I know we’ve got a few brewers here on the boards, just wondering the rest of you have fermenting right now.
Right now in the primary buckets I have a “nut brown ale” which has a similar color and body to newcastle, though a slightly different flavor. Has 7lbs of ultra light extract, 1/4lb of chocolate malt and 1lb of crystal 120. Uses an ounce of Perle for bittering, another for finishing and an ounce of willamette for aroma (I dry hop this)
Also still in active primary is a batch of mead, doing this one as a cranberry melomel This flavoring was suggested by jinwicked, btw. Since cranberry juice can adversely effect fermentation I won’t be adding the juice until it goes in secondary. I’m using champagne yeast for the fermentation, since I like my mead fairly dry. I’ll be kegging 3 gallons of this batch so I can force carbonate it. The other two gallons of this batch will be bottled and carbonated with more champagne yeast. I’ll hold back a few bottles uncarbonated and a few w/out juice, just for variety.
In secondary I have my much requested Coffee Stout. As it’s name suggests it’s a dry Irish Stout with coffee steeped in the wort for five minutes as soon as I kill the heat. In this case I used about 1/8lb of Ethopian Yigrecheffee, Italian roast. In order to help head retention in the presence of those coffee acids I add an extra pound of flaked barley to the wort, it helps some. For some reason this beer tastes best if I let it sit in the keg for at least two weeks before tapping. The coffee flavor is a little rough when it’s young.
Finally, the only one currently in the kegorator is a recipe of my own design that defies stylistic classification. I call it Copper Ale, because that’s what color it is. The brew shop was out of my usual speciality grains and I forget what all I used this time :smack: It’s hopped with an ounce of N. Brewer for bittering and 1.5 of Cascade for finishing. Sadly this is running dry! Fortunatly the nut brown is a quickie, and should be ready to tap by next weekend!
Hefe Weizen extract kit from Northern Brewer. I brew with a buddy here in New Mexico. This batch was my choice. Our next is his choice; Smoked Raspberry Porter. This is an extract kit from St. Pat’s (their Smoked Porter plus Belgian raspberry syrup).
I got some equipment from St. Pat’s last time I visited my family in Austin. We started a Hefe Weizen that is now in bottles. My brother is starting a Porter. We got a pair of 3gallon carboys and he plans to make half Raspberry and half…well…he’s still deciding on a flavor. It’s going to be chocolate, vanilla, hazelnut, or walnut.
I’ve got 18 liters of honey wheat just racked into the secondary fermenter.
I’ve also got some basic amber conditioning in bottles as we speak.
I haven’t brewed for a couple of years and I’ve got two batches going within 2 weeks. I’ve got enough for 2-3 more batches before my next trip stateside and a chance to pick up more supplies.
Any thoughts on dextine extract versus crystal malt? I really like crystal malt, but owing to living overseas rarely have more than a pound of it. Dextrine should give at least some of the full mouth body feel of crystal. Thoughts?
Right now just air. Last thing that was in it was hard apple cider - but we’re Pratchett fans and like to call it Scumble. It’ll burn the hair outta your nostrils when it comes out of the primary fermenter.
1kBR Kid: You mean Northern Brewer in St. Paul? That’s my local brew supply store! They have some great kits–my favorites are St. Paul Porter, Nut Brown ale, Belgian Dubbel, and Bock.
Currently, I’ve got a porter in bottles that’s refusing to carbonate. I tried the experiment of using fermentabs this time and I won’t try them again. Fortunately, my wife loves flat beer, so she’s happy. I’ve got a Maibock and a Saison in secondary; the Maibock should be ready to bottle this weekend, and drinkable in late June; the Saison is one of four batches I’m timing to be ready the second week in August, so I can take them to Pennsic War.
My schedule for the next while:
5/31: Czech pilsner or Belgian Dubbel (Pennsic)
6/14: Xmas ale (Belgian dark ale with spices, ready by Christmas)
6/28: Honey weizen. (Pennsic)
7/5: Red ale, for the wimps that don’t like interesting beer. (Pennsic)
I don’t know what you’d call it- kitchen sink ale maybe?
It was what I originally had planned as a pale ale, but with some other extra odds and ends ingredient-wise thrown in (3/4 lb crystal, and 1/2 lb special roast)
I used… a little less than 2 oz of Willamette whole hops. Should be pretty good!
I moved to a new town a while back, and brewed up about three batches out of boredom. What I hadn’t realized that I had lost my customer base (non paying, of course) and thus reached maximum capacity - no friends or relatives to share it with.
So until I drink up the cases stacked up in the basement I had to shut down the brewery.
Now I’ve got some friends, and frinds will be visting, and since summer is coming I’m planning on some Weiss berr. In fact, You’ve inspired me to get started, this weekend.
Mmmmm.
Like bump I tend to use whatever ingredients I can pull together.
Oh – would it be rude to slightly hijack and ask about homegrown hops ? I just ordered some rhizomes and am hoping to plant them shortly. I know they need good light, and some sort of trellis to hang on - anyone have any advice to maybe save me from making a mistake ?
Nothing in the carboy yet. Currently have an amber ale (made from all grain kit from Northern Brewer) in my keg. I used cascade hops from my garden as finishing hops.
To answer ChuckForbins question…I grow Cascade and Willamette hops in my backyard. They need lots and lots of sunshine and water. The first year, don’t expect a lot of hops…it’s mostly setting up the root structure (you will see lots of bines, just not lots of hop cones).
I own this
book and find it very helpful for setting up the garden. They do grow up (can grow a foot a day sometimes) so you will need some sort of trellis system. When you do get a crop, you will need a way to dry the hop cones. I use a few old screens set up in my attic for the hops to dry on. I double bag them in ziploc bags for the freezer.
If you do some googling, you can see some of the trellis systems people have put together for their hops.
I, too have Nut Brown Ale in the carboy. It should be ready to bottle tonight.
I’m new to homebrewing. This is only my 3rd batch. The first was a “Honey Bee Ale” and I’m enjoying currently. I brought a few for the guys I work with today, in fact, so they can try some after work. Anyway, after bottling that first batch, I decided I’ll never use 12 oz bottles again! What a hassle! I went out and got liter-sized EZ Caps.
Good God my stuff came out high in alcohol! 3 12 oz bottles had me fried, and I usually drink quite a bit.
The 2nd batch should be ready to get into real soon. I think I’ll bust one out this weekend. I am expecting it to be real good!
I plan to start a batch of metheglin this weekend–15 lbs of honey, an ounce of acid blend, and a blend of vanilla beans, cloves, and cinnamon simmered in the wort for about 15 minutes. After first racking, I’ll top it with spring water; after the second, I’ll add a bag of the same spices to steep until bottling. I use Pris de Mousse yeast for this recipe. The result is (usually) a very light, sweet mead with a warm, spicy tone–best served near room temperature.
gato, I learned after my first batch of mead that 12 oz bottles are a mistake. If you have a 12 oz bottle of something, you will drink it all; if you pour from a wine bottle you will generally drink only 4-8 oz (unless you plan to get drunk). I bottled my first mead in cleaned beer bottles and took a six-pack to a D&D session (one for each person there). After the DM finished his, he announced, “We’re going to have to keep playing…because I can’t stand up.” Mind you, that was after he shared enough with his dog that the dog couldn’t walk, either. That was the most potent stuff I’ve ever brewed.
ChuckForbin–here’s the instructions I followed from the Northern Brewer web page: hops!
I have perle and fuggles growing in my yard, for the making of Nut Brown Ale, when I get around to it. They only growed up about 6’ the first season, with no cones to speak of; since then, I have to beat them with a rake to keep them from tearing the fence down and eating it. I get 10-15 ounces of cones a year. An ounce of cones will pretty much fill a sandwich-sized ziplock bag, by the way.
I find the timing on mead to be rather variable, Grey, so I usually just watch it and make my best guess on the proper time to rack it. It generally comes out to around 4 months in the primary for this recipe, then I leave it in the secondary until fermentation stops (usually about another 2 months). Once fermentation stops, I rack it again so it has a clean place to steep and settle for a couple of weeks, then I bottle it and let it age for 6 months to a year (or until I get impatient). Adding yeast nutrient will often cut a couple of weeks off the primary time (and prevent a lot of stuck fermentation problems), and not topping off will cut a week or two from the secondary.
