BeerBorg

I think it has been awhile since i last posted.

I haven't brewed in a while Sens probably won't for a while because i have riffle lifting mows than about a half gallon. In case i didn't sat anything, i was on my bike about a year ago and a truck ran a sto sign ana hit me

Im planning ti get back indi if now that i can move a little

Just take care of yourself bud! Brewing is fun but your health is more important.

I have a closet full of various grains. I'm not exactly sure what all i have because that would require lifting the bags and finding the labels. I think I've also got some grains that i already crushed, but i don't think i really trust those. I would have milked them more than a year ago.

I probably also have some hops in the deep freeze in the garage. If i do, i hope they're labeled. If not, i guess I'll have some pretty random brews.

I can't lift a 5+ gallon bucket. I thought i stil had some LBKs in a room in the basement, but i guess not. I think i used to have some smaller buckets that were used for something like icing at the bakery in the grocery store, but i can't find them, so they're probably with the LBKs i thought i had.

Maybe I'll order a LBK or (I forget the bd version) and see if i can get a brew in. I think i could handle something small. Or maybe I'll ask my daughter if she has any small food grade buckets. She does a lot of cooking and might have spares. Or she might be on good terms with the bakery folks at her grocery store.

I *think* i can move 2 gallons around. I might be making a mystery beer before long. Mystery because i don't really know what the ingredients are. They're whatever is in the closet and freezer. Oh,. I need to look for yeast. Or buy some. If i have some in the freezer, it should be fine because it's designed for 5 gallons and it's been in the freezer. If not, I've got Amazon prime (and you thought i was going to say I'd get bread yeast from my daughter)

Wow. The starter kits have gotten a lot more expensive. I guess the fermenter by itself isn't too bad (at least not at Mr beer), but i may wait until i can get to Walmart and look for 3 (or so) gallon bucket.

At least I'm in good shape on yeast. I found a bunch of mangrove Jack m44 in the freezer. It says west coast a ale, so maybe it's a chico. I think i checked and have hops, but my memory is shot so maybe i just thought about doing it. I'll have to check again.

I seem to recall that it's a bad idea to brew 2-3 gallons in a 6 gallon bucket, so I'm going to try finding a smaller bucket.

I still don't know what grains and hops i have, so it's going to be a pretty random beer. I'll probably bottle it, but I'm not sure where my caps and capper are, so i guess I'll use some flippies. I haven't bottled in a really long time, but I'm pretty sure I've got some flippies, and probably even some amber ones

I *thought* i had a bunch of pellet hops (like a couple of pounds) in my deep freeze. I didn't find any because there's a bunch of food in there (why would i doi that? ). But i found some homegrown hippies in a different spot. I guess i can use those and treat AAs as a guess.

I googled m44, and i don't think it's chico. Maybe pacman, but maybe not. Consensus on forums seems to be that it's similar to pacman, but not the same. It's what I've got in plenty, so it's what I'll use.

The grains i found so far all seem to be pale or very pale, with a couple of Munich. I was hoping for some c60, but haven't found any yet. I guess it'll have to be something really light. The m44 supposedly attenuates really well, so without any c60, it might end up pretty thin (but maybe high abv, so i guess i won't complain).

Oh. I did find a bunch of flippies, including amber ones. A couple of green Grolsch, but more Fischer (Fisher?) and some that i probably bought from Mr beer.

I just hope i can remember how to do this. It used ti be almost automatic, but i forget almost everything and on top of that, i can't understand things as well as i used to (don't ever get hit by a truck).i know i have to decide how much weight I'd grains to use, crush them, then mash them then. Then i have to boil with hops at different times for flavor, bitterness, aroma. I don't think it will be super tough. Just not on autopilot.

The Munich malt is 60L, so i think that will work. I checked my hops stash and there was just over a pound of homegrown hallertauer.

My brother suggested using CHATGPT, so i went there, listed my ingredients and asked for a 2 gallon recipe. It came back almost immediately with a recipe that it estimated will be about 5-5.5% abv. Since my memory is shot, I can't be sure, but I *think* it's close to what i would have come up with on my own before the accident wrecked my memory and thinking.

Woo hoo. I just found 2 LBKs in a closet. Far from where I'd usually brew, so I'm not sure what they were doing there.

Chat gpt came up with a couple of recipes, and I adjusted based on the size of the bags of malt I've got and because i asked for a 2 gallon batch and the LBK is a little bigger.

How does this look?
2.5 lbs pale 2 row
0.5 lbs extra pale
0.25 lbs Munich
1 oz hops (.5 for 60, .25 for 15, .25 at flameout)
6g m44 yeast (3g packages, but 3g seems small)

It'll probably take 2 weeks to ferment, but i may give it 3, i still haven't found my capper ord caps (haven't really looked much) but i have *a lot* of amber flippies. Theoretically, i could keg, but i don't want to wrestle with the kegs, co2 canister, etc so I'll just bottle.

My brother told me that he had some beer that sat for more than a year but he kegged it up, anyway. He says that here wouldn't call it good, but it was drinkable and people who came to his house also enjoyed it, so it wasn't just him trying to be cheap. He also suggested using carbonation drops to make bottling easier. I'm going to take it a step further and use Fischer flippies. They hold 22 oz *and* they're flippies, so bottling should be easier.

I have more confidence that the small batch with grains i found in my closet and hops from my freezer will be ok. I suspect small batches and flippies are going ro be common for a while

Quick question.

Since this sat so long, will i need to add some yeast to bottle carb? I've got a boatload of m44 in 3g packets (not sure why, but it's there. So i can add some if needed.