Who's brewing this weekend?
Getting ready to haul out my equipment and heat up my strike water. I'm making a simple American Wheat - equal parts of wheat and American 2 row with a 1./4 pound of Crystal 20. Bittered with Tettnang and I'll be adding a little Citra or Amarillo for my later hop additions. My LHBS didn't have the Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast so I went with the 2565 Kolsch strain. The 1010 is supposedly a derivative of a kolsch strain so hey why not?
Anyone else brewing today?
I really wanted to, but the joys of being a homeowner have struck this weekend. Various things to do in the yard (in 105 heat index) and around the house. Probably won't brew again until after 4th of July. (sigh)
No brewing for me... On my way to the American Craft Beer Festival at the Seaport in Boston.. 400+ beers to "sample".... Next brew session for me will probably be one of the next 2 weekeneds.. I'm also doing a wheat ale, just some pils and wheat, hopped with some low AA Spalt, and fermented with WLP 351 Bavarian Weizen...
Boiling away now.. Just added the Tettnang and decided I'm going to use Citra for my 15 minute and flameout additions.
I didn't even use rice hulls in my mash. Thought I had some then I couldn't find them... Then I found them right before I ran off into the kettle but decided to see how I'd fair without them - not bad; didn't have a stuck mash/sparge and it didn't seem to slow the lautering at all either.
Time to clean up and grab some lunch...
Just opened up my bag of Citra to weigh out my additions and man oh man these hops scream mango and peach! I think they're going to be a great hop for American wheats.
FirePitBrew wrote:
Just opened up my bag of Citra to weigh out my additions and man oh man these hops scream mango and peach! I think they're going to be a great hop for American wheats.
My IIPA was dry hopped (in primary) with Citra and was pure "fruit loops" to start, but after a week or so in the keg it has mellowed nicely.
Yeah I've heard a lot of varying testimonials to this hop so I didn't go over the top. I'm going for something a little hoppier than an average American wheat but I figured if in a few weeks I want a bit more hop flavor I can just dry hop in the keg.
Anyways, brew's chilled and in the carboy. I was a couple points shy of my OG but its because I ended up with a little more volume that I anticipated... my propane tank died during the boil and I didn't realize it right away.
FirePitBrew wrote:
Yeah I've heard a lot of varying testimonials to this hop so I didn't go over the top.
I like them, they just need another hop to balance them out. And I've never got the "cat pee", that some people complain about.
I'm going on a wine mission next week and the hotel I'm staying at is 15 min. from Hopsdirect. I just need to convince the wino's I'm going with, that we need to take a side trip. I'll let you know what it's like, if I make it.
I'm brewing an english bitter today. I just realized how little malt I'm using for this beer. I guess to get a og in the 1.030-1.039 range you don't need much. Only thing is if I go with my normal 1.25 qt/lb for my mash water and .5 gallon/lb single batch sparge, I won't have enough wort for 5 gallons. So I'm going with a double batch sparge, and gonna do 2.5 gallons for each. Hopefully it works out.
Mashed in on a Belgian dubbel about an hour ago. gonna mashout in about 20 minutes. Gonna start the ferment cool at 64 degrees for 3 days, then add my sugar, and ramp up the ferm chamber 2 degrees a day, until I hit 78.
It worked out ok I guess. I hit 1.035 og, 1 point below where the brewbuilder at brewmasters wharehouse said I should be, but I didn't get a full 5 gallons in the fermenter. It had a lot of junk in it too, hope it's not peices of grain that would have added a lot of tannins. I'll see how it turns out in a month or so....
Not exactly brewing but racking my dried cherry/vanilla mead today. Was disappointed in not only the taste (weak) but there was no cherry or vanilla aroma so I added another vanilla bean, 2 cups of honey and 1/2 lb of dried cherries to the secondary. It was a bit too dry for my liking. We will see where it goes from here. 
Remember Thirsty, a double is not a triple, so try to keep it at about 1.070-1.080 range. Either that, or just put squared next to everything, ha ha.
bruguru wrote:
Remember Thirsty, a double is not a triple, so try to keep it at about 1.070-1.080 range. Either that, or just put squared next to everything, ha ha.
NO this is pretty to style, it checked in at OG 1.060, after I add the sugar this week, it will bring it to about 1.072.
There was of course special B in it 
Well I didn't brew over the weekend, but I did get my 5 gallons of RIS back out of the bourbon barrel. We also filled her up again with a black saison. Once I kick my keg & get it all cleaned up I'll probably get it into the keg.
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