Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?

[smokinghole]

Well today I'm brewing up another saison. This recipe is identical to my rye recipe I just brewed only instead of rye malt i'm using raw spelt and flaked spelt. The reason for brewing now for the summer is to allow the brett flavor to develop in this blend. There's not much brett flavor in my last brew with this yeast blend. So here's to hoping. I figure if I have this much saison around I'll be plenty ready for summer well ahead of time. I always drag my feet when I want to brew something for a season and end up getting it done midway through.

I might be able to brew a second time this weekend also. If so I'm in need of a tripel.

 

[JRL]

I want to brew but I do not know what. I might do another milk stout cause it is yummy. I also want to do a couple session brews. Maybe i will take some magazines to work with me.

 

[smokinghole]

These saisons are supposed to be session brews. The issue is that it's tough for me to brew less than 1.050 beers with my mashtun. So with this beer I have a very shallow grain bed even though I'm brewing 8 gal worth it's still less than 15lbs of grain. Due to the yeast's attenuation it still makes a 6%+ abv brew. I guess I could brew 15 gal worth or something of a 1.040ish wort but my kettle can only hold like 16.5 gal so there would be no boil down room.

 

[JRL]

I am doing a Pilsner/Kolsch today. First time attempting these. Using 2 row pils and wheat malt. Yeast will be WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch.

 

[smokinghole]

I've been wanting to do something like that. With the cold months I am actually planning on doing a lager or two in my garage this winter. It's easier to warm something up than cool it down.

Ooh yeah and at the last minute I decided to split the saison batch between two yeasts. I added ECY03 Farmhouse Bret strain to one fermentor and ECY20 Bug County "The Mother Bugger" for a sour more historic mixed saison fermentation. In three months they should both be done hopefully. I figure the sour would be nice to have in the summer. Depending on how it ends up I will do a full 11 gal worth of this as a sour beer and ferment it in two six gal fermentors if it only takes three months. That way I can brew it again around Jan and bottle it up in April/May to have it all summer long.

 

[veeref]

My last attempt at a Kolsch didn't turn out how I wanted it. It actually got a little too warm fermenting. Now that I've invested in a chest freezer and ETC, I might give it another shot.

 

[JRL]

My basement is about 63 right now, going to ferment at that for 10 days then bring it up to 68 in my water bath. I will let you know how that goes.

 

[smokinghole]

Here's a glimpse at a fairly wild fermentation. The carboy on the left is a "normal" culture of just saison yeast and brett. The carboy on the right is a massive mix of brettanomyces, saccharomyces and various souring bacteria. The have had yeast pitched at the same time. The krausen has died down on the left but the viscosity of the beer on the right keeps the krausen with huge soapy looking bubbles. Really cool to have as a comparison.

 

[smokinghole]

I am brewing a Flanders Oud Bruin on Friday. Instead of yellow maize I'm maize morado (purple corn from Peru). Then Saturday I'm brewing a double decoction stout with a brettanomyces yeast blend. I sterilized some malt extract at school today and stuck each culture in the shaker incubator at school. I also was able to take the two cultures of yeast I brought with me and was able to do a cryo prep with them. They are now added to my frozen yeast library in our school's -80C freezer.

 

[smokinghole]

I ended up 12 gravity points higher than expected with the Oud Bruin. I guess I under estimated the contribution of the corn. Plus while I was sparging it appeared I'd come up short so I ran off an extra gallon. Oh well so I'll have a 8-10%ish Oud Bruin. Now for the 12-18 month wait!

I'm about to get started on my stout. I need to get more water because my initial infusion is 11gal. I only have 8gal left over from yesterday. I'm doing a double decoction with this stout due to using a Brettanomyes lambicus in the fermenation. It will likely knock 20points off from the saccharomyces so I want my sacch to end at closer to 1.045.

 

[smokinghole]

The big stout brew went very well. I collected just over six gallons of 1.127 used diesel oil looking wort. It is super thick. I hopped it to a theoretical 100ibus but realistically it's probably closer to 80 due to how high the gravity ended up. I will be adding some oak cubes from my last beer with this yeast along with a freshly grown up culture with new french med toast oak cubes. Coming to taste buds Xmas 2012!

 

[JRL]

Shit, you blow me away with your brewing, techniques and skills.

I will be starting a coconut porter tomorrow. Doing basic porter recipe and adding toasted coconut at a secondary.

 

[smokinghole]

After some deliberation I decided to dilute the 1.127 down to 1.117. I added about .5gal of water to bring it down just a tad. I figure if it makes it down to 1.020, though I'm hoping for closer to 1.030, it still makes a 12%abv stout.

 

[W.B.]

Adam, I am curious how did that Oud Bruin turn out for you. I'm not a home brewer as yet(though do aspire one day down the road), is that similar to some of the commercial brew's like Monk's Cafe or the Duchesse De Bourgogne?

 

[SkinsFanLarry]

The big stout brew went very well. I collected just over six gallons of 1.127 used diesel oil looking wort. It is super thick. I hopped it to a theoretical 100ibus but realistically it's probably closer to 80 due to how high the gravity ended up. I will be adding some oak cubes from my last beer with this yeast along with a freshly grown up culture with new french med toast oak cubes. Coming to taste buds Xmas 2012!

Stout, did you say Stout! :thumbsup:

 

[smokinghole]

Adam, I am curious how did that Oud Bruin turn out for you. I'm not a home brewer as yet(though do aspire one day down the road), is that similar to some of the commercial brew's like Monk's Cafe or the Duchesse De Bourgogne?

The color is on track with a commercial offering like Liefmans Goudenband. I don't know about the flavor yet, it'll be at least a year long fermentation. It's kicking nicely right now. Last night was it was still slightly too warm for yeast I pitched in a tube of pediococcus bacteria that I had isolated out of another culture. Then this afternoon I threw the rest of the culture. This gave the bacteria a chance to sour a little more before the alcohol kills them off because this will be a fairly boozy flemish brown.

 

[Goalee1]

Great thread. Started dabbling with home brewing about a year ago and this weekend, just started a holiday ale. I'm using kits till I get a better understanding of blending but its been fun so far and my wife and brother in law have enjoyed the finished product so far.

Just tried something interesting this weekend that I never thought of till now. We have an old civil war era home built on a spring so I've been using our own spring water for the brews. There is an old summer kitchen area and where the water runs out of the spring and to the creek in the back, there is a slot where I understand the people used to keep items that needed to be "refrigerated" or at least colder. It runs pretty consistent at about 55 degrees so no refrigeration cold by todays means but colder than ambient temps. Anyway I decided to cool my wort in the water and it was a lot easier than using ice and water in my sink. Doing things the old fashioned way I guess lol. G1

 

[smokinghole]

I did a gravity check on my saison that I split between a lambic coctail and a bret blend saison yeast. The ECY03 Farmhouse Brett has fermented down to 1.003 after a little more than a month. The ECY20 Bug County (brett and souring bacteria cocktail) has a gravity of 1.010. The beer is "sick" right now and displaying an oily ropiness due to the bacteria so my gravity is realistically lower. The viscosity due to the bacteria is likely throwing of my gravity so I will just have to wait until the brett degrades the ropiness.

 

[smokinghole]

Well I brewed up a stout today. It's 8.5gal of mild mannered 50ibu mocha stout. I added 3oz of Hershey cocoa powder at 10 min (not that it's really their cocoa powder since they don't deal with cocoa anymore themselves). I will be adding some coffee next week. I don't know whether I want to do cold brewed coffee or just add them to the fermentor.

 

[JRL]

I cold brewed some and added it to a secondary. I have the exact details and amounts if you want them. Turned out good.

I think I am going to do an ESB this weekend or next.