What are you brewing?

[Martin2D]

Another update:

Made a huge Dark Lord clone on 11/6/9. On 12/2/10 I racked it into my fresh 7 gallon bourbon barrel with 3 Mexican vanilla beans. Will add coffee at bottling. I've never had Dark Lord, but I doubt it tastes anything like it as the recipe was a shot in the dark...lord. However, tastes really good, but boozy still right now.

Ordinary bitter - my first of the style. It's pretty good, but nothing really to write home about. Nice to kick back a couple with good flavor.

Saison w/ Brett - still fermenting. Not going to give this a ridiculous amount of time because it's only 4%ish ABV and I want to drink it now, but it's in a hot water bath to get stuff chugging along.

Gumballhead clone - upped the IBU's from last time because FFF got more specific on their website. However, still made it with white wheat instead of red because I already ordered the grains. Considering a dry hop with some citra...any opinions?

Obsidian Stout clone - pitched on the ordinary bitter clone. Tastes very very very good. Deschutes must make some quality stuff. Still in the fermenter, but will bottle soon.

Made an American strong ale to replace the stout when that is done in the barrel. It is about 10ish% abv with 100 IBUS of CTZ and Chinook.

Keep on brewing!

 

[GregSVT]

Where did you get a 7 gallon bourbon barrel? That sounds awesome and I'd love to try it when it's done.

When/if I get into home brewing aging a big stout or porter in a bourbon barrel was something I wanted to try. A local brewery that does some aging in barrels is/was selling barrels from Makers Mark they just emptied from a recent batch for $75. These were the big barrels though...

 

[Martin2D]

Where did you get a 7 gallon bourbon barrel? That sounds awesome and I'd love to try it when it's done.

When/if I get into home brewing aging a big stout or porter in a bourbon barrel was something I wanted to try. A local brewery that does some aging in barrels is/was selling barrels from Makers Mark they just emptied from a recent batch for $75. These were the big barrels though...

I got it off ebay from http://tuthilltown.com/

They were selling for $90+ship, I got this one for $100 shipped. I split it between me and 2 friends as 7 gallons of the beers we are making would be a bit much. You'll get better results with the 55, but that's just not feasible at all. I'll let you know how it turns out. Right now it hasn't started refermenting yet, so I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers the barrel isn't contaminated.

 

[souldog]

Martin2D or Smelly, any thoughts?

What kind of yeast did you use on the Blueberry beer? Different yeasts produce different krausens...it's so dependent on so many things that I wouldn't worry about it. EDIT: I see you used oats in the stout recipe. That helps in head retention and is probably helping the krausen look a little more aggressive. I don't know much about extract, but in the future, I would ferment the blueberry beer without the fruit then rack onto the blueberries in secondary. If you heated them, there may be pectin haze in the beer, but that shouldn't matter too much since it's a dark beer.

Also, I'm not also that huge of a fan of liquid yeast. On such small batches, you're kind of wasting money. I think those beers would come out fine with S-04 or Nottingham. Plenty dry and Nottingham is only $1.50 a satchel vs. $7 a vial. Good savings IMO and why I use Nottingham for most of my ferments.

I used a liquid wheat yeast from Mr. B. First time using liquid yeast, as I've only used dry yeast up to this point. I had been told that the liquid yeast will give it a fuller flavor, but you're probably right.

As far as the blueberries, I pureed them and added them straight into the fermenter after adding the wort and some cold water. The temp of everything was at 74 degrees when I added them. For a little 2.5 gallon batch, how much S-04 would I be adding? (Yeah, yeah, I'm working with Mr. Beer here...)

 

[GregSVT]

Where did you get a 7 gallon bourbon barrel? That sounds awesome and I'd love to try it when it's done.

When/if I get into home brewing aging a big stout or porter in a bourbon barrel was something I wanted to try. A local brewery that does some aging in barrels is/was selling barrels from Makers Mark they just emptied from a recent batch for $75. These were the big barrels though...

I got it off ebay from http://tuthilltown.com/

They were selling for $90+ship, I got this one for $100 shipped. I split it between me and 2 friends as 7 gallons of the beers we are making would be a bit much. You'll get better results with the 55, but that's just not feasible at all. I'll let you know how it turns out. Right now it hasn't started refermenting yet, so I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers the barrel isn't contaminated.

That's the same place I wanted to get a barrel from due to it being pretty small...very cool. I'll definitely keep an eye on your results.

 

[jfields]

Wouldn't you want to heat the blueberries to ensure there's no little bugs, or other bacteria?

 

[souldog]

Wouldn't you want to heat the blueberries to ensure there's no little bugs, or other bacteria?

Hrmm... Well crap, I didn't think of that either. They were canned blueberries, and I blended them in a sanitized blender. I know a few guys who did this same recipe with strawberries and didn't have any problems, but hell, I didn't think of that. I guess I'll know soon enough.

 

[jfields]

Wouldn't you want to heat the blueberries to ensure there's no little bugs, or other bacteria?

Hrmm... Well crap, I didn't think of that either. They were canned blueberries, and I blended them in a sanitized blender. I know a few guys who did this same recipe with strawberries and didn't have any problems, but hell, I didn't think of that. I guess I'll know soon enough.

I would think you'd be okay then Jonathan. I would think canned would be pasteurized.

 

[souldog]

Wouldn't you want to heat the blueberries to ensure there's no little bugs, or other bacteria?

Hrmm... Well crap, I didn't think of that either. They were canned blueberries, and I blended them in a sanitized blender. I know a few guys who did this same recipe with strawberries and didn't have any problems, but hell, I didn't think of that. I guess I'll know soon enough.

I would think you'd be okay then Jonathan. I would think canned would be pasteurized.

Ah, okay. Phew! *wipes sweat from forehead* The blueberry stout should be good to go by Christmas, if I can wait that long.

 

[smellysell]

Another update:

Made a huge Dark Lord clone on 11/6/9. On 12/2/10 I racked it into my fresh 7 gallon bourbon barrel with 3 Mexican vanilla beans. Will add coffee at bottling. I've never had Dark Lord, but I doubt it tastes anything like it as the recipe was a shot in the dark...lord. However, tastes really good, but boozy still right now.

Made an American strong ale to replace the stout when that is done in the barrel. It is about 10ish% abv with 100 IBUS of CTZ and Chinook.

ISO and ISO!

I just realize I only have 20 gallons of beer fermenting right now and 3 of the 4 batches are sours. Have a quad in secondary along with my blueberry sour, sour blonde, and the first leg of a gueuze that I just brewed a week or so ago.

Here's the blueberry and the blonde.

 

[Martin2D]

I very rarely make more than 2.5 gallon batches myself Jon. Pitch the whole packet of yeast...Fermentis and Danstar yeast are super high quality. Don't use Muntons or Coopers though because I think they're crappy. That's another reason why people put the fruit in secondary...because there's already alcohol to protect from infection. The wheat yeast was an interesting choice, I assume you mean a Hefe yeast or something along those lines...I hope you like bananas with your blueberries! Actually that sounds pretty damn good.

Edit: It'll be ready WAYYYYYYYYYYY before Xmas. It's not that big of a beer...you're good!

 

[souldog]

I very rarely make more than 2.5 gallon batches myself Jon. Pitch the whole packet of yeast...Fermentis and Danstar yeast are super high quality. Don't use Muntons or Coopers though because I think they're crappy. That's another reason why people put the fruit in secondary...because there's already alcohol to protect from infection. The wheat yeast was an interesting choice, I assume you mean a Hefe yeast or something along those lines...I hope you like bananas with your blueberries! Actually that sounds pretty damn good.

Edit: It'll be ready WAYYYYYYYYYYY before Xmas. It's not that big of a beer...you're good!

Mmmm...blueberry banana bread... The main recipe called for the wheat liquid yeast, and I tweaked the rest. It's black as night right now, I'm just dying for it to be done!

 

[Niko]

Where did you get a 7 gallon bourbon barrel? That sounds awesome and I'd love to try it when it's done.

When/if I get into home brewing aging a big stout or porter in a bourbon barrel was something I wanted to try. A local brewery that does some aging in barrels is/was selling barrels from Makers Mark they just emptied from a recent batch for $75. These were the big barrels though...

Greg, you should get into brewing... I can help you get started and we can get together and brew some awesome beers.:thumbs:

 

[DePasta]

Alright boys and girls I am diving headfirst into the wonderful world of homebrew! The Wife© (sorry Alan) got me set up with a local home brew store. I am keeping it simple to start with an extract full boil this weekend. First batch will be a Belgian Triple. I built my immersion Wort chiller and am ready to go...now if I can just find some damn bottles (too cheap to buy them) I need to drink more!

 

[jfields]

Alright boys and girls I am diving headfirst into the wonderful world of homebrew! The Wife© (sorry Alan) got me set up with a local home brew store. I am keeping it simple to start with an extract full boil this weekend. First batch will be a Belgian Triple. I built my immersion Wort chiller and am ready to go...now if I can just find some damn bottles (too cheap to buy them) I need to drink more!

Cool Dan!
A lot of bars and Pubs will hook you up with bottles from what I understand. All you have to do is ask.
Now you have to put a glass of beer next to the picture of your bunghole!

 

[LilBastage]

... The Wife© (sorry Alan) ...

You've escaped the wrath of my team of high priced litigators this time. Just make sure you keep the space between the words to avoid future action. Don't make me have them send you a strongly worded letter.

Good luck, buddy! Have fun.

 

[souldog]

Alright boys and girls I am diving headfirst into the wonderful world of homebrew! The Wife© (sorry Alan) got me set up with a local home brew store. I am keeping it simple to start with an extract full boil this weekend. First batch will be a Belgian Triple. I built my immersion Wort chiller and am ready to go...now if I can just find some damn bottles (too cheap to buy them) I need to drink more!

VERY nice Dan, I'm excited for you dude. Best of luck, and snap some photos if you can.


Just none of your bunghole please...

 

[bfreebern]

Damn, gonna have to pull my setup out and start this again, it's been a couple of years.

 

[GregSVT]

Where did you get a 7 gallon bourbon barrel? That sounds awesome and I'd love to try it when it's done.

When/if I get into home brewing aging a big stout or porter in a bourbon barrel was something I wanted to try. A local brewery that does some aging in barrels is/was selling barrels from Makers Mark they just emptied from a recent batch for $75. These were the big barrels though...

Greg, you should get into brewing... I can help you get started and we can get together and brew some awesome beers.:thumbs:

I'd love to start brewing right now but my condo is small and there's not much space for big buckets or carboys to be sitting around fermenting. When I get a house eventually I will start it up and I will definitely be interested in getting together to brew some beers.

 

[souldog]

I'd love to start brewing right now but my condo is small and there's not much space for big buckets or carboys to be sitting around fermenting. When I get a house eventually I will start it up and I will definitely be interested in getting together to brew some beers.

Meester Beeeeerrrr.....! :whistling: