The Beer Thread

[ihavemyreasons]

After 24 hours yeast in the pale ale was doing nothing, so added newer yeast that arrived yesterday afternoon.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Got 10 quarts of beer brewing, managed to mix the LME in the pot well this time so no burnt malt this time.

Used:

3.3lbs Pilsen Light LME
1.5 oz dark DME
5g cascade hops 60 min.
5.6g cluster hops 20 min.
8g citra hops 2 min.

The hopsy smell coming from the airlock for the first 2 days when it was really fermenting was great.

Thursday will be 2 weeks and I think I'll bottle it then.


I am also experimenting with wine again, combined apple juice with strawberry preserves and 1 gallon of that is bubbling away now, the smell from that is very nice.

[ihavemyreasons]

My Czech ale turned out very Czech  light lager like which is what I was going for. A nice sunny day beer.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Bottled my latest batch, the last 8 oz. that didn't get bottled tasted pretty good for super green beer, so this might be the best batch I've ever made, fingers crossed for 2 weeks from now.

[ihavemyreasons]

My cascade ale is still carbonating. Having to carbonate it artificially as I screwed up trying to carbonate it naturally in the keg. I didn't attach my temperature probe to the side of the keg very well and it detached and caused the keg to overheat and kill the yeast. Sampling the flat beer leads me to believe it will turn out OK but the artificial carbonation is going to take a while.

[ihavemyreasons]

Placed an order for brewing ingredients from a cheap homebrew supply shop in Michigan that I've ordered from in the past after email assured me they were still doing mail order. That was 8 weeks ago. Got emails 2 weeks in a row informing me they were short staffed and my order would ship before the end of the week. Then nothing for a week. Then an email repeating that my order was shipping by the end of the week. Didn't ship so I filed a dispute with paypal and just got my refund today. Brewing ingriedients on Amazon in shorter supply then usual and prices way up, but order placed this morning and shipped this afternoon.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Placed an order for brewing ingredients from a cheap homebrew supply shop in Michigan that I've ordered from in the past after email assured me they were still doing mail order. That was 8 weeks ago. Got emails 2 weeks in a row informing me they were short staffed and my order would ship before the end of the week. Then nothing for a week. Then an email repeating that my order was shipping by the end of the week. Didn't ship so I filed a dispute with paypal and just got my refund today. Brewing ingriedients on Amazon in shorter supply then usual and prices way up, but order placed this morning and shipped this afternoon.

Since I make small batches I have pretty much gone all Amazon now.  Two gallons lasts me a couple months, so I won't be brewing again until July, hopefully supply and prices have returned to normal by then.  Might try champagne yeast sometime, when I thought I was going to really get into making wine I bought an 8 pack but have only used 2 of them...

[ihavemyreasons]

Without anyone coming over to help me consume it, I may already have enough made to last until the end of the year. But going to make 2 batches that I'll let sit- a strong stout that will need 6 months to mature and then a lager that I'll over hop and let cold lager for 3 or 4 months.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Tried one of my test bottles, for 3 weeks old (1 week bottled) it is really good, nice hop flavor, just the right amount of bitterness that I like.

Guess I have to call this batch covid beer...

[ihavemyreasons]

Brew day.
Light beer which I'll put on tap as soon as something else runs out.
Pumpkin Ale and an IPA that I'll age until the fall or winter.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

For my latest batch I was nearly done with a bag of citra hops so used it all up, so about 1/3 more at 2 minutes than my last batch.  Also for the hell of it added 2 cups of apple cider to the boil, and because the cider had some sorbate preservative I added extra yeast, also went with safale us-05 yeast this time.  Didn't need to increase the yeast, the boil must have taken care of the sorbate or there just wasn't enough of it in those 2 cups, because the fermentation stayed warm for 2 days so the yeast was multiplying like mad.

Opened up a test bottle today that I put in the fridge yesterday and it was so good I put the entire batch in the fridge, color is great, bitterness is perfect.  I was just thinking I don't think I've ever bought a beer that had the bitterness where I like it, Yuengling Lager is the closest but a little low, all others that I've tried at higher bitterness were too much.

[ihavemyreasons]

Haven't made beer in awhile due to running into a problem with getting CO2. Suppliers in area were limiting sales to restaurants and bars due to limited supply. No big deal. Hadn't thought about it in awhile, but when heading across town last weekend I decided to throw my CO2 tank in the car and stop at my regular CO2 supplier. Was able to get my tank filled but then discovered my faucets were all plugged and corroded. My fault for buying cheap chrome plated faucets. Bought stainless steel replacements. Half full keg that had been sitting in kegerator was vinegary and had to be thrown out. Full keg of amber ale thay had been ageing in the basement very good. On Sunday made a light lager and a stout that won't be ready for awhile.

[RVR II]

Met up with my parents yesterday afternoon at a new brewery in town called DustOff Brewery. No idea what the beer was that we had but it was really good. It didn't give me a headache this morning which was nice.
They don't sell any food, just beer they brew inhouse.

[ihavemyreasons]

Cleaned and sanitized my kegs tonight in preperation for kegging the 2 batches I made soon.
Decided to try an experiment. I never boil my add water (water that gets added to the wort that does get boiled) and never had an off batch as a result. Decided to make a batch using a prehopped can of extract and just mixing everything together after I disinfected all the containers- I didn't heat or boil anything. Plan to give the lager yeast 3 weeks to work and then lager in mini fridge until I empty a keg in a couple of months. Interested to see how it turns out. If lager yeast kicks off quickly, I'm betting it will turn out OK.

[ihavemyreasons]

Anchor Brewing has ceased operations.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/07/12/anchor-brewing-first-craft-brewery-closes-127-years/1931689195660/
Quality had slipped a bit since they were bought by Saporo, but bummed about this. Lots of good beer out there like their Liberty Ale - but wasn't the case for years. Nothing quite like Anchor Steam. Have tried making Steam beer reciepes and some have been close. Haven't made beer in awhile. Going to have to try a Steam recirpe again with next batch in honor of Anchor.