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Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?

twenty5

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Finished up a starter for tomorrows Saison, bottling some NZ Pale ale and transferring a APA to secondary tomorrow. Long fun day hopefully the weather is looking like a great day, 83 and sunny!
 
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Bottled a Cream Ale for the summer and racked a Raspberry Wheat to a secondary for my wife and made a starter for a Scottish Spice Ale that will be brewed today. Will be tasting an IPA that has been bottled for four weeks this afternoon, still sitting on the Apfelvein.
 
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Well I basically have filled every single fermentor I have in my house. Well I have two 5 gallon fermentors but they're reserved for sour culture fermented beers. Today I brewed 12 gallons worth of an ESB. 5.4 gallons of it will go straight into my pin cask for conditioning and serving at my graduation party in a month's time. The rest will go in bottles.

Right now I have fermenting:

6gal Imperial Stout (fermented with WYeast 9097 Old Ale brett blend)
6gal Oud Bruin (ECY20)
6gal Flanders Red (ECY02)
10gal Belgian Wit (lactobacillus soured and T58 fermented)
7gal Wee Heavy (ECY07)
8gal Banana Stout (SO4, still needs the bananas)
12gal English Special Bitter (split between two fermentors SO4)
 

twenty5

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APA has been dry hopped and bottled, Saison is going to be finished in the next two weeks and the Imperial Stout is being put into secondary with Vanilla Bean and Cocoa nibs tonight. No brewing again this weekend in preparation for National Homebrew Day. I will be at Cigarfest on Saturday but Sunday I am planning a Zombie Dust clone and another IPA. :)
 
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Nice. I have to get this wee heavy bottled up to free up the fermentor. I also have to get this belgian wit cleared up, but I might dump it rather than wait. I want the space and it was a wild experiment anyhow. I think the experiment failed.
 

twenty5

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My Imperial stout is resting in my Bourbon barrel as of 2 days ago...
Careful on the amount of time it spends in there. With that much surface area it might come out tasting like bourbon and oak and nothing like beer after just a few days.
 
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Brewing my second ever batch of brew right now. Its a belgian witbier and is looking and smelling really good. I was thinking about adding a little fresh squeezed orange juice from two oranges along with the bitter orange peels and spices, any thoughts on this, and if i were to do it when would you add it? Thanks!
 
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Double batch of Dry Stout fermenting away at the moment. Had to sub roast barley out for a 50/50 mix of Choc and Black Patent malt, so see how that affects the flavour profile. After about a week, I'll toast up some coconut in a wok, and rack onto it, where it'll stay for another week or so before bottling/kegging. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the other half...
 
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Brewing my second ever batch of brew right now. Its a belgian witbier and is looking and smelling really good. I was thinking about adding a little fresh squeezed orange juice from two oranges along with the bitter orange peels and spices, any thoughts on this, and if i were to do it when would you add it? Thanks!
Don't add orange juice unless you want to add acid. There will be little orange flavor contributed and the juice will be fermented out to where all you have left is the citric acid basically. Two oranges isn't over the top though so give it a shot I guess. Might be an added layer of complexity.

I add the peels and spices in the last 10 min of my boil.
 
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So after the first full week on the new job at the brewery I can say this. What brewer needs a workout routine?! The amount of lifting heavy hoses, moving hoses, and movement in general has made me feel like I just started a workout routine. I love the work though. I've done a good job of not killing myself with 200F caustic and other industrial cleaners.
 

twenty5

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Nice setup!

I brewed 10gal of an IPA and 5gal zombie dust clone yesterday. 10gal in a 10gal pot was a bit tight, good thing for foam control drops or this one would have been a disaster. The zombie dust was a much easier brew, I used almost 6oz of citra leaf hops and have 3 more ounces for secondary. First time brewing with leaf and I found it much easier than pellet with cleaning and transferring. This morning I checked on the fermenters and found one of the IPAs was going completely crazy, I didnt use a blow off due to a relatively medium gravity and use of foam control and the blow off was completely clogged after about 18hrs... I pulled out the stopper and it came spraying out all over the place, after cleaning up and getting changed out of my beer covered clothes I added a couple extra drops of the foam control so hopefully that worked or I am looking at a mess when I get home..
 
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That is a fancy setup.

I'm hoping to brew in a weekend or two. I want to brew up a nice summer ale with citra and amarillo hops. Make it nice and light in body/color, about 40ibus. Then I'll have to brew up a big batch of saison again and then my tripel after that.
 

Lorax429

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Got a new 6.5 gallon carboy for a primary. Now I can do two batches at a time. :cool:

I'm getting ready to brew up a Saison here in the next week or two. Just need to pick up the yeast and some Indian Coriander. Got the rest of my ingredients ready to go. Also plan to attend the local homebrew club's meeting this week. Been meaning to check them out. They are meeting at a local Chocolate maker to discuss brewing and chocolate. It just so happens it is the same place I planned on getting my nibs for the imperial stout I have aging so I can go out there and kill 2 birds with one stone.
 
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I just bottled my very first batch about ten days ago, a simple Irish red ale. Looking forward to cracking the first one on my birthday. Might be a bit early, but gotta do it. When I started the siphon to transfer to the bottling bucket, it was tasting about how I thought it should. Next up....IPA with a two or three day dry hop.
 

twenty5

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I think all of my fermentors are full right now...

7.9 Gal - IPA to be bottled Saturday
6.5 Gal - IPA to be bottled Saturday
6.0 Gal - Cider beer that needs a couple of weeks
5.0 Gal (S) - Zombie Dust Clone to be bottled tomorrow

Next up, on Saturday or Sunday, I have enough Citra left for another batch of Zombie Dust and just picked up my first Lager... Controlling temps might be a bit difficult with that, we will see.
 
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twenty5

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I ended up bottling just over 15 gallons last night.... 161 beers... Thats a lot of bottle cleaning, sanitizing, etc. So, Keggers, I need your help.

I think I want to start kegging to certain batches easier. I dont want to give up bottling because it is nice to be able to bring a 12 pack to a buddies house or hand out a couple beers for people to try. From my research, I think I want to use ball lock kegs. They seem better, easier to use and easier to find than the pin locks.. But thats about all I figured out this far.

What do I need to convert an existing Keggerator set up for commercial kegs into something I could use for homebrews?

At this point I am only looking to have one keg on at a time so I dont need any sort of unions or whatever the splitters are called, I have a CO2 tank, and everything you need for a commercial keg.
 
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