[HoosierBrew]

Yeah, me too ! Did Joe F. say anything about smaller (homebrew) quantities being on the horizon here? I can order from Australia again, but it'd be nice if we were heading that direction with Brewtan.

I was thinking of the Barke, but yeah on the Brewtan, too!  AFAIK, it's not available on the homebrew market here.  I hope I can convince a wholesaler to take it on, but don't hold yer breath!

Ok cool. As for the Barke, that stuff smells and tastes amazing in a wort sample. Can't wait to try it in a beer!

[beersk]

I'm going to brew a Dunkel Saturday morning; just a little 3 gallon batch for my 2.5 gallon keg. Yes, I'm doing low DO, no sparge... Going to try it for a while, see how I feel about it.
My first batch has quite a bit of sulfur, so I must've overdosed with SMB (but didn't use all that much really, 1.2g in mash and same in sparge). I anticipate it aging out though in the next few weeks. So I may be backing off on the SMB a tad. And it's the lightest beer I've ever made, can't believe how light it is...looking forward to seeing how it looks when it's cleared up.

[brewinhard]

Finishing up my mash for my Liberty Cream Ale. Great beer for hot August days coming up. Also beer-gunned a bunch of entries for a couple comps yesterday. Time to ship'em out today on a 90F degree truck.  Go homebrew!

[Ale Farmer]

Making a dubbel as a I write--my first. Using candi syrup and also Special B, along with WLP 500--not sure I need  the Special B, but want to make sure the raisin-plum flavor is there. Only a 3-gallon batch--I have plans to give some away as gifts for Christmas and have one occasionally as the weather starts to cool--a pleasant thought on a day that hit 95 in my Western Massachusetts town. 

[HoosierBrew]

Making a dubbel as a I write--my first. Using candi syrup and also Special B, along with WLP 500--not sure I need  the Special B, but want to make sure the raisin-plum flavor is there. Only a 3-gallon batch--I have plans to give some away as gifts for Christmas and have one occasionally as the weather starts to cool--a pleasant thought on a day that hit 95 in my Western Massachusetts town. 

FWIW I use a little Special B in most of my dubbels too (along with syrup), to further accentuate the dark fruit/raisin thing. It'll make a good beer and a great Christmas gift !

[tommymorris]

Helles-2

3G; 1047 OG; 1008 FG
79% Weyermann Pils
21% Kolsch Malt
16.6 IBU Libery @ 60
WLP830

Used tap water today. Eager to see how it comes out. Majorvices makes a Kolsch at his brewery with tap water which should be the same as the water at my house.

5.19 pH. Little lower than I targeted.

[brewinhard]

Starting the boil for my Northern German Pils. Heavy on Saphir hopping (ala pivo pils).

[HoosierBrew]

Starting the boil for my Northern German Pils. Heavy on Saphir hopping (ala pivo pils).

Same thing I just did recently. Kegging mine this Friday. Can't wait!

[brewinhard]

Cool.  Let me know how it turns out. I am really not using the best yeast strain for a dry pils (WL 833), but I have a fresh slurry of it from my last helles which I kegged yesterday. Surprisingly, the helles dried out to 1.005 too. Last Helles I brewed with 86% pils/14% kolsch malt finished at 1.012 with WY 2308 mashed at 150. I used the exact same recipe and mashed at 149F to dry it out a tad more.  The only swap was the 833 strain which I have always thought was a bit less attenuative. Apparently it isn't.

[HoosierBrew]

Cool.  Let me know how it turns out. I am really not using the best yeast strain for a dry pils (WL 833), but I have a fresh slurry of it from my last helles which I kegged yesterday. Surprisingly, the helles dried out to 1.005 too. Last Helles I brewed with 86% pils/14% kolsch malt finished at 1.012 with WY 2308 mashed at 150. I used the exact same recipe and mashed at 149F to dry it out a tad more.  The only swap was the 833 strain which I have always thought was a bit less attenuative. Apparently it isn't.

It'll be good anyway with 833, but you could always bump the sulfate up a tad. Yeah, looking forward to this one!

[brewinhard]

I've got the sulfate around 100 ppm. I am just hoping the helles doesn't come across too dry at 1.005.  I did do a no-sparge for that one, so hoping to up the malt richness a bit.

Almost got my pils down to 48F with my recirc pump. Man, those Saphir hops smell pretty lemony to me.

[HoosierBrew]

Man, those Saphir hops smell pretty lemony to me.

Mine were really floral with some lemon/citrus. Got mine from Farmhouse. I thought they smelled great. As for the helles, 1.005 is pretty low, but it might surprise you.

[brewinhard]

Man, those Saphir hops smell pretty lemony to me.

Mine were really floral with some lemon/citrus. Got mine from Farmhouse. I thought they smelled great. As for the helles, 1.005 is pretty low, but it might surprise you.

I am still kind of confused why it attenuated so much. Wyeast 2308 runs 70-74% attenuation and WL 833 goes 70-76%. Now, I fully understand these are simply lab numbers and that mileage varies here. But a one degree difference in the same exact grain bill (with a different strain) resulted in a 7 point drop?  Weird.
I will be curious to see how the pils dries out since I am using the 833 and mashed at 149F.

[HoosierBrew]

I am still kind of confused why it attenuated so much. Wyeast 2308 runs 70-74% attenuation and WL 833 goes 70-76%. Now, I fully understand these are simply lab numbers and that mileage varies here. But a one degree difference in the same exact grain bill (with a different strain) resulted in a 7 point drop?  Weird.
I will be curious to see how the pils dries out since I am using the 833 and mashed at 149F.

If you were a newb, I'd ask if the mash was stirred evenly enough to get an even temp or about the thermo calibration/accuracy. Obviously you're not a newb by a long stretch.  It is a big jump in attenuation though. Before deciding to try stepping again for lagers (for now), I used to take Kai's advice and mashed helles 152F/90 mins and it seemed to finish pretty reliably at ~ 1.010 (which is my sweet spot for helles, Ofest, and BoPils). Obviously grist and strain come into play ,too.

[blair.streit]

In the past, I've had some large attenuation swings with 833 as well (from high 60s to low 80s). Never nailed down if it was my pitch rate, pH, mash temp or something else, but like you said it's not too far off from the lab numbers, and most of the time it made sense to me (i.e. when I mashed higher attenuation was a bit lower).