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Author Topic: What's Brewing?  (Read 143682 times)

Offline Roger

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #225 on: April 25, 2016, 09:24:57 AM »
So today I'm brewing my birch sap saison. I plugged up the trees yesterday. I got over 30 gallons from 4 trees. One of them was running so hard that the sap was dripping from the end of the wooden plug. The tree had so much hydraulic pressure that it pushed the sap through the grains of the wood...
I froze 15+ gallons for future use. Not sure yet what style of beer to make with it though. It makes a very tasty saison so probably most Belgian styles.

Offline ECH

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #226 on: April 26, 2016, 01:38:29 AM »
First brew of the season tomorrow.

Just a quick and simple IPA, Gold LME, with a little bit of biscuit malt thrown in, Chinook leaf for bittering (that I grew myself), and a bunch of Centennial for aroma and flavor.

Will be the first time using my Fast Ferment that I got for Xmas as well!

Thought the yeast was old (it was, harvested back in July), put it in a starter 3 days before brew day....and nothing in the starter vessel at all. But pitched it anyway. Didn't seem to be any activity in the airlock at all, so went and bought a fresh pack of 1056 and pitched it. Much to my surprise (after dumping the ball on the fast ferment), there was a small krausen on the beer from the old yeast(smelled wonderful), but by that time I had already smacked the Wyeast pack, and dumped the collection ball. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

When putting the cover on the fast ferment on brew day, I somehow misplaced the silicon O ring for the top cover. No where to be seen, thought maybe that it fell into the FF, but you would have thought it would have floated. Saw nothing so had to improvise. Took a large freezer bag, cut it in half and then put it over the mouth of the FF, screwed the cover on.

Thought Noble Grape would have them, since they sell the FF...but alas no, they have to order them from Halifax. Common part that gets wrecked or lost (according to some other forums) you would think they would stock a few. Ahh well, will have them for next time. Just hope the freezer bag plastic is providing enough of a seal for the top.

Also, the brew ended up with Cascade instead of Centennial. For whatever reason I thought the bines my friend gave me were Centennial, turned out to be Cascade. So oz of Chinook for bittering, 2oz of Cascade at 10mins, and then 2.5oz of Cascade in a 30min hop stand.

I didn't want the hop leaves to clog up the pot (despite it having a bazooka filter on the valve), so I put them in muslin bags.......accept of course they floated...so hoping they sat enough in the hot wort to do something with.

I was planning on dry hopping with Centennial (when I thought I had centennial leaf hops that turned out to be cascade), now I don't know. I do have centennial pellets I can use, just not sure if I want to now. Might just take a sample before I do that and see if I think it needs it. 
« Last Edit: April 26, 2016, 01:47:56 AM by ECH »

Offline Two Wheeler

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #227 on: April 26, 2016, 08:57:41 AM »
Hey @ECH I have a gasket you can use until your new one comes in, just let me know if you want it.
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Offline shazapple

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #228 on: April 26, 2016, 09:32:19 AM »
They don't float. I've found mine in the bottom of the FF many times.
Lee

Offline ECH

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #229 on: April 26, 2016, 10:18:33 AM »
Hey @ECH I have a gasket you can use until your new one comes in, just let me know if you want it.

Thanks for the offer. The plastic from the zip lock bag seems to be holding a seal OK for now. NG says they will have them by the end of the week.

Offline ECH

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #230 on: April 26, 2016, 10:20:45 AM »
They don't float. I've found mine in the bottom of the FF many times.

I would have thought that they would have floated......ahhh well, maybe mine is in it.

Dude at NG said to put some Vaseline on it to keep it fresh......made out of silicon I believe, not like it will dry out. Not really keen on putting something like Vaseline on  the beer side of the fermentation process!

Offline Alain2

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #231 on: May 01, 2016, 10:57:02 AM »
Brewing a Saison with Abbey base malt and Carabelge.

Offline ECH

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #232 on: May 01, 2016, 09:00:06 PM »
They don't float. I've found mine in the bottom of the FF many times.

I would have thought that they would have floated......ahhh well, maybe mine is in it.

Dude at NG said to put some Vaseline on it to keep it fresh......made out of silicon I believe, not like it will dry out. Not really keen on putting something like Vaseline on  the beer side of the fermentation process!

Now of course, it is the newer silicon gasket, hard as heck to get the damn cover off to put the dry hops in!

Offline Two Wheeler

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #233 on: May 06, 2016, 08:42:32 PM »
Brewing 10 gallons of American wheat tonight with orange peel and coriander. Half of the batch will get cherry purée added after primary


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Offline Cuba

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #234 on: May 06, 2016, 10:00:33 PM »
Brewed a chocolate maple porter today with my maple sap. Tomorrow is time for an IPA brew!

Offline mikegraham

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #235 on: May 06, 2016, 10:38:17 PM »
May brew tomorrow dunno yet

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Offline robcoombs

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #236 on: May 07, 2016, 07:35:42 AM »
Well, since there's no meeting by the looks of things I'm going to finally brew a kettle sour. I'll be splitting the batch. Half I'll dry hop with mosaic and Vic secret. The other half I'll be adding fruit, possibly mango and/or pineapple. I'm fermenting both batches with Brett Brux Trois Vrai.

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Offline Alain2

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #237 on: May 07, 2016, 10:02:29 AM »
Brewing an American Barleywine. Full mash tun at 17 lbs of grain plus 3lbs extract during boil.

Offline Two Wheeler

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #238 on: May 12, 2016, 09:37:50 AM »
Added a 3lb can of cherry purée to half the batch. This is about 10 hours in and a large second krausen has formed. I'm excited for this batch...




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Offline robcoombs

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Re: What's Brewing?
« Reply #239 on: May 12, 2016, 10:04:56 PM »
Bottled 2.5 gallons of a dark saison I aged on Brett B and local cranberries for 6 months.

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