re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

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Interesting that you put whole beans. I would think that some coarse crushing would be a more common practice.

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I can attest to B's stout. It's delicious.

I make a concentrated cold brew with coarse crushed grounds and then toss that in the keg. Though next time, i may just add the coffee straight into the tank.

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Interesting that you put whole beans. I would think that some coarse crushing would be a more common practice.

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Having done both and finding no real difference between the methods (as well as the cold brew added to the keg method), I just go with the easier cleanup method now. Course crushed beans still manage to get sucked up into the siphon and into the keg.

Have a free day today and don't have any ingredients. Didn't plan this very well...

Went ahead and ordered all my stuff to brew later this week and LA Homebrew messaged me asking if I wanted them today. Awesome of them.

Brewing now.

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Went ahead and ordered all my stuff to brew later this week and LA Homebrew messaged me asking if I wanted them today. Awesome of them.

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This is why I buy all my stuff from them. OK, I sometimes order bulk hops from YVH.

It was really nice to be able to go get my CO2 tank filled over there rather than having to drive out to LA Fire Extinguisher.

returned from Nashville with a 6-pack from Bottomland. Managed not to break any of them on the flight home, though we did have to check a second bag for being over-weight.

Bootleg Biology new cultures pre-sale just started for all of you sour/funky brewers!

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How many did you end up buying??

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5. I bought

Funk Weapon #1

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Source: West Flanders, Belgium brewery specializing in funky, sour, mixed-fermentation beers. This rare, and commercially unavailable yeast isolate, produces pungent horse blanket and fresh leather aromas. Perfect for breaking out the funk in farmhouse-style beers. Funk Weapon #1 is featured in the Trinity & Epic Brewing collaboration Wild Apple Saison, and Trinity’s Magical Brettanomyces Tour #4.

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Funk Weapon #2

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Source: Family-owned brewery producing Gueuze in West Flanders, Belgium. This rare, and commercially unavailable yeast isolate is perfect for 100% Brettanomyces fermentations, especially Brett IPAs. Amplifies citrus and tropical fruit-forward hop flavors and aromas into a punchy ripeness. With extended time under CO2 pressure, pineapple and tropical fruit aromas will be more pronounced. Great for maintaining the nuance of hops in beer with better keeping qualities than a Brewer’s Yeast fermentation. Funk Weapon #2 is featured in Trinity’s Magical Brettanomyces Tour #4, and experimentations by Highland Park Brewery, Yazoo Embrace The Funk, Mantra Artisan Ales and others.

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Funk Weapon #3

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Source: Dry-hopped, Unblended Lambic Produced by a Traditional Lambic Brewery in Brussels, Belgium. Funk Weapon #3 is a versatile culture that creates wildly different flavor and aroma profiles depending on the age of fermentation. Young fermentations produce mild musty funk and ripe tropical fruit, while older and bottle conditioned ferments show off unique flavors and aromas of strawberry, cherry and tropical candy. This commercially unavailable yeast isolate is ideal for 100% Brettanomyces fermentations or as a secondary strain along with a phenolic Brewer’s Yeast culture.

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Sour Solera Blend

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Source: A “living” culture blend propagated from our carefully managed continuous solera fermentation. Many lab-produced multi-species culture blends fail to reproduce the richness and complexity of traditional lambic-style fermentations in their first effort. This can be a result of artificially slamming together cultures after pulling them directly from the freezer. Instead, our Sour Solera Blend contains a unique and complex collection of Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus and other funky yeast and souring bacteria pulled from an active fermentation. This blend can sour in a matter of months at 70ºF or higher, or if you prefer a more prolonged fermentation, use large amounts of aged hops and/or ferment and hold at temperatures below 70ºF. This blend is available seasonally, and will always be changing and evolving due to the nature of solera fermentations. Warning: No two Sour Solera Blend releases will be the same, and neither will their fermentations.

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and Sour Weapon

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We’re excited to release our first 100% Lactic Acid Bacteria souring blend! We chose this specific blend because of its ability to sour quickly and cleanly at a range of temperatures, and due to its mild hop tolerance. While not “yeast”, this culture blend of two unique strains of Pediococcus pentosaceus is part of our LYP collection because it was sourced entirely from the wild: an anaerobic malt starter, and flowers from Murfreesboro, TN given to us by our good friend Art Whitaker. Perfect for acidifying unhopped wort quickly for kettle or “quick” sours. At 98F, it’s capable of achieving a pH of 3.3 within 18 hours. At 84F, it can reach a pH of 3.5 within 24 hours. With more time, a terminal ph of 3.1 may be reached. P. pentosaceus can also be used for long-term sours. It is capable of growing and producing lactic acid in worts with IBUs as high as 30, though it is recommended for unhopped worts as IBUs over 10 may prevent significant souring. This culture may produce antimicrobials called bacteriocins or pediocins. These can inhibit and kill similar species of bacteria like Lactobacillus and other Pediococcus species in mixed-culture fermentations. Read our Facebook post regarding bacteriocins for more info.

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I'm brewing up a 100% brett pale ale with Omega's all the bretts sunday. Getting the starter going tonight. May let it build up until Monday before i pitch.

For the Funk weapon beers, i plan to brew a 10 gallon batch, and split it in 3 gallon fermenters. Ferment #1 and #3 with sach, then add the brett after the primary ferm is complete to get some nice funk character. I'll let those develop for a few months. May do another 100% brett with funk weapon #3.

I may brew up a 10 gallon golden sour ale, and split the batch, and use the solera blend in one, and sour weapon in another.

Got a question regarding equipment. So my current setup is a 10 gallon brewpot with 2 10 gallon igloo water coolers for mash and sparge. Well, i want to brew a couple 10 gallon batches to split in my fermenters. Inputting into brew smith and assuming 68% efficiency i'll need 7.3 gal of water for my mash and 9.56 for my sparge. Would i need to up my mash and sparge tun before i do this. I would think i'm ok with mash, but i have to contend with displacement of water with the grains, which makes me think i don't have enough room. And the sparge will be at its limits but i think it can hold.
I do have another keg i can cut up and use for a mash tun, which i believe i'll have to do. May do that this weekend while i'm mashing in on another beer.

Yeah I have 2 kegs I can to convert