what is everyone brewing?

As for my house tonight... I was involved in a group brew for a barley wine and English IPA this last weekend.

Started as this....



Was put in the fermenter like this...



This morning was this...



And was this tonight when I got home from work.

 

Yeah that left one was doomed... No where near enough headspace

Hopefully it'll be ok still and not infected.

 

It will be fine; stuff was coming out so fast that there is no way anything got in. Plus it was still inside the fridge which was wiped down with bleach before either of them went in. The other 6 guys who have the other shares of beer have all reported extreme krausen also. One of them has his beer in two of the half kegs and they blew off also. It just seems like a crazy beer so far. The one on the left is an Imperial English IPA that should end up at 8% ABV and on the right is an English Barley Wine that should end up around 12-13% ABV.

 

Havent jumped in this thread for a bit. Slacking on the brewing for sure.
However, I just whipped up a Cyser the other day. Just a 1 gal batch. But since i ordered a 10 pack of yeast and supplements im probably going to do more very soon.

Im still debating what to brew for my winter beer...

 

Racked my black IPA last night.
1.080 SG, 1.016 FG ~76 IBU.

I was in such a rush to rack, that I forgot to add the hops in to dry hop it.

 

Looks good. I forgot to do a quick gasket rebuild on my keg before filling it so I ended up replacing all the gaskets I could while the beer was still in it. It is holding pressure so I think I am good.

 

Bump...Weeeee Heavy

 

Thankfully that looks to be in a fermentation chamber. Also - why do you have you temp probe in the blow off container? I would think that the volume between that small container and the carboy; plus the active fermentation going on in the carboy would be enough to cause a 2-4 degree temperature variation.

I always put the temp probe against the outside of the carboy and then put a washcloth over it. I use painters tape to secure the washcloth in place so as to protect it from the temp of the chamber and make it more accurately represent the temp of the carboy.

 

Well the probe in there is just a check point. The control probe is actually in the air space, but there is a USB fan that blows on the fermenter 100% of the time and then when the cooler kicks in, a 115VAC fan kicks on. I usually keep the air temp setpoint about 2deg lower than what I want the beer at.

This is the first one I have had blow out on in a while...I guess 4 packs of Wyeast Scotch Ale and 1.104SG will do it.

It had a little bit of a bubblegum ester thing going on when I racked it to secondary...its subtle though so hoping it ages off in secondary. Increased the temp a couple degrees as well as I had it on the cold side initially. Otherwise it seems to have come out spectacular. 1.022 FG, which is a good gravity for a beer that started out at 1.104.

 

Bring it to Jambo. We'll let you know how you did.

 

4 packs- damn. That sounds like a big beer; it might take a couple months to really smooth out but I bet it is good when it is done.

 

Plus I'm going to bourbon barrel age half of it. Got a fresh deep south 10L barrel that has 7L of grain alcohol and 3L of water in it for the last two weeks.

I'll save the "bourbon" and put it back in after i take the beer out.

 

I just dry hopped my racer 5 clone last night and I'm still working on the Belgian dubbel in the kegerator.
I have a stout on deck but I need fermenter space first. I plan on adding oak and bourbon to that.

Anybody out there have an SS brew bucket?
Thoughts?

 

I don't brew beer. Just ciders in glass carboy and 6.5 gal wine bucket.
I do need to get better at reading start sugar content.

 

My one thought on it is how do you control the temp?

 

The brew bucket has an adaptable temp control unit.
A little too much $ for my liking.
I just want to upgrade to a nice quality fermenter. The kicker with that is i would still have to dump the beer to a carboy for a quality secondary of certain beers.
I usually put fermenters by one of the heaters in my house and it stays between 68-70 in the winter. Summers i ferment in the basement.

http://morebeer.com/products/brew-b...N3W91H2pbVuRnb0M9cdk8K78aXrAs5CRcJBoC45Xw_wcB

 

Would a heat blanket or pig warmer work as well? I wrap mine with tshirts and towels and have them in the warmest part of house.

 

I've got a couple carboy jackets I bought from 40 Below, basically a thick wetsuit material but damn they keep a nice consistent temp. If I could justify the cost though; I'd buy an SS conical in an instant, those things look amazing!

*edit;
Oh and as far as what I'm brewing, I've got a pomegranate hef ready to be bottled.. I'm not too excited about it but I figured I'd try to make a woman-pleaser brew haha. I was pretty busy the last few months though, teaching a friend how to brew all-grain so we did 4 batches, Rye RIS, Double Rye IPA, ESB, and a Stone Smoked Porter clone. Drinking them all now and damn they're tasty!