re: Homebrewing: In-Process Thread

The beer ends up being fairly hoppy (not IPA ish or anything) but more than you think it an amber would. I think pumpkin would be interesting. If you went with pumpkin spice you would need to call it White Women Amber

So a friend of mine is learning to brew. His first solo brew had a failure to launch at 48 hrs. I was making a beer with a similar yeast that was ready to be racked to a secondary. We decided to put a quart of the trub from my beer into his beer. I tried to get him to use a generic ale yeast I keep around for emergencies but he wanted to try this as the yeast has a similar profile. Has anyone used trub as yeast?

Pulled some samples of sours this morning.

From left to right:

Biere de garde/Cabernet hybrid. Age is 16 months. I was doubtful of this one at first, but it has really made a change for the better. I think this one will end up being great when all is said and done.

Kriek-ish beer. Age is 13 months. I think I'm about ready to throw this one on tap. It's just about there.

Brett Saison. Age is 9 months. This one will probably get another couple months. It's almost there. It's on the fruity tart end of the brett saison spectrum.

Brett Saison. Age is nearly 4 months. This one was an accidental brett saison. It has a lot of funk starting to come out. I'll let it ride for a good bit longer.

Table beer. This one is just a couple months old. I don't know what to think about this one. It's kind of plain. I was hoping for a little more complexity, but I don't see it getting there. Not bad, but just meh.

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BottomlandBrew

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Where do you, and you other brett/sour brewers age your beers?

I've got 1 more brew before I try to brew a brett saison, but i need somewhere to store it. My ferm freezer will always be in use for other beers at some point or another, so that is out. I have a spare room, but my wife and I's grandparents stay there every now and then. I do have a closet in there, but it shares a wall with the garage, so it is a bit warmer than the rest of the house. I'd say it's probably around 80 to 85 in that closet.

I could maybe let the fermenter of brett sit in our "computer nook" that houses no such computer. Temp there is house temps (70-72 when home, 75 when at work), unless we are going in and out of the garage, which would raise the temp there to probably about 5 degrees.

I currently store them in kegs in our guest bedroom. They sit off in a corner and don't bother anyone. My girlfriend likes drinking my beer, so she's willing to put up with kegs in the guest room and fermenters in the guest closet and bathroom. I think she's just glad my kegerator isn't in the main room anymore.

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I currently store them in kegs

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I bulk age in kegs too...

If my brew shed wasn't a disaster I could probably keep them in carboys/buckets, but that would necessitate me getting in there and throwing out a ton of shite I no longer need.

When I move mine to bulk age, I actually add small amount of sugar to get them partially carbed in the keg and also seat the lid with some co2 from the tank. My aging process is set up to allow oxygen early on in the buckets and carboys for a few months, and then bulk age without any oxygen. Not ideal, but it's the best way I've found to do it with my equipment. It also allows me to easily take samples without introducing any oxygen.

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Pulled some samples of sours this morning

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Nice! I never pull samples (just too lazy) and go off smell. That technique has worked so far but my sour Dark Mild could've probably been bottled about a month sooner. It is a tad on the sour side for me but others have really enjoyed it.

If I buy grain and vacuum seal it, how long will it stay good?

I've heard that unmilled grain properly stored will last a year.