re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

What should I brew this Saturday. The brew after this will likely be a Galaxy/Nelson NEIPA... Should I:

- Make a cinnamon/vanilla stout.

- Use up some hops on hand. Mainly Sabro or El Dorado. Should I just go for it and have potentially 2 NEIPAs on tap, or should I do a classic pale ale or IPA with one or both of these hops. Also have some Galaxy, Cascade, and Centennial.

Go with the stout

Anyone brew with Kveik yet? I've been hesitant to make something with this yeast, because it doesn't fall into a particular style. My impressions of the yeast, without ever using or trying a beer made with Kveik yeast, is that you can make a lot of styles with them, but none of them are quite to style due to the flavor profiles of the yeast.

This is based on nothing but my assumptions and slight reading on the yeast itself.

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Anyone brew with Kveik yet?

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Have not, but I might try it during the summer. Probably just throw my fermenter in the garage with no temp control and let it go at 90 degrees or whatever it will be. Reddit is obsessed with it.

Popped my cherry today. Let’s hope I didn’t frick it up too bad.

Cream Ale. I did a 5 gallon batch and split it in two. I’m going to rack one of the kegs on top of raspberries. Unless you guys have a better idea. I had an issue with the pump clogging. It was the ball check valve. Once I took the ball out it starting flowing with no problems.

So, bottled my Cherry sour, tentatively named "Kriekshow" Saturday. And of course, as goes with every bottling day, problems arose.

A little backstory. My sour program in my old house was stored in the laundry room. Well, when we moved to the new house, i had to put some of my fermenters in the fermentation fridge until all of the paint is moved out of the sour beer storage room (room under the stairs). Well, a couple days after moving my beer into that fridge, i open it up and i get hit with a wonderful red wine-esque aroma from the fridge. I also noticed that my cherries dropped completely out of suspension. I just assumed this happened because the ferm fridge was set colder than the 72ish degrees the sour beers were used to.

Well, yesterday, i go to take out the carboy and i notice a small pinhole crack near the top of the fermenter. I also notice, that this pinhole created a hairline crack about 3 inches down the side of the fermenter, which was allowing a very slow leak in the fermenter, thus the sour beer aroma.

So, i carefully removed the fermenter and tried to rack to the keg, so i can bottle with the beer gun. I applied some CO2 to the carboy to push the beer into the sterile siphon that was connected to the keg beer out post. Well, i wasn't thinking, and pressure + a crack = beer spraying all over my beer shop and an even larger crack. I feebily tried to tape up the crack with electrical tape, but that wasn't working. So i had to transfer the beer to the keg the old fashioned way, by siphoning (by mouth) beer through the beer hose.

Got it done, and managed to save majority of my beer. Bottled 5 gallons + about 1/2 gallon was reserved in a 1 gallon demijohn that will be built up to a full 1 gallon later on.

Beer tasted fantastic and had a beautiful maroon color. I'm assuming since the pinhole and crack were just below the beer line, that oxygen did not find it's way into the fermenter.

I bottled the sour with some Brett. C. First bottle should be ready in about a month, and as always with a bottled sour, they just get better the longer they sit.

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Well, i wasn't thinking, and pressure + a crack = beer spraying all over my beer shop and an even larger crack.

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All things considered, thats a win. Could have ended alot worse...

I brewed my cinnamon roll stout Saturday morning, and this will be my first time using my new fermentation setup... 4.25 gallon batch in a keg. Hooked up a clear beer draught system to transfer it to my serving keg when its ready. Should be able to do completely closed transfers pretty safely/easily going forward. Sacrificing some beer, but I figure if I get at least 3.75 gallons, thats 40-12oz beers. Thats plenty, just won't be doing much growler filling.

So, in a 4.25 gallon batch, what should I do for vanilla/cinnamon additions? Thinking 1.5 vanilla beans and 1.5 cinnamon sticks in a tincture added to the keg about 5 or so days before transferring to a serving keg... Or should I just go 2 of each, add about half the tincture, then add more to the serving keg if it needs it.

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Make sure you filter your beer coming off the raspberries when going into your serving keg.

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I was thinking about leaving the raspberries in the serving keg. I’m using gelatin in the serving keg and one of those floating “clear beer” systems. Do you think I’ll still have issues?