re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

Flowers from the NoMow into the wort

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That's going into the sip of sunshine clone?

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Yep, we will see what happens

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I won 3rd place for my Czech Amber Lager in a recent competition

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Brewing Update:

Yes, i'm still brewing, but nowadays i feel like i'm the only one. The hobby seems to be dying slowly, but i persevere.

I'm submitting 2 beers to the Dixie cup this weekend. A New Zealand Pils and my 2024 Gueuze. The pils is heavy on the white wine notes. I used a thiolized yeast strain from Omega, which appears to longer be available as a homebrew option. It's pretty good. Bright, fruity.
The Gueuze is pretty good for my first attempt. If some of you call, this has been a bit of a labor of love. I brewed the first lambic that went into this gueuze blend in December of 2020. I bottled the blend in January of 24, however i ran into issues. The carbonation calculator i was using said i had enough residual sugar that i did not need to prime or reyeast any of the bottles. Well, that was false. I ended up with all flat gueuze. So, a few months ago i finally got around to reyeasting and priming the beer. I had uncork and dump 30 something bottles of gueuze back into a keg and rebottle the entire batch. It was worth it, however, as the beer is now well carbonated and tastes pretty good. I've been a little too heavy handed on the aged hops, so going forward i will pull back on that. The beer is also pretty dry. 2024 gueze has been a blend of 4 lambics aged 1-3 years. All with a gravity at 1.000 or lower (1 was 1.002). The 2026 bottling will incorporate more of the youngest beer.

I also have a 2025 Gueuze blend that was bottled. However, when bottling this one (bottled February 25) i learned from 24 and reprimed the beer. I've tasted it and this one is more dry than 24. I think age in the bottle will calm down some of this and let the beer develop into a rounder beer.

Upcoming Brews:

Brewing up my first Japanese rice lager tomorrow. Should be a great beer for the summer. I was initially planning on using 4 lbs of jasmine rice, but then i read up on a cereal mash being required and i decided i didn't want to go through all of that, so i am using flaked rice.
On deck: Italian Pilsner, Munich Helles, and a Festbier (all lagers).

Oh, and my hop garden is not faring well. My 4th year hops were doing incredible up to 3 weeks ago. I think i may have inadvertently killed some of my bines when i was killing the weeds in the hop garden. Sprayed roundup in a couple areas away from the hops and 2 days later my thick, lush bines were yellowing and turning brown. I think it may be a total loss this year, so i may cut them back and hope for a late harvest if they grow back or just start planning for next year. I hope i didn't kill my Cascade bine as that one was a beast.

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I'm still brewing but not nearly as much as you. I'm gonna brew this Sip of Sunshine clone again when I get back from vacation, so in August. I'll be in Vermont so will bring some Sip back with me to compare with mine but I think I was pretty close on this first go round.

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How'd the addition of the flowers go? Did you get noticeable color or flavor from it?

So, turns out, i didn't kill my hops completely, as the same bine that died, appears to be growing back. I won't have a hop harvest this year but next year i hope it comes back with a vengeance.

I brewed the Japanese rice lager a few weeks back, and brewed an italian pilsner saturday. Jap rice lager is lagering at the moment. The italian pils was crystal clear going into the fermenter. I added some flaked rice to crisp up the pils, and i'm assuming that aided in filtering the beer as well. Never had a beer that clear pre-fermentation before.

Trying to make up my mind on my next brew. Either a Helles, Festbier, Marzen, IPA or Brett Saison.

I'm back from vacation and about to order ingredients for another Sip of NoMow. I was in Vermont and Connecticut so I had some sip of sunshine but could not find it fresh in cans and the bar at the Hartford Airport that Ive flown out of several times has always had Sip on draft but no more so I was bummed. I was going to pull the trigger on buying the ingredients last night and realized MoreBeer has gone way up on its prices. 10 lbs of 2 row was $16 3 months ago and is now $22. My total 3 months ago was $71 and now is $96 for the same ingredients so I'm shopping around but looks like everyone has gone up. Thanks Trump.

Talk about maxing out a brew kettle.........pulled some off into another pot and will slowly put it back it as some boils off

Missed these posts. Nice job!

I ended up ordering ingredients for a Helles. Probably will brew in a few weeks.

My Japanese rice lager is ready to carbonate this weekend. Going to force carb slowly (2 weeks). My Italian Pilsner is currently in a diacetyl rest. Plan to begin lagering this weekend.

The next 2 weekends i should be getting results back for my NZ pils and my 2024 Gueuze that i submitted into 2 competitions. One locally, another in Texas.

Congrats on the wins!

For the rice lager, how long has it been lagering? Did you fine it at all?

You ever played around with post-fermentation salt additions? Could help with the crispy issue. Maybe pour a couple of pints and play around with additions.

The amber lager looks the part. Could taste better. Munich/Saaz SMaSH. I hadn't brewed in almost a year, and I don't know, it just came out kind of flat. It's drinkable, but not one I'm going to brag about.

It may be another year before I get to brew, too. My brewing equipment is going into storage next month while Bottomland Brewery gets torn down. It will be rebuilt better, but it'll be some time before that happens.