What's everyone brewing?

[chicanuck]

10 gal batch of Weizen for the GHB, trying UB-06 and Wyeast 3333 in 5 gal fermentors.

[Keith]

I brewed mine with WB-06, really enjoyed it. Pulled a sample last night to taste, really happy with it.

My brew day has come to an end. 11 hours, 3 23L batches. Didn't have it in me to do the last batch and push this to midnight.

[LTownLiquorPig]

First brew day since March tomorrow. A pretend lager and a Cooper's Bitter kit while it's mashing. Just like Christmas Eve, won't be able to sleep!

[jtmwhyte]

I brewed mine with WB-06, really enjoyed it. Pulled a sample last night to taste, really happy with it.

My brew day has come to an end. 11 hours, 3 23L batches. Didn't have it in me to do the last batch and push this to midnight.

A lot of people shit on WB-06, but I like it.

[Keith]

I think it comes down to how you use it. The yeast can really provide some great character to a beer.

[spickup]

Made a batch of American Stout from Everwood tonight. First time I've done a full boil, and first time with my new kettle, also from everwood. Had challenges cooling it quickly in the sink (kettle barely fit) and think that I'll invest in an immersion chiller before my next batch. Beer tastes great so far and looking forward to the final product.

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[GuingesRock]

I brewed mine with WB-06, really enjoyed it. Pulled a sample last night to taste, really happy with it.

My brew day has come to an end. 11 hours, 3 23L batches. Didn't have it in me to do the last batch and push this to midnight.

A lot of people shit on WB-06, but I like it.

I think it comes down to how you use it. The yeast can really provide some great character to a beer.

Brewing with it today. Any tips Keith/Trevor/Anyone please.

I'm after some bubblegum, banana and cloves. I was thinking fermentation temp of 18 - 19C.

Actually, I'm planning to use half WB-06 and half T58 for good measure.

[Keith]

I fermented with different temps as I wanted both flavors as well. I wanted only a slight banana flavor so it was only above 22 for a short time.

[gm-]

Not brewing, but kegged an APA, just legacy and ultra for hops, some really interesting aroma and flavours, really strong blackcurrant aroma from the legacy hops.

Also managed to push the bung into the carboy somehow, any clever ways to get it out?

[chalmers]

Something similar to this?

[Keggermeister]

Brewing for the first time in a while.

Off the cuff IPA. 15lb M-O 15lb Pils 4lb Special B
OG 1.074
5oz Nugget. 50IBUs
S-04

Also going to use my new fermenter...

[redoubt]

It's not the weekend, but today's a brew day anyway!

Cracking out my Garrison hefe today with high potential for disaster as it's my first solo solo brew and I'm trying out this whole step mash thing for the first time along with a few other never-done-befores added in for good measure.



-Kirsten

[GuingesRock]

Crikey Kirsten! ...you better have a beer before you start

We're rooting for you.

[Tony L]

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Also managed to push the bung into the carboy somehow, any clever ways to get it out?[/quote]

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But what Chalmers suggested will also work

[redoubt]

Crikey Kirsten! ...you better have a beer before you start

We're rooting for you.

I had saved some BAB stout for just this occasion.

Thanks, Mark. All went reasonably smoothly and I nailed my OG. Now, after all that, to clean up... A step mash really makes for a brew day!

-Kirsten

[GuingesRock]

Crikey Kirsten! ...you better have a beer before you start

We're rooting for you.

I had saved some BAB stout for just this occasion.

Thanks, Mark. All went reasonably smoothly and I nailed my OG. Now, after all that, to clean up... A step mash really makes for a brew day!

-Kirsten

Kirsten, sounds like it went well. Congratulations.

I don’t know much about step mashes for Weizens, but the one I did on Sunday I mashed in at 111F and let it rest for 15 minutes, actually it was 25 minutes because I forgot about it. I had the false bottom in the BIAB pot. Then I brought it up to 150F while stirring intermittently. It took forever with the 12 gal on the stove top, so I imagine it would have lots of chance to do what it wanted at different temperatures. Then I let the mash cool, uninsulated, as I usually do, in my free range mash process, which I since read is being investigated under the name of “reverse step mash”.

I got my usual 82% efficiency. First brew with wheat (approx. 45% wheat).

I put some Burton salts in the mash, and the yeast went absolutely crazy, I think because of the extra magnesium. I wasn’t expecting it to be so crazy and wasn’t on the ball with my fermentation cooling system so had some too high temperatures and some too low temperatures while I was fighting with it. Sometimes the yeast won, and sometimes I did.

I’m optimistic (I have to be)

[Keith]

Glad you both had positive brew days

[GuingesRock]

Thanks Keith.



"Positive" is a good word for a good brew day. More went right than went wrong. No such thing as "perfect".

Nothing wrong with striving for perfection though ...keeps you going along and ...one of these days it might happen ...and then ...

CHOMP!

[redoubt]

Thanks Keith! It was a positive brew day for sure. It's especially nice to find that my hours spent screwing around with BeerSmith in the hopes that I'd hit my targets, even with a step mash, actually freakin' worked! A victory in my books.



Mark, I'm glad your Garrison brew day went so well too! I hear wheat's a bit challenging in terms of efficiency, so it's great that you got your usual efficiency. Neat that there's some investigation into the "reverse step mash" thing. I had at least wondered about the whole "but you'll denature the enzymes!" criticism of this kind of mash technique -- not only from Palmer as I just read it in Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer, too -- but you're right that it doesn't make sense. And, certainly, one can't argue with your efficiency or your final product!

We're still getting crap efficiency (around 70%) but, since that's all factored in to BS, it just ups the grain to hit our targets. Efficiency's the next thing to work on now that I've beaten BeerSmith into submission. I've got a list of stuff to try from the efficiency thread in the BIAB forum and some additional tips from the BIABrewer site you linked to on there. Hopefully, we'll be up in the high 70s / low 80s in our next few brews. We're starting to run out of vessels to contain these experiments.


-Kirsten

[GuingesRock]

Kirsten, I think 70% is good. I wouldn’t fret about that, there’s much more important things to work on. I wouldn't compare to mine because I'm not doing pure BIAB for one thing as I do a quite a large sparge, so I'm doing more of a traditional type of mash or hybrid BIAB. Maybe the free range mash helps and maybe it doesn't. Maybe my mash PH is better, maybe it isn’t. I don’t care much about efficiency. Plus grain is cheap.

In the BIAB efficiency thread I shouldn’t have even quoted my efficiency figures as being representative of BIAB because I was sparging. It wasn’t until Pat Hillondale said that incorporating a sparge makes a mash more similar to a traditional mash that I realised that.

[LiverDance]

Brewing up an English mild with chalmers

[pet lion]

Brewing a weizen tonight.

[Keith]

Just mashed in on a Saison with Wakatu hops.

How did this Saison turn out with the Wakatu hops Brian?

[BBrianBoogie]

Very happy with it. The lemon/lime notes are very well suited to the style.

[mikeorr]

Is anyone doing any brewing this Saturday (in HRM) that wouldn't mind a newbie dropping by to help / learn / ask questions?

Thanks!
Michael.