Sauerkraut

I have the hunger for corned beef and kraut, and I'm all out of Kraut.

Chop up 1kg cabbage

Using the 2% by weight of salt, add and mix in well. Let sit a bit then mix again, crushing and squeezing it to render some juice. 

Pack it in a container to ferment in with a displacer/weight to hold cabbage below the brine solution.

Wait, 1-2 weeks...

Ginger Ale

 481g Ginger sliced w/ mandilin (4 large lobes)

Steeping in ~ 1.5g water heated to 190F, let it set for 2 hours.

After steep added ~1c brown sugar, ~1/2c corn sugar, squeeze of agave necter, and ~ 1/4c lemon concentrate. 

Removed ginger, brought to a boil, dumped in keg. Topped off to ~ 2 gal in keg w/ bottled water.

Yogurt Today

1/2 Gal 2% good milk  3.50$
1.5 cups dry milk 4.60$ bag ~ 5 servings
Heat to 185F, then cool to 115F
Add cultures (using open nature greek 5.3 oz) 1$
Total for 1/2 gal yogurt is 5.42$

Hold at 115F for a few hours. I think 4-5 this time and it came out very well set and tart.

Pluot Jam

Pluot Jam

Thanks to a friend I found myself with 10's of lbs of fruit, pluots and I dont even know what the other one is. 

Pluot Jam:

10 lbs seeded and diced

~1 Tbs lemon juice

splash of salt

Let cook down a little bit in large stainless-steel pan, probably took an hour on low.

Meanwhile clean and bake (225F) canning jars to sanitize.

Once cooked down, added ~6 cups of sugar and 4 Tbls of low-sugar pectin. 

Cook to disolve sugar, and put into jars.

I probably boiled the jars for 10 minutes to seal.

Keezer w/ Taps (finally)

I finally got tired of the picnic taps inside the keezer, and wanted a collar to give me room to easily put in the last keg and take the CO2 bottle out. Here is the build

Mold for the spray foam

Adding the foam

Trimming the foam and mold, adding aluminum tape over the foam to keep dust down.

The final build, with out tap handles. I'm using rubber bands to prevent the taps from being opened accidentally, and have one prototype handle printed w/ the 3D printer.

MM IIPA

This recipe was inspired by MashMaker Tre Cool  Imperial IPA (pg42). Wanting something for a 2.5g keg plus some bottles.

Edit yellow cells in System Setup. Edit green cells for recipe creation. DO NOT edit red or blue cells.					System Setup
Volume into Fermenter	4.5	gal	17034 grams		Brewhouse efficiency		0.7	%
Boil Time	60	min			Boil off rate		0.5	gal/hour
Select Style	American Pale Ale		<-- Style Guideline		Loss in kettle		0.2	gal
Expected OG / FG	1.066	1.013	1.045 - 1.060	1.010 - 1.015	Yeast attenuation		0.8
Expected ABV	6.9	%	4.5 - 6.2	%	Grain Absorption		0.11	gal/lb
Expected Bitterness	91.6	IBUs	30 - 45	IBUs	Loss in MashTun		0	gal
Grain Build
Grain Name	Amount (lbs)	Eff (optional)		Hop Schedule
Marris Otter	12		5443g (100%)	Hop Name	Alpha Acid %	Amount (oz)	Time (min)	IBUs
				Apollo	18.3	1	60	70.0
				Chinook	10.5	1	15	21.6
				Simco		1	flameout
				Galaxy		1	flameout
Malt Extract
DME		0
LME		0
Adjuncts / Sugars	Amount (lbs)	Gravity Units
		0
Total Gravity Points		309.12
Brew Day Instructions
Desired Mash Temp	150	F	65.6 C
Mash Water Volume	4.5	gal (1.50qt/lb)	17034 grams
Grain Temperature	70	F	21.1 C
Strike Temperature	159.71	F	71 C
Grain Absorption Loss	1.32	gal	4996 grams
Sparge water needed	2.02	gal	7646 grams
Pre-boil gravity=1.059	Pre-boil volume=5.2gal

Water was RO with 7g Gypsum and 2g CaCl2. This was also the first use of the new mash-tun, after the issues with the stuck sparge from last brew. The new mash-tun is a Lowes Igloo 10g drink cooler with a LauterHelix 1000. I found a PVC water grade ball valve and a 1/2" NPT nipple to complete the tun on a budget. 

5/26/18: Brewday went extremely smooth and fun. 

Collected 3.8gal in the fermenter at 1070, high enough I added 1.5L of water as well to the fermenter (no gravity measurement after that). Used US05 which I made a 600mL starter.

6/7: Dryhopped with 1oz Simcoe, Columbus, and Galaxy (I think).

6/10: Put in secondary to clear up
6/17: 2.5 gal keg + bottled 1.7 gal (TC IPA)

Another Cascadian Dark Dank Ale

The nth edition of my Cascadian Dark Dank Ale, need to refill the 5g keg with my favorite beer.

Note: Edit yellow cells for system profile. Edit green cells for recipe creation. DO NOT edit red or blue cells					System Setup
Volume into Fermenter	5.5	gal	20819 grams		Brewhouse efficiency		0.8
Boil Time	60	min			Boil off rate		0.5	gal/hour
Select Style	American Pale Ale		Style Guideline		Loss in kettle		0.2	gal
Expected OG / FG	1.050	1.010	1.045 - 1.060	1.010 - 1.015	Yeast attenuation		0.8
Expected ABV	5.3	%	4.5 - 6.2	%	Grain Absorption		0.11	gal/lb
Expected Bitterness	62.0	IBUs	30 - 45	IBUs	Loss in MashTun		0.11
Grain Build				Hop Schedule
Grain Name	Amount (lbs)	Grain Eff (optional)		Hop Name	Alpha Acid %	Amount (oz)	Time (min)	IBUs
Pilsen	5		2268 grams	Citra	10	1	60	35.9
Vienna	6	0.6	2721.6 grams
Kiln Coffee Malt	0.5	0.3	226.8 grams
Carafa III	0.25	0.1	113.4 grams
Midnight Wheat	0.2	0.1	90.7 grams	Chinnok	11	1	5	12.4
				Ahtanum	3.9	1	5	4.4
				Amarillo	8.4	1	5	9.4
Malt Extract
DME	0	0	0 grams
LME		0
Total Gravity Points		286.856
				Chinook	12	1	dry-hop
				Simcoe	12	1	dryhop
Brew Day Instructions				Ahtanum	7	0.5	dry hop
Desired Mash Temp	153	F	67.2 C
Mash Water Volume	5	gal (1.67 qt/lb)	18927 grams
Grain Temperature	70	F	21.1 C
Strike Temperature	162.03	F	72.2 C
Grain Absorption Loss	1.3145	gal	4975 grams
Sparge water needed	2.5145	gal	9518 grams

Brewing Notes:

Water was mix of RO and Carlsbad tap. Initial runnings were 1079, adding 1oz Citra at first wort. Boil finished at 1056 and just under 6 gal. 

Update 6/9/18: Taste is great, very roasty and hops are just about spot on flavor wise. Not my favorite version of the style I've brewed. Maybe would make just a tad more bitterness and dry hop next time...