so that'll make it even better.

mashani wrote: So it was a 100 minute boil to get it down to where it needed to be. And it was the first batch ever where I almost had a "Mash and Boilover". I had to hit the 1000 watt switch and stir it to tame the beast cuz it was about to blow.

I have that happen sometimes when close to the top, stand by with a water bottle, mash paddle and be ready to hit the switch LOL

I have some invert sugar going today.

I did five gallons of blonde ale Saturday and five gallons of an IPA Sunday...

A productive weekend.

John Sand wrote:A productive weekend.

Thanks...A weekend off from work and somewhat favorable weather...

Trying to get another brew in Saturday morning after work, before the snow starts in the afternoon

That'll fill all my buckets.

I bottled my Red-X IPA which seems to be more like a Light Orange IPA. It tastes great though.

My Red-X lagers in the fermenter look a lot more red likely due to that they were made up of Vienna malt instead of 2-row for the remainder of the grain bill.

Today I brewed a Magic Wand #7 Pale Ale, a 5G Extract w/steeping grains recipe from Jaspers. This is a clone of Magic Hat #9, I haven't tried that one yet but it sounds good, so I guess we'll see.

I brewed up a 5.5 gallon batch of what would be Kolsch, using mostly Schill Kolsch malt, except instead of 1/2# of wheat like I normally do, I used 1/2# of Oak Smoked Wheat.

I don't think it will be perceived as smoke really at all in that amount (I can't stress how mild this stuff is compared to other smoked malts), but it will be noticeable as something extra.

I'm sure it will be tasty.