Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?

[JRL]

I also hardly ever secondary, only if I am adding fruit or if I am aging. Three weeks lets everything down nicely. Just remember to take your gravity readings as that is the only indicator that fermentation is done.

Congrats on the first brew. Whats next? Get that pipe line going. Lol

 

[blacklabel]

5 gallons of blueberry pale ale and 5 gallons of cranberry pale ale

 

[JRL]

Did you use real cranberries? How many lbs? How did you go about prepping them?

 

[blacklabel]

Did you use real cranberries? How many lbs? How did you go about prepping them?

Well it will be my first time msking it. Using 2lb fresh berries, that i am running through freeze and thaw cycles now to break down the skin.

I plan on putting them in a mesh bag and into seconday for about 10 days.

 

[smokinghole]

I took a taste sample of my sour saison. It is coming along nicely. In a month the gravity dropped six points from 1.010 to 1.004. It has a nice acidity at this point and still slightly viscous from the bacteria. I can't wait to put this thing in bottles and get a second batch going. This time I'll have to do a whole 10 gal into fermentors with out losing almost half the batch.

 

[mthhurley]

Brewed up the Irish ale kit that came with the Midwest Groupon. Boy....extract brewing is a lot easier and faster.

 

[BeerAdvocate]

Brewed up the Irish ale kit that came with the Midwest Groupon. Boy....extract brewing is a lot easier and faster.

:thumbsup:

 

[smokinghole]

Looks like due to the wind I'll be doing my first garage brew. Stupid cold wind. Oh well I think I can find a way to make this work. I'm flexible! English bitter here I come.

 

[Lorax429]

Added the Cascade plugs for the dry hopping to my Amber Ale. Took a SG reading while I had it open. The corrected OG was 1.054 and today after 2 weeks in the primary the corrected SG is 1.014. The abv calculator puts this brew at 5.3%abv. Bottling day in 1 week.

 

[hossdawg]

My first brew yesterday was an Irish Red Ale. Checked downstairs and fermentation has begun. Great experience and I can see how this can become an obsession.

 

[mthhurley]

Congrats!!! did it all go smoothly? Did you hit your gravity numbers?

 

[JRL]

My first brew yesterday was an Irish Red Ale. Checked downstairs and fermentation has begun. Great experience and I can see how this can become an obsession.

I am also doing an Irish Red today. Should be starting in 2 hours or so. Congrats on the first brew, now you need another fermentor and another kit to keep the pipe line going.

 

[hossdawg]

Thanks Mike....I hit the gravity number and stopped over at Chicago Brew Werks yesterday beforehand to pick up some extras. The owner Brandon, was very helpful and has a great little shop, already thinking of what to brew next.

Congrats!!! did it all go smoothly? Did you hit your gravity numbers?

 

[smokinghole]

Awesome to see others brewing! I just hope you have even as much fun as I do. If you guys even have half as much fun as me you'll seriously enjoy yourselves.

So I've been on a brewing streak. Tomorrow I'm doing up my Belgian dark strong recipe that won me the best of show at a competition in September. I'm using East Coast Yeast Belgian Abbaye which is a new yeast. I'm going through some serious malt!

 

[smokinghole]

Well the belgian dark strong is happily fermenting right now. The the most recent IPA which is the recipe used for BOTL IPA was just packaged in bottles this morning. I think I'll be bottling this English Special Bitter will be bottled up with in a week. I'm up in the air about dry hopping this beer. I'm leaning towards not dry hopping it.

 

[smokinghole]

So the special bitter is finished I think. I am tasting it right now. It needs another day or too at room temp. There's a touch of diacetyl left from the english yeast. I think I'll be able to bottle it up on Sunday. The taste is nice and the color is a good tan. I was going for a beer inspired by recieps for Spitfire bitter, which I have never tasted. I don't think it's sold in the US, but I did find recipes for it listed on a UK site. I changed up the hops to the newer Delta hops since I had a sample on hand. I love SO4 yeast it's already almost cleared and I haven't even crashed it yet.

 

[Lorax429]

Bottled my amber ale last night. I will start a pale ale in the next week or two.

 

[JRL]

Love it, how did it taste going into the bottles? Not the hard part that tests the patience factor.

 

[Lorax429]

Love it, how did it taste going into the bottles? Not the hard part that tests the patience factor.

I did sneak a taste and it was good. Not as hoppy as I was expecting but still good. Looking forward to two weeks from now....

 

[TheDudeAbides]

Made my first run at this homebrew thing, after talking about it for 10 or so years. Irish stout extract kit that came with my Midwest Groupon dealy. Everthing went smooth, will let ya'll know the result in a few weeks.
-Dude