All grain beer brewing is easier than you may think
November 2020
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Daily Archives: November 26, 2020

10 Home Brewing Tips, Recommendations, and Hacks – Week 6


10 Home Brewing Tips, Recommendations, and Hacks – Week 6 – Tips 51-60

I was working to share knowledge I’ve learned over the years and to inform on things every home brewer should be aware of from Beginners to Advanced and some you may have never heard of.

I will work to share 10 different home brewing tips every week for the next 10+ weeks.

1. Don’t use abrasives on Stainless Steel.
2. Water choices for new home brewers.
3. Water is your friend.
4. Brown Bottles.
5. Allow fermentation to complete 100%.
6. Consider Cask & Bottle Conditioning yeast when bottling heavily filtered / clarified beer.
7. Avoid UV light direct and indirect.
8. A secondary isn’t needed for most home brews.
9.Avoid adding water in any large quantity to your beer after or even during fermentation.
10. Aging your beer.

These tips will range from cleaning to equipment recommendations to procedures/tricks/hacks/tips using during home brewing.

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DIY Stir Plates with Heat for Kveik and Farmhouse yeasts!


DIY Heated Stir Plates for Kveik and Farmhouse yeasts!
Yes, I’ve done this before back in July but from the feedback I got I needed to do it again and decided to show how easy it is to add heat to it too.

These Stir Plates work incredibly well and are very cheap to make and will take you all of about 10 to 20 minutes max to setup. (5 minutes if you are a speed demon with a razor blade and super glue.)

You can do Kveik yeast without heat but personally I’ve found 95 F to be optimal for me compared to my normal 74 F starters. I see faster and significantly better production at the higher temps with my Kveik and Farmhouse yeast starters.

You will need razor blade or good scissors, regular Phillips screw driver, super glue (gel version preferred), left over cardboard from a box.

Dual USB 120 mm fans
The Magnets 12mm x 3mm (Remember thicker is better)
Best deal of stir bars currently Cheap stir bars that work 
A little expensive stir bars but my favorite so far as the extra size seems to help
Razor blades (if needed)
Gel Super glue (cheap)
USB Charger if needed (newer version)
Heating Pad for Heated stir plates

This is hands down the easiest stir plates to make without question. I’ve been using these things for over 3 years now and they work amazingly well and without issues. Inexpensive and very easy to make with just a few items. Yeast stir plates for getting your yeast starters ready for brew day.

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15 Norwegian Kveik and Farmhouse yeasts head to head comparisons – Part 1 of 4

15 Norwegian Kveik and Farmhouse yeasts head to head comparisons – Part 1 of 4

I’ve been dying to try all the Kveik yeasts that I’ve purchased most over the past few months but as I am like most people and impatient I’ve come up with doing all 15 that I purchased all at the same time.

I brewed a nice clean straight forward Pale Ale.
15 lbs of 2 Row Pale Malt
4 oz of 60 L Crystal / Caramel malt
1.25 Magnum at 90 minutes – 10.8 Alpha

OG of 1.060
FG – this will be based on the yeast
5.9% abv is estimated based on one of the yeasts.

Here is a list of the yeasts used:
Imperial A44 Kveik (blend of 3 Kveik yeasts)
Omega 061 Voss Kveik yeast
Omega 091 Horninal Kveik yeast
All the other yeasts were purchased from Too Far North Brewing Ebbegarden Kveik yeast
Juggernaut Kveik yeast
Lida Kveik yeast
Wollsaeter Kveik yeast
Framgarden Kveik yeast
Laerdal Kveik yeast
Gausemel Kveik yeast
Torhmodgarden Kveik yeast
Midtbust Kveik yeast
Rivenese Kveik yeast
Raftevold – was substituted with Stranda Farmhouse yeast
Arset – was substituted with Simonaitis Lithuanian Farmhouse yeast

Once this is completed there will be a part 2 for taste and aroma comparisons.

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Red Velvet Stout – Brewed on Anvil Foundry & Chilled with Jaded Brewing Scylla – Part 2 of 2


Red Velvet Stout – Brewed on Anvil Foundry & Chilled with Jaded Brewing Scylla – Part 2 of 2

Essentially we’re brewing a Milk Stout or Oatmeal Stout based on how your looking at it but the goal is to build an amazingly velvet chocolate stout to help carry the Red Velvet flavoring which will be added as a back sweetening using Amoretti Red Velvet natural flavoring.

Recipe for a 5.25 gallon batch for the Red Velvet Stout:
6 lbs Maris Otter
2 lbs Munich I
1 lb Flaked Oats
1 lb Vienna Malt
12 oz Chocolate Wheat
12 oz Pale Chocolate
4 oz Caramel 80L
1 oz Columbus hops 16.2 A added at 65 minutes before flame out

Last 10 minutes:
1/2 Whirlfloc tablet
12 oz Lactose Sugar (last 10 minutes)
1 heaping tsp of Wyeast Yeast Nutrient

Omega 048 British XI Yeast

Equipment I used to brew this batch of beer:
Anvil Foundry 10.5 Gallon All-in-One brewing system with recirculation pump kit
Jaded Brewing Scylla
Awesome propane burner – Great quality.
Anvil 10 gallon Brew Kettle
Five Star Super Moss HB
Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
Hop filter for brewing
Glass Carboy
Plastic Carboy for measuring
Tilt Hydrometer during fermentation
Best Hydrometer I’ve ever used and a great company

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10 Home Brewing Tips, Recommendations, and Hacks – Week 5


10 Home Brewing Tips, Recommendations, and Hacks – Week 5 – Tips 41-50

I was working to share knowledge I’ve learned over the years and to inform on things every home brewer should be aware of from Beginners to Advanced and some you may have never heard of.

I will work to share 10 different home brewing tips every week for the next 10+ weeks.

1. Under Pitch vs Over Pitch.
2. Picking Yeasts and beer styles when you don’t have a temperature controls.
3. New Brewers should start with dry yeasts.
4. Consider a blow off tube for the first 24 hours of fermentation.
5. Always do a yeast starter for liquid and Kveik yeasts.
6. Always have a yeast backup plan.
7. Always aerate your wort.
8. Avoid aerating your wort after fermentation.
9. Yeast Matters!
10. Adding oxygen to wort within 24 hours of fermentation.

There have been many but this is the one I believe I remember from what I was trying to get across in #10
http://brulosophy.com/2020/02/03/wort-aeration-single-vs-double-dose-of-oxygen-in-a-high-og-ale-exbeeriment-results/

These tips will range from cleaning to equipment recommendations to procedures/tricks/hacks/tips using during home brewing.

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