[klickitat jim]

It's in a 30L Speidel I'm hoping it stays in there.

[pete b]

Got a Bo Pils on deck for Monday and Doppelbock the following week. That will be it for lagers for a while. Things will probably slow down with my brewing in general as well. I'll probably do a bunch of easy 1-gallon batches here & there, but as the weather warms up I'll be spending more time in the garden than the brewery.

Ditto to more time in the garden this time of year. On the other hand I can pretty much only do AG outside so no slowing down. I'm currently drinking my first 2014 AG, a DIPA with tequila. I'm a few days into 13 days off to work around home which includes putting in 1,000sq ft of malting barley, expanding the hops yard, planting veggies, and cutting down trees for next year's fire wood and splitting and stacking it. At the end of my time off I'm having friends over and brewing a Spencer Abby Clone.

[ynotbrusum]

For Big Brew I went back to the roots and did an extract kit for 5 gallons - it was my LHBS Gold medal winner from a few years back - a smoked honey wheat... Holding off on the honey add until high krausen and I had to bring my fermentor inside from the garage due to cold temps (50's).  My first swamp cooler of the year (I was heating ales in the garage all winter).  I hope the 1332 yeast didn't chill down too much!

[kmccaf]

I did a Pale Ale yesterday with Mrs. R for Big Brew. It was 5 gallons, and was the "Hop 2 It" recipe that was used at the Stan Hieronymus talk at Seattle. Empire hops were used at 6.7% AA. This is a new variety from northern MI, and are thought to be a leftover strain from long ago when that area was producing hops. The strain was found and propagated. The aroma was similar to Cascade, but some that have used it say it has a peppery note. I will post later what I get from the beer, probably in a new thread.

That's awesome! Did you order them from Empire Orchards directly? I am excited to hear how this turns out.

[hopfenundmalz]

I did a Pale Ale yesterday with Mrs. R for Big Brew. It was 5 gallons, and was the "Hop 2 It" recipe that was used at the Stan Hieronymus talk at Seattle. Empire hops were used at 6.7% AA. This is a new variety from northern MI, and are thought to be a leftover strain from long ago when that area was producing hops. The strain was found and propagated. The aroma was similar to Cascade, but some that have used it say it has a peppery note. I will post later what I get from the beer, probably in a new thread.

That's awesome! Did you order them from Empire Orchards directly? I am excited to hear how this turns out.

A guy in the club is starting a brewery. He got a box of them from Empire Farms, and offered up 8 oz. to maybe 8 or so on first come first served basis. I will share a few bottles with him.
http://empirehopsfarm.com/about-the-farm/

FYI, the Federal License should be approved next week, and he will start brewing. The location is Brighton MI, and the name is Brewery Becker.

[klickitat jim]

Sounds pretty solid.  BTW, that yeast ferments like it's losing its mind on a beer that big, so be prepared !

It's in a 30L Speidel I'm hoping it stays in there.

48hrs and a little bit climbed out. Wow! Banana Bread at this point!

[AmandaK]

Brewing test batch 1 of wedding saison right now

72.5% pils
12.5% Munich
7.5% malted wheat
5% Caramunich III
2.5% aromatic

33 IBUs
1oz sterling at 0
.75oz sterling at 15
~1oz sterling at 60 (depends on the ibu contribution from the 15 minute addition)

WY3711

Darkest saison I've made.

Ha. We are also brewing a saison test batch this weekend (5/10). I'm thinking about doing two different kegs of saison for the reception, one dry hopped like Tank 7 with Amarillo and another with grains of paradise in it. The the grains of paradise isn't a good idea, I'll just leave it alone.

When are you going to start into wedding beer production mode? I think we're going to hit it hard after NHC is over. We're too busy brewing beer for Club Night to brew for wedding production. 

[Stevie]

When are you going to start into wedding beer production mode? I think we're going to hit it hard after NHC is over. We're too busy brewing beer for Club Night to brew for wedding production. 

That's somewhat tricky. Live in texas, wedding in Northern California. The plan is to brew the weekend of her bridal shower and fittings. I am buying ingredients for 10 gallon batches and allowing the buddy(ies) that let me brew on their gear and ferment it for me to keep 5 per batch.

Most of the beers would benefit from a few months in the keg, but the IPA  for sure needs dry hopping the week before, maybe keg hop a few days out.

I might propose a club brew day and try to get all the beers done at one time. I think most people would be happy with five gallons for equipment rental.

Have not decided on quantity. There will be unlimited wine at the reception, so it is hard to judge how much beer we will need. Friends went though about 5 kegs with wine and 170 people, we have 120 so I think four will be enough. Running out would be awful.

[reverseapachemaster]

I haven't brewed since mid March and I'm sad about that. My wife and I have been doing some traveling so that has cut into my brewing and drinking time so I'm trying to hold off on brewing another batch until I've had time to cut down the current supply. Chances are pretty good I will say F it and just brew when we get back in town the weekend after next.

[AmandaK]

When are you going to start into wedding beer production mode? I think we're going to hit it hard after NHC is over. We're too busy brewing beer for Club Night to brew for wedding production. 

That's somewhat tricky. Live in texas, wedding in Northern California. The plan is to brew the weekend of her bridal shower and fittings. I am buying ingredients for 10 gallon batches and allowing the buddy(ies) that let me brew on their gear and ferment it for me to keep 5 per batch.

Most of the beers would benefit from a few months in the keg, but the IPA  for sure needs dry hopping the week before, maybe keg hop a few days out.

I might propose a club brew day and try to get all the beers done at one time. I think most people would be happy with five gallons for equipment rental.

Have not decided on quantity. There will be unlimited wine at the reception, so it is hard to judge how much beer we will need. Friends went though about 5 kegs with wine and 170 people, we have 120 so I think four will be enough. Running out would be awful.

Agreed. I think based on past parties, number of people, and the open bar... we're going to need probably 10-12 kegs, but I will likely bring 14 beer kegs and 2-3 ciders.

I am getting SO EXCITED for NHC though! Our club's lineup is looking great, and our own lineup will likely make up the majority of it:
-Dubbel
-Tripel
-Munich Dunkel
-Dry Stout
-12.5% Dark Saison
-Amarillo Saison
-Grains of Paradise Saison
-Belgian Blond
-We make also sneak in a porter if we can.

[klickitat jim]

My Bing Quadsby started at 1.082 ten days ago. Still has thin layer of krausen, lots of yeast in suspension, gravity is 1.020 and no fusel detected in the sample. I'm excited that I might have finally produced a decent big beer.

[Jimmy K]

I am getting SO EXCITED for NHC though! Our club's lineup is looking great, and our own lineup will likely make up the majority of it:
-Dubbel
-Tripel
-Munich Dunkel
-Dry Stout
-12.5% Dark Saison
-Amarillo Saison
-Grains of Paradise Saison
-Belgian Blond
-We make also sneak in a porter if we can.

What is the name of your club?

[HoosierBrew]

My Bing Quadsby started at 1.082 ten days ago. Still has thin layer of krausen, lots of yeast in suspension, gravity is 1.020 and no fusel detected in the sample. I'm excited that I might have finally produced a decent big beer.

I bet you'll drop a couple more points ,too, over the next couple weeks. Sounds great.

[klickitat jim]

Tranferred to secondary today. Beer was still active with SG of 1.014. I used 6 lbs of cleaned, pitted, frozen then thawed Bing cherries. The hydrometer sample started semisweet, with a carmelized fig/date note, finished dry. No hot alcohol that I could find. Pretty turbid and lots of yeast in suspension still of course, but I'm pretty stoked about where this is headed.

[duboman]

Finally got around to my Hibiscus Gose, wort souring with lacto at 95 right now and mashing in another batch of hard root beer, nice to be brewing again after a lot chaos in my world