I spent a lot of time this weekend brewing and actually finished much sooner than I thought. I started early Friday morning mashing in a Dunkelweizen for a friend. He wants me to try a beer of this style fresh and doesn’t have his own equipment. I wrapped up that batch around 4PM since we were running errands during the mash and pitched a 1200ML starter of Wyeast 3068. It looked nice but he decided to add in 6 ounces of chocolate malt so I really don’t know how this one is going to come out. Should hit around 5.5%. Next up, I mashed in the grains for my huge Imperial Stout. I did an overnight mash starting the 10 gallon igloo around midnight and the grain was at the very top of the the tun. This is obviously the largest beer I can do with my current setup. Woke up at 7AM and the tun was still sitting at 152 (down from 162 at mash in) and the gravity of this one after boiling came in at 1.110 and received a 2000ML starter of Wyeast 1098 and both this and the dunker took off with fermentation within 6 hours of pitching the yeast.
Next up was the Consecration clone in which I came in at 68% efficiency (the highest I’ve ever gotten) in the mash and this received a 1000ML starter of Abbey Ale Yeast II. Up next was more of a maintenance task since I had to get a carboy emptied for the next batch so I moved my Belgian Honey Wit into the upstairs fridge to cold crash overnight and prepared a keg with starsan. I mashed in a Tart of Darkness clone and ended up getting spot on but I think I may have added too much roasted barley…you could smell the barley very strongly even in the mash tun. I wrapped that up around 10PM and mashed in the final batch of beer which was a Sour Blond Belgian beer around 1AM. This morning, I got up and did a 30 minute boil on that one with some candy syrup and styrian golding hops and racked that to the newly emptied carboy that sent the Belgian Wit to a keg.
So, fermenting downstairs
- Brett B Double IPA w/ Citra (Brewed 8/02, Dry hopped 8/31, will check FG in 10 days)
- Dunkelweizen (Brewed 8/30, estimated completion date, September 25th)
- Imperial Stout (Brewed 8/31, Will rack to oak cubes and vanilla beans mid-October)
- Tart of Darkness Clone (Brewed 8/31, will check for sourness in 6 months and add bourbon oak)
- Consecration Clone (Brewed 8/31, Will check sourness in 6 months, ETA for completion was 9-12 months. secondary will give dried currants and cabernet oak cubes)
- Sour Belgian Blonde (Brewed 9/1), Check in 3 months, add cherries, check again in 3 months and keg)
and just for posterity, here’s what’s on tap and in kegs
- Apricot Saison (2 gallons remaining in keg)
- Peach Berliner Weisse (3 gallons left)
- Blueberry Saison (not tasting great still. needs more time, souring up a bit from some Brett Lambicus additions)
- Raspberry Hefeweizen (down to last gallon)
- Belgian Honey Wit (Kegged today, priming sugar added to naturally carbonate in the keg)
- Root Beer (homemade, 3 gallons left)
I imagine the peach berliner to go first since that’s what I drink the most and it’ll be replaced by the IPA or Wit.
I took some photos today. Enjoy
