Brew schedule fall 2022

 pils

apa

oktoberfest thrown on pils yeast

batch 146 stout

Pending beers to make

Pending schedule

PQ to bottle 6/19
Pils to start lagering around 7/4, lager until 8/21
6/27 Pliney the Elder Clone with W1084, bottle 7/16
7/4 Saison, bottle 7/23
Vacation 7/23-8/15
8/22 Start Oktoberfest
8/29 Porter(?) with W1469

Next beer

Something hoppy, almost out of IPA.

Rev anti hero clone?  Worth a try.

Pending brew sessions

Stout next.

Then a Belgian.

Then a Wit.

Running low on inventory - need to go once per week for a while.

Thoughts for next brew

Do I need to take this weekend off?  Or do I try to mash early, then boil late Saturday?

I can make room in a carboy, although it will take some transferring to get done.

Do I have any compelling ideas for beer to make?

My nut brown is finally starting to dry out, and is pleasant to drink.  The stout is grotesquely sweet, maybe I should just pour it all out, it's not improving with age.  The porter is too sweet, but finally drying out to the point of being drinkable, at least.  The big problem with the porter and stout is the lack of a roasty edge on them, especially with the sweetness in each.  Cold-steeping carafa just doesn't cut it.  You need roast barley, and some needs to go in the mash.

Summer is coming, so these dark beers are not where you want to go, anyways.

Maybe I should be experimenting with lagers that run quickly.  I have chamber space now to run cold fermentations.  The issue is time, but if I work with smaller beers and the right yeast, I can cut the time way down, do smaller lager batches, turn them around in 3 weeks.

It would be nice to get a new vienna going, and try lagering it.  I need grain, though.  I have a sack ordered, but don't know when it will be showing up.  I suppose I could go buy a small sack of vienna.

OK, mind is made up, here we go.

Up next

IPA, simcoe and amarillo.

Weekend ideas

Back to witbier, pile on the orange zest.  Summers a comin.

Stout yeast possibilities

Wyeast 1272 American II (slight tartness)

Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire (slight tartness, would also work nicely for nut brown)

Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale (Guinness, would work for porter, as well)

Next weekend

Running low on porter.

Need tasting notes for last batch.

Note to self:  make porter tasting notes tonight.  As I recall, last batch was pretty good, not a lot of room for improvement.

I have brewers gold and mt hood hops in stock.

For this coming weekend

Thinking of a nut brown again.  Revising my nut brown recipe, I notice it is nearly identical to homebrewtalk's Lil' Sparky's nut brown, that seems to be pretty popular. Mine doesn't include the oatmeal, mashes at a lower temp, and uses US-05 in place of Notty, but otherwise, it's spot on.

Maybe I'll throw in a little flaked wheat, in place of the oatmeal.

Funny how things converge.

Planning First Lager

OK, the stars are all lined up for a lager, time to launch.

Bought a Kelvinator ice cream freezer on E-bay for $50.  Bought a temp controller for same on E-bay for $17.  Wired and tested everything this week, chamber is holding a steady 50 df as I write.

Bought two 3 gallon glass carboys that fit (the 5s are too big, but I can fit 3@3 gallons if desired, but starting with 2 for now).

Bought Wyeast 2633 and have been building it up in two stages of starters since Tuesday.  I now have 2 quarts at about 55 df, ready to bring down to 50 df in my new chamber tonight.

Marzen ingredients are on hand: pils, munich, vienna, caramel 120, noble hops.
Planning to use my best recipe to date (done on US-05).  We'll see how the yeast changes the character of the beer.

Need to boil a big pot of water tonight and get it into the fridge, so I can add it for pitching tomorrow.  Planning a 4 gallon boil for 6 gallons of beer.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five....

Ideas for next weekend's brew

Spring is coming.  What will you want to drink on March 1?

Stone's Arrogant Bastard clone.  Hoppy, yet robust.

Yessss.

Back to the tried and true recipe:  7.2 abv, 9% caramel 120, 2 oz of chinook.  Go back and check notes on the base malt, I think half Maris Otter and half pils.

Or are we ready for a hop experiment?  We have the Vanguards here, maybe smash out with Maris Otter?  Hmmm.  Decisions decisions.

Well, I have a hoppy beer in secondary, so maybe I wait on the SAB clone for a week.  OK.

recipe ideas for this weekend

OK, almost out of stout, need to refresh the yeast, and re-stock for drinking purposes.  Especially this time of year.

Tasting notes show we need to add munich, bump up the lactose and caramel, try steeping the roast barley ahead of time, maybe only use chocolate in the mash for roast character.  Want to mash at higher temp and add a decent amount of flaked wheat for more body.

Earthy hops are appropriate.  Maybe try the glaciers that you just bought for aroma, on top of nugget for bittering.  Better go check your last recipe in the book.

Next weekend

Almost out of Witbier.  Have another go at it.

Lets try different spices, fennel and pepper.  I think we'll want different hops, not soriachi ace like with orange and coriander.

Go back to basics,  Hallertau.  Look for the good stuff.

Look for ideas on fennel quantities in saison recipes.  Go easy on the pepper - black pepper corns, cracked, at the end of the boil.

Fennel, the best I can find is a crushed tsp in a 5 gallon batch, near end of boil.

Next weekend

Need to do a hop cleanup batch, something blond with amber/caramel, plenty of hop varieties.  Need to do an inventory, then design the additions properly.

68 gr rogers cascades, 5%?
1 oz nugget 13.5%
1/2 oz cascade pellets 6.7%
8 gr Northdown 9.4%
11 gr Challenger 8.9%

OK, going through this, I like the earthy spicey aroma of the northdown.  I don't recall challenger's flavor, I suppose it is similar. I used it for bittering only, so its a guess at best.

I think the nugget I can leave unopened, save for another batch.

I can use up rogers cascades for stepped bittering, then hit flameout with the cascade pellets, then dry hop the challenger at pitching, then the northdown in secondary.  This will make a muted IPA flavor, the cascades will give a little pine, but the other dry hops will be more earthy.  

Go for upper 5s for abv, use caramel more generously than amber, although neither that much, keep the mash low temp for a thinner beer, IBUs around 50.  

Next weekend

Dubbel.

Complex malt blend with chocolate, munich, amber, caramel, vienna.  Particularly munich.  Pils base.

Shoot for 6.75% abv.

Hops at 60 and 30 mins, go light on them.  Goldings and Northdown?

Northdown seems to be my new favorite hop.

Roast malt choices

Try chocolate.  Next porter.

Future beer ideas

OK, I have all of these cascades lying around.  That stones arrogant bastard clone is pretty tasty.  What if I replace the Chinook with cascades?

Also, I would love to get that nut brown closer to the Samuel Smith version. 

Tripel ideas

OK, the Chimay got the hook in me.

Needs a little flaked wheat, Munich 20, and sugar (part brown sugar).  Mostly pils at 90 mins.

About 25-30 IBUs noble(?) hops.  Research shows galena, cluster, nugget.  Hmm.  These seem more piney than noble.  I would do hop additions between 30 and 60 mins.  Let's try cascades, Mt. Hood, and willammettes, about 8 ibus each.  Mt hood at 30 mins, cascade at 45 mins, willammette at 60 mins.  

Chimay yeast.  Wyeast 1214.  Up the steps from 64 df to 75 df, over 7 days.

Misc beers last night

Had my first Chimay last night.  This is all about the yeast.  Clearly a slight bread malt balanced with almost no hops, and brought to strength with some sort of sugar.  Then there's the yeast. 

How to describe it?  Well, Belgian for starters.  Very mild ester, maybe a touch of phenol spice, but mainly yeasty flavor. 

Next up was the founders porter.  More like a stout than a porter, IMHO.  Some how they are able to deliver a strong roast flavor with no astringency.  Lots of crystal.  I need to start experimenting with making cold teas for roasted barley prep.  Also, a complex hop blend without imparting obvious hop bittering.

After that, I had an octoberfest that was made with a hint of cinnamon at the finish.

Finally, an Irish red that was basically a crystal bomb without enough hops to meet the sweet. 

Headache this morning.  Not terrible, though.