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The Homebrew Beer Thread

ctenidae

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Just got a cutting from some very prolific hops plants from my brother- just might have to do a good homey marzen this fall.
 

BeanoNYC

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Just got a cutting from some very prolific hops plants from my brother- just might have to do a good homey marzen this fall.

Nice. How much weight? I was just watching the Brewingtv episode of hop growing. I never realized how invasive they are.
 

ctenidae

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Nice. How much weight? I was just watching the Brewingtv episode of hop growing. I never realized how invasive they are.

I haven't even so much as smelled the hops that he harvested last year. It was about a half a big garbage bag from 1 plant, though. He didn't process them right, though, and I think they mildewed before he used them. So, no clue the alpha acid levels, scent, or aything. Or if it'll even root here and grow.
 

ctenidae

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Oh yeah....bottle and carbonate that sucker. Send me a taste too. I'm dying to see how it aged.

Went to bottle some yesterday, gave it a taste before setting up, and ended up dumping it. It had oxidized, adn tasted mediciny and woody. It kept a long time, but not that long. Really have to drink more, clearly...
 

BeanoNYC

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Went to bottle some yesterday, gave it a taste before setting up, and ended up dumping it. It had oxidized, adn tasted mediciny and woody. It kept a long time, but not that long. Really have to drink more, clearly...

Well that's a shitting shame, we should set up a homebrew trade soon anyway. I currently have an APA, Amber, English Bitter on tap. An APA in the Carboy. I'm aging a bourbon barrel porter until November and am brewing a heferwizen on Thursday for a brewing competition. I'm currently trying to write a recipe for a Cascadian Dark Ale for that same competition. I'm hoping for a high OG and for it to finish dry. Probably going to use close to 20# of grain on this one.

Hey Nick....Since this thread has morphed to an all out brewing thread can we name it appropriately? Maybe...."The Homebrew Thread" All our first batches were years ago.
 

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I brewed a batch of Brown Ale yesterday frmo a kit I had in the house. Surprisingly, there was no grains in it at all.

It was this kit here:

True Brew Brown Ale

Just went into primary fermentation last night. We'll see how it comes out.

@Beano, I never saw this before, my bad. Yeah, we can rename the thread!
 

ctenidae

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I've built up a sufficient supply of leftover ingredients to put together a Mulligan Stew Brew. I need to catalogue it, and then brew it- might be interesting, a chocolate wheat pilsner with Belgian yeast, or something...
 

ctenidae

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did the Mulligan Brew yesterday-
6 lbs Muntons Extra Light DME
12 oz crystal malt
4 oz chocolate wheat
8 oz cararoma 500LB malt
1 oz Hallertau- 40 minutes
1 oz Saaz 10 minutes

Yeast: Saflager S23

OG was reading 1.080, which seems a bit high for that set of ingrediaents, but maybe...
 

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I never even measured the OG of mine. i just brewed it on Aug 2nd and this morning I was peeking at the air lock and I don't see any bubbles. Does this mean it's already done fermenting? After only six days?
 

ctenidae

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Could be done. Stare at it for at least 30 seconds, pref a minute and see if it bubbles. If not, it's done. I've had batches complete in 3-4 days, others take over a week. Depends on a whole bunch of things.
 

Nick

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The first beer I ever brewed, an Alt, primary fermented for about 2 weeks. So i wasn't expecting it to already be done.

Also, I wonder if I did anything wrong, I put the yeast in at like 92 degrees, instead of waiting for it to drop to 90. I got lazy :lol:
 

Nick

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$5k doesn't really seem all that bad for that, it looks like serious quality. I was expecting it to say it was like $20k or something.

beermachine-0.jpg
 

Nick

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I'm bottling my brown ale today. I didn't get around to it until today. I also think I am getting lazie(er) - I was thinking of sanitizing my bottles in the dishwasher instead of using sink sanitizer method. Just seems quicker and easier to me. Any downsides to that?
 

ctenidae

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I'm bottling my brown ale today. I didn't get around to it until today. I also think I am getting lazie(er) - I was thinking of sanitizing my bottles in the dishwasher instead of using sink sanitizer method. Just seems quicker and easier to me. Any downsides to that?

It's unlikely you'll get much spray up into teh bottles themselves, which may impact the effectiveness of the sanitizing. Dry heat might not be as effective as wet heat, and certainly won't wash out any bits that might be left in the bottles. Plus, can you get enough bottles into a single load? (Edit- seems like a reasonable discussion of the topic HERE

I moved my Mulligan Brew from the carboy to the wooden barrel for secondary fermentation last night. Also bottled a growler for comparison purposes. All in the name of science, you know.
 

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This thread lives! Well I now have two pales, a hefe and a Cascadian Dark Ale on tap. Haven't brewed in about 6 weeks. Thinking I may brew an IPA (Pliney or Aggrogant bastard clone) then I'll do a 10 gallon lager batch.
 

Nick

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It's unlikely you'll get much spray up into teh bottles themselves, which may impact the effectiveness of the sanitizing. Dry heat might not be as effective as wet heat, and certainly won't wash out any bits that might be left in the bottles. Plus, can you get enough bottles into a single load? (Edit- seems like a reasonable discussion of the topic HERE

I moved my Mulligan Brew from the carboy to the wooden barrel for secondary fermentation last night. Also bottled a growler for comparison purposes. All in the name of science, you know.

I ended up having to wash them by hand anyway with sanitizer. You were right, some of the bottles had crud on the bottom and needed a brush to scrub out.

I was pissed because I bottled almost all of it (I bottled 10 1-L Grolsch style bottles and 12 .5L Grolsch style bottles). Then I filled up an additional six-pack of 12-oz bottles, and then realized I had left my bottle capper at my friends house, so I wasn't able to cap them. (I actually tried with some pliers and a hammer but it just wasn't working....)

So I had to waste 60oz of beer. Argh. Other than that everything went fine, not sure how this batch will taste. I'm skeptical since there was no grains in the brew, which seems odd.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
 

ctenidae

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I'll be cracking open the growler of Mulligan Brew I put up- been conditioning about 2 weeks. I'm really curious about it, since it started at such a high OG (1.080) and finished down low at 1.010, but the pre-bottling sample seemed really light and thin. Maybe it's just super high alcohol thinning it out. Not sure. I'll have to sample the barreled secondary, too, before bottling.

So, now the question is, with the impending birth of #1 son in early November, what's the right brew to create and celebrate with? I'd love to do something that is cellerable, and crack open a few in a year at his first birthday. A marzen is an obvious option, both because I liek the style and it's fall/Oktober-ish. But, lagering is tougher, adn to do it I really should have started a month ago. Maybe an Altbier, or somethign of a Belgian style, which can age nicely?

Any thoughts/suggestions?
 
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