BeerBorg

Taking advantage of mild conditions to brew Pliny Clone. It's been too long. I've actually been buying IPAs!

I made another small batch of basic IPA like beer to use up more of my Equinox hops, just extra light extract, some honey malt, 1oz Chinook in the boil, and 2oz of Equinox @flameout/hopstand and Nottingham.

Bottled a Cologne kolsch today, I had a little problem with the SG, but finished nice @1.011 FG. only going to be around 4% ABV but I guess that will be alright. Not use to making that low ABV beers anymore but will be good this summer nice and cold.. Wyeast 2565 with a 1 lt. starter. Good yeast

Kegged the Black Hops this morning. Pretty much hit the numbers on the money; any discrepancy this small can be attributed to temperature variance. And 6% ABV for a Black IPA pleases me no little and more than somewhat. Tasting the sample indicates a very nice beer; good complexity in the malt bill, and a nice hops presence.

Well, it's official...

I haven't brewed a thing in an entire year!

Due to a number of factors but yeah, it's been a full year.

Mind you, I have been emptying out the beer cellar...

Still have a couple of three or four cases of bottled beer to get through as well a a five gallon keg of 'ShAbby Dubbel' so...

But I guess I'll look through my inventory and determine what I need to pickup to get this years first brew going...

Now, what to brew.....?

BigPapaG wrote:I haven't brewed a thing in an entire year!
Now, what to brew.....?

Your supposed to be a Merry Monk, so brew something that makes you happy.

I bottled the "Lame Excuse BPA, Triskel hop version".

It tasted and smelled like beer with a bit of stone fruit mixed with chrysanthemum tea and spiked with a bit of rose water and wildflower honey.

If you don't like 'effing flowers, don't use Triskel hops as a late addition/dry hop.

Words to live by.

Brewed Mr. Beer Apricot Wheat with my Weissbier from Target last year, but did 1/2 the cardamom, and will do 1/2 the Apricot.  Also Brewed 5 gallons of Die Hearted, my Two Hearted clone.  First brewing in 2017 as I have 13 1/2 cases ready to drink, but preparing for the summer.  Was going to also brew my Fruit Wheat, but Adventures was out of Wheat LME due to not checking what was actually in their inventory...

That's a busy day.

Brewing a Wee Heavy as I type this.

I brewed a 5 gallon Levitation Clone as far as the grain bill. But I used farmhouse hop blend for all the hops. And my pot was so full that I had to watch it like a hawk for the entire boil. Doing that with a normal hop schedule is boring, so I divided my hops into 8 piles, and did Baduanjin Qigong (Eight Pieces of Brocade) while I watched the boil, throwing a pile in between each exercise.

Kegged my Belgian Blond yesterday and pitched some of the WLP500 yeast slurry into my Stone Vertical Epic 09-09-09 clone. The Stone VE series was good, there was a lot of great beers that came out of it.

Recipe: VE 09-09-09
Brewer: Naked Cat Brewery
Asst Brewer: Those damn cats!
Style: Baltic Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.45 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.03 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.05 gal
Estimated OG: 1.081 SG
Estimated Color: 46.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 54.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 85.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12 lbs 9.2 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 71.8 %
1 lbs 12.6 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2 10.2 %
14.9 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.3 %
11.8 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.2 %
4.7 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.7 %
4.7 oz Carafa I (337.0 SRM) Grain 6 1.7 %
14.4 oz Candi Sugar, Dark (275.0 SRM) Sugar 7 5.1 %
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 34.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Perle [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 19.7 IBUs
0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 10 -
1.0 pkg Trappist Ale (White Labs #WLP500) [35.49 Yeast 11 -
1.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary 7.0 days) Flavor 12 -


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 17 lbs 8.3 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 38.67 qt of water at 155.2 F 147.9 F 90 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge: If steeping, remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Notes:
------
Ferment at 70-72 degrees, or 21-22 Celsius.

Add 1oz Dried Sweet Orange peel and 3 grams of vanilla bean at whirlpool.

Age in secondary with 1oz French Oak chips.

Brewing a Czech Pilsner today. In the middle of the 90 minute boil right now.

mashani wrote:I made another small batch of basic IPA like beer to use up more of my Equinox hops, just extra light extract, some honey malt, 1oz Chinook in the boil, and 2oz of Equinox @flameout/hopstand and Nottingham.

I bottled this, which tasted great, some pine and lots of tropical fruit and didn't have any of the weird green pepper or celery flavors I've gotten from Equinox in the past.

So all @flameout (maybe all as dry hop then too) seems to be a good way to use them. Simple grain bill seems to be a good idea too, I've liked them better in very minimalist beers like this then with anything else.

Brewed a Bailey's Brown, a 5G Extract w/steeping grains American Brown Ale recipe from the BeerTools Recipe Library.