What are you brewing?

Hello all,

I just picked up homebrewing this past October. I've got a pretty basic set up so far, but it's growing quickly, lol. My first batch was an amber ale, a Gaelic Ale clone that came out really well and is pretty delicious. Last weekend I brewed a milk stout with my dad, and just switched it over to the secondary today. I may come in here with questions from time to time, hope you guys don't mind!

Not traveling this week so last night brewed a German Pilsner.

I bottled a grapefruit bay leaf mead with some leftover to sample. Imagine the bitterness and overall flavor of grapefruit with a mild sweetness left from the honey(I brewed to around a 9% but this is a 10 day ferment and just under 7% right now - the other half will have a longer fermentation to try and get a completely dry drink). I can't tell what the contribution of the bay leaf is but maybe bitter or maybe just an undertone that kind of brings the other flavors together. Very refreshing and for my first time trying to ferment citrus juice, I think it went well.

George86 said:

Hello all,

I just picked up homebrewing this past October. I've got a pretty basic set up so far, but it's growing quickly, lol. My first batch was an amber ale, a Gaelic Ale clone that came out really well and is pretty delicious. Last weekend I brewed a milk stout with my dad, and just switched it over to the secondary today. I may come in here with questions from time to time, hope you guys don't mind!

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Welcome to the world of homebrewing! Ask any questions that you have and share what you learn along the way. None of my family are drinkers so I envy you being able to brew with your dad. Very nice.

Welcome george86 and congrats. My brother flew into town last night. I poured some beers for us and we started talking about homebrewing. I introduced him to it a little over two years ago. I have been brewing for just over 6 years. I love the hobby. I have almost 250 bottles of meads, ciders, and beers in my basement as well as a nice imperial irish ale on tap. I have ingredients for a brown ale waiting to be brewed next. I have a co-worker who is interested. That was the beer he picked, we are just trying to get a date set. I love the creativity and experimentation aspect to homebrewing.

Brewed another batch of German Pilsner. 10 gallon batch this time; that gives me 15 gallons and should get me well into the summer.

Just brewed a Belgian white last weekend for a charity event in a month. I have brewed it before and liked it so I went with a tried and true instead of brewing something I hadn't made before. Probably put in an IPA shortly and have ingredients for a malted cider as well. Been brewing about 20 years or so, off and on. Switched to kegs about 10 years ago, and then to all grain about 2 years ago.

Wish there were more post on this tread, thanks to your recent posts, any fermentable post is inspiring.

I was gifted some homemade 2017 maple syrup. My friend boiled it over apple wood. The dark amber syrup has a distinctive smoky taste. I'm thinking of adding it, or at least that smokiness to some mead. Anyone have a recipe for getting some smoke into mead?

Thanks,

Tom

eightysixCJ said:

Wish there were more post on this tread, thanks to your recent posts, any fermentable post is inspiring.

I was gifted some homemade 2017 maple syrup. My friend boiled it over apple wood. The dark amber syrup has a distinctive smoky taste. I'm thinking of adding it, or at least that smokiness to some mead. Anyone have a recipe for getting some smoke into mead?

Thanks,

Tom

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That sounds awesome, Tom! I used some store bought maple syrup to make a beer and flavored it with some spruce. I called it Tree Beered. It ended up a bit of a mild ferment, I don't know why, it just didn't take off. I wasn't keeping track of SG in those days so I can't offer much by way of info, but I think with the honey, it should do well and the flavor of the maple should really be awesome. Short of adding the maple syrup or some smoked wood in the secondary, you could use some liquid smoke at any stage of the ferment. You might get best results after fermentation but that is something I read in a book. It's not an ingredient I have used but Leon Kania recommends bottling with 1/8tsp, 1/4tsp, and 1/2tsp per bottle for 75% of your bottles and 25% with no smoke. This way, you can tell if you like a little or a lot and if 1/2 is too much, you can mix the unsmoked bottles with the heavily smoked bottles to make them more palatable. This is from the Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible. The recipes are good and interesting and I have made the mint wine and milk wine from his recipes. Whatever you do, give a share on your process and how it works out.

eightysixCJ said:

Wish there were more post on this tread, thanks to your recent posts, any fermentable post is inspiring.

I was gifted some homemade 2017 maple syrup. My friend boiled it over apple wood. The dark amber syrup has a distinctive smoky taste. I'm thinking of adding it, or at least that smokiness to some mead. Anyone have a recipe for getting some smoke into mead?

Thanks,

Tom

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You could cold smoke the honey. I do that with ingredients when I'm making fried chicken. I cold smoke the chicken, and I also cold smoke the buttermilk that I'm going to use in the batter. I've even cold smoked the evaporated milk that I use to make the gravy that goes with it. I'm sure it would work for honey too.

I just bottled a black IPA a week or so ago. Happy to find that had carbonated in time to try during the NCAA championship game last night. I also bottled a Norwegian farmhouse ale that's been sitting in secondary for a while. I brewed it last fall with Voss kveik that I had saved from an earlier batch. After primary, I added a couple of quarts of organic beet juice and Brett Brux and let it ferment out. I'm going to bottle condition it for a while.

Next up is a classic Export stout. Although I don't really like flavored beer, I might slip a little salty licorice syrup into the wort. My daughter brought it back from Denmark for me, and I've been trying to think of a creative way to use it. I'm also getting ready to brew a session APA--still thinking about the recipe.

bahomebrew said:

That sounds awesome, Tom! I used some store bought maple syrup to make a beer and flavored it with some spruce. I called it Tree Beered.... You might get best results after fermentation but that is something I read in a book. It's not an ingredient I have used but Leon Kania recommends bottling with 1/8tsp, 1/4tsp, and 1/2tsp per bottle for 75% of your bottles and 25% with no smoke. This way, you can tell if you like a little or a lot and if 1/2 is too much, you can mix the unsmoked bottles with the heavily smoked bottles to make them more palatable. This is from the Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible. The recipes are good and interesting and I have made the mint wine and milk wine from his recipes.

Click to expand...

The Nid Hog said:

You could cold smoke the honey. I do that with ingredients when I'm making fried chicken. I cold smoke the chicken, and I also cold smoke the buttermilk that I'm going to use in the batter. I've even cold smoked the evaporated milk that I use to make the gravy that goes with it. I'm sure it would work for honey too.

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Interesting ideas! Thanks Gentlemen, I'm going to play around with these.

Tom

I'll be brewing my Habanero IPA this weekend. 5 Gallons of goodness.

I'm brewing a 100% Brett IPA with citra and denali ATM. Smells real nice in the fv so far.

All-grain Amber Ale.

Tom

bahomebrew said:

I bottled a grapefruit bay leaf mead with some leftover to sample. Imagine the bitterness and overall flavor of grapefruit with a mild sweetness left from the honey(I brewed to around a 9% but this is a 10 day ferment and just under 7% right now - the other half will have a longer fermentation to try and get a completely dry drink). I can't tell what the contribution of the bay leaf is but maybe bitter or maybe just an undertone that kind of brings the other flavors together. Very refreshing and for my first time trying to ferment citrus juice, I think it went well.

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Just bottled the second half of this ferment at what do you know? 9.5%abv! Had a little left for sampling and I am very pleased with the dry and bitter flavor. I added some primer sugar to the bottles to give some bubbly, but even smooth, it is a very flavorful drink. The fruit flies are doing their darndest to get at my glass right now. Lil' buggers. I haven't brewed anything since this, so it is looking pretty bleak on the homebrew front. Maybe some of you guys have something going that will inspire me to jump back in the waters. What you got?

This is a very interesting thread.
When I have down time I am going to read every post and then research the topic.
I don't see myself doing any home brew but I find it very interesting.
Good luck with your brewing.

Martym, like many an interesting hobby, homebrewing can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. You can scrounge up a fermenter, put together a makeshift airlock, add a few ingredients and away you go. I was pretty amazed at how fresh beer with simple ingredients tasted so much better than much of what I had experienced but I hadn't gotten too much into the craft beer scene before I started brewing. There are some amazing, and very fresh beers just about everywhere you turn these days, so even if you don't brew, it is a great time to be a beer drinker. You could also find a local club and show up at brew days, learn a bit, drink a bit, and not have to get any equipment or really commit to brewing anything yourself.

Of course, I can put whatever I want into my beer, and am not limited to any purists idea of what beer should be. Fermenting the fruit from the garden, or picking wild herbs and adding it to the wort allow for varied experience and a more adventurous palate.

It sounds very interesting.
I may have some time this evening to read up on it.

Never occurred to me to look here for a homebrewing thread. I've been brewing about 5 years, and next batch will be 50 brews logged. All grain, all the time. Recently got a keg and I can't believe I got by without one all those years. Last one was a blonde ale with lemon zest added at the end of the boil. Great for summertime.