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Gentlemen, This mead recently received a bronze medal at a competition. Ciders and meads were combined in the category and it was the only mead to medal.

Well my queue consists of my next PA. However, I have fleshed out the recipe and have a name for it. BOOTY CALL. Heck I even have some label art to go with it. After that well I did buy some NZ hops called Rakau, so another PA at some point will feature those, and a name too. Rakau Rumble. My queue for the moment.

Here's what I've got so far based on very limited research: Munster Altbier 2-gallon, Mash-in-Sack Weyermann Pilsner, 2.2 lb. Wheat (malted, or raw via cereal mash), 1.5 lb. Weyermann Acidulated malt, 0.2 lb (late mash addition) Weyermann Melanoidin, 0.18 lb. Magnum FWH, 0.2 oz., 50 min. Hallertau, 0.5 oz., 15 min. Hallertau, 0.25 oz., 5 min. Yeast nutrient Safale (you guessed it) K-97, fermented cool OG 1.053 IBU 30 SRM 6

While waiting for the protein rest, this is the perfect time to enjoy a beer. Who needs Hoegaarden when you can be enjoying a wonderful wit from Twocan Brewery?🍻

After a while sanitizing becomes part of the routine. I go so far as to sanitize the stove top, back splash and range hood. I also completely do the sink, faucet and handles, and of course all the counter tops and cabinet pulls. Sounds excessive, but I also bake bread occasionally and I don't want those other yeast around. All equipment gets a good dunk, and like a surgeon, I set up a sterile field. Don't forget your hands! Downstairs where I store my keg and bottles, the plastic table-top gets a good wipe down too. BTW - your spouse will love you for the extra clean kitchen!

Admins? We don't need no stinkin' admins!

after 3 weeks fermentation, i would cold crash it for a couple of days and i'll bet it will fall out for the most part. I've had some gross looking stuff worse than that before and it was fine.

I'm just a little surprised that I liked this post before @MRB-Pat, @MRB-Robert, @MRB-Tyson, @MRB-Zach, or @MRB-Rick did.

Ive brewed quite a bit lately. 25 gallons in two weeks. But ones a lager and itll take awhile. Perhaps Ill do my old trick of a two day sour brew. I did pick up some gooseberries today for such an occasion. day 1- mash, bring up to 180, cool to 100, pitch lacto day 2 or 3- boil, cool, pitch yeast.

MRB has greatly revised a lot of their conditioning times to much shorter periods. IMNSHO it's simply an effort to appeal to newer brewers. I still condition my beers for the "old" times. And I don't ferment any ales (except for ones using Saison yeast) at a temp above 67F.

Final brew day notes: I added a little more than half a tsp lactic acid near the end of the boil to target a pH of 4.5. OG was 1.053. K-97 fermentation wasted no time taking off and it looks like I have made beer.

Just a couple more rests before mash-out: about 20 min. @ 146 beta rest, then 20 min. @ 158 F for the alpha sacchs.

Well done! That was a very easy-drinking and flavorful wit and thanks for sharing.

Haha, I recognize that Wit! Hope it met with your approval. I'm not a big wheat fan but I can drink Erdlinger Wit, and modeled this brew as close as I could get to theirs.

What a sticky, gooey mess! This is exactly what you want to add to the main mash to hit the first step, 134 F.

Let's brew the raw wheat version including both cereal- and step-mashes. Cereal mash 1.5 lbs of double-milled raw wheat. Steep in 1 gallon of well water for 20 min. then bring to rolling boil to gelatinize the starches. Boil 25-30 min.

Tomorrow I'll be brewing BIAB with an element inside the kettle, not using the induction burner. Once I hit mash temp I'll turn off the element add the bag, then the grains and dough in. I'll manually stir and add heat as needed, though now that I think about it I could clamp the whirlpool hose to the top of the kettle and create a recirculation. Then I could just set the controller at 25-30% power and should get a decent heat distribution throughout the mash.

Changed the name of my brew tomorrow from Booty Call to "Night Moves", after listening to Bob Seger's tune. I'm pretty much going to brew on the new rig the way I have been, just to check out the whole system. However, I think that to best take advantage of the features offered by the controller, I'm going to need to drill out the kettle lid and install a spray return, RIMS, so that I'll have a more consistent temp gradient throughout. What think you @Creeps McLane?

BTW just to add to my previous post - NEVER use a sponge! Paper towel for all cleaning and dispose of before moving onto a new surface.

Administrators you can choose to remove this post if inappropriate Gentlemen, Here is a recipe for a simple Blueberry Mead that I demonstrated last night for my brew club. Note: if you were to ferment this in one of your LBKs, I would probably not use it again for beer since the aroma will be impossible to remove. Also, you could substitute any flavor of Knudsen Juice for this recipe. Simple Blueberry Mead 1 gallon Batch (finished) Recipe 2 – 32oz bottles of Knudsen Blueberry Juice 4# - Honey (any variety) 1 – 5gm pkt of Lalvin 71B yeast 6.25 gm – Go Ferm Protect 6 gm – Fermaid O (4 additions of 1.5gm at 24hr, 48hr, 72hr and 1/3 sugar break) Instructions 1. Mix together the juice and honey and mix until honey is completely incorporated 2. Top off with water to 1.25 gallon mark 3. Rehydrate yeast in 125ml (about 4oz) 95 to 105 degree water with Go Ferm dissolved 4. Pitch yeast after rehydration 5. For first 7 days, degas every 12 hours to remove excess carbon dioxide 6. Add 1.5 gm of Fermaid O per schedule above (use Tosna 2.0 to determine actual requirements) be sure to degas prior to this step, you will make a mess otherwise. 7. After approximately 2 to 3 weeks (when gravity is stable) transfer clear mead into a secondary container. 8. At transfer add .38gm of Potassium Metabisulfate and 1/2 tsp of Potassium Sorbate 9. After another 3 to 4 weeks transfer clear mead to a 1 gallon jug and age for another 1 to 3 months. 10. Bottle and then age to your liking. Mead is ready to drink at bottling but benefits from aging from 6 months to a year.

Congrats @BDawg62!

Impressive!

Rafts of yeast can be "normal" Leave it alone until fully fermented (I usually let it sit 20 days or so). Dark spots also seem to appear from time to time during fermentation. Don't keep opening up the keg, as you risk letting some nasty bacteria in. Your risk causing infection with the thermometer is low, opening the keg increases the risk. BTW a stick-on thermometer works well.

I did not back sweeten. Turned out like a Dry highly carbed wine. I will put one in the fridge tonight and do a video review tomorrow! I like it!

This always reminds me of the 2018 MUG meet up

Sounds tasty!

My favorite trick is to mini-mash the MRB Craft/Seasonal refills into a 3-4 gallon batch but I have yet to try this with WDA. Maybe a Schwarzbier, Czech dark lager, etc. would be the way to go but we'll see.

Ashley says they have tested the recipes to validate their published process. They do ongoing quality control of the product - fermenting it in the office in Tucson.

This is where a spray bottle of sanitizer comes in handy 🙂

I thought it was obvious you were talking about sanitizing the spoon. If nothing else, at least there is activity in the New Brewer thread.😊

Id just stick it in boiling water for a minute or five. Then wait for it to cool obviously eh?

what @Shrike is saying is correct. porter is an ale, and if you have an inkbird, i would turn the temp down a bit.

that's the info i needed. i've made 4 batches of mrb extract, and a few using extract and grain. i still use an ice chest and frozen bottles for temp control. i've been very happy with the beer so far. thanks So much for your input....i hope the yeast works... i'll know tomorrow.

I ferment my beers for 18 days typically at 64-65F temperature controlled. I'll either bottle at 18 days or cold crash for an additional 3 days then bottle. Temp control is very important. I use a mini fridge and ink bird now, but when I started out I used a frozen pint of bottled water in a cooler with an LBK to maintain a 64F temp. With an LBK you'd want to tape a kitchen sponge to the flat end of the keg and put a temp probe below the waterline to get an accurate reading of the wort temp and not ambient temp as the two can differ considerably during the first 3-5 days of krausen, when the yeast is most active.

I think you're confusing fermentation time with conditioning time.

Ritebrew has it. They dont have everything, but they had that. I had to sub liberty for mt hood for example.

When I receive my free WDA next week, I plan to chuck the MRB yeast and ferment with a fresh alternative Fermentis yeast -- still trying to come up with a Dark Ale recipe that has not been tried yet.

Gotta love Schell's!

Ordered all the ingredients for this. Itll be the first wort my counterflow chiller sees. As soon as the conical opens up, this is going in. Its a Schells firebrick clone. I previously told @Bonsai & Brew i wasnt the biggest fan of that beer, but a guy should get through at least half of his sixer before he opens his big mouth. Im really liking the firebrick / nordeast combo. Start with a nordeast or two and then finish with a full flavored similar beer. One two punch

I would take the old yeast and throw it in the boiling water. That'll kill the yeast. Then use the S-04 to ferment. The dead MRB yeast will serve as a nutrient.

I ran across this 2017 Mr Beer article and while there are many hops not on this list, it's a great reference list that might help tickle your thought process when choosing your hops whether your brewing extract or AG. https://www.mrbeer.com/blog/post/aroma-hops-bittering-hops-dual-purpose-hops

When I'd drink an Apple Brown Beery, I'd put 1/4 cup apple juice into the glass before pouring. It gave it a nice touch of sweetness.

Like it should, because the yeast are eating the sugar as they are supposed to.

I'm curious about how this came out. I've been making hard cider from Apple juice. It comes out pretty good, but it is dry. People who I've given it to want it to be sweeter, but the sweetness always ferments out.

He suddenly stopped posting here about two years ago. I always wondered what happened; he always had good info and posts to share.

Either way, carbonate or not, is good (if you don't, just always remember to clear the head space as mentioned above). Personally, I am with Creeps on this one, I like to gas mine, slowly, then once it's good to go, I set the keg aside until I am ready to drink. Though, I can say, that my 3X IPA (12%) I have going, which is ready to keg now, has been in the conical for 9 weeks. I just dropped the yeast when needed. Cold crashed when needed. Dropped more and let it age in there (still in the cooler) as I was in no rush to get the conical back... and didn't have enough Sixtels to keg it at the time anyway (that's what last weeks Portland run for kegs was all about lol). Whatever you chose, you will enjoy kegging. Costs more, initially, but makes life so much easier... plus is wicked fun to have your own tap(s) at home Too bad none of you are local, I have a bunch of Corney kegs I could pay it forward with as I don't use them any more.

Love this guy. Just went back to one of his first videos and he answered my question of "how can i mash out in a cooler mash tun" thought others might like this too

Holy hell, you must've been really nice this year... that's like an extra couple hundred bucks on top of the 200 already. Maybe that's why @RickBeer has never upgraded his equipment, he's on the naughty list.

Not sure if this was what Haerbob was asking for, but... In honor of the Walking Dead finale, here's a nice Zombie Dust recipe that I've tasted (it's quite good) and I plan to brew at some point this year... Batch Size: 6 gallons Estimated Original Gravity: 1.065 Estimated Final Gravity: 1.018 Estimated Color: 8.5 SRM Bitterness: 65.9 IBU Mash Temp: 154 F 60 min boil Fermentation temp: 62-64 Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU 11.75 lb 2 Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 81.7 % 1.13 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.8 % 0.50 lb Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 % 0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 % 0.50 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 3.5 % 0.75 oz Citra [12.40%] (First Wort Hop) Hops 17.0 IBU*** 1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (15 min) Hops 21.1 IBU 1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (10 min) Hops 15.4 IBU 1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (5 min) Hops 8.5 IBU 1.25 oz Citra [12.40%] (1 min) Hops 1.8 IBU 3.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops - SafAle English Ale (S-04) or London ESB 1968 Extract version: 6.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 70.6 % 1.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 11.8 % 0.50 lb Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.9 % 0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.9 % 0.50 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 5.9 % 0.75 oz Citra [12.40%] (First Wort Hop) Hops 12.5 IBU*** 1.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (60 min) Hops 25.1 IBU 1.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (15 min) Hops 12.4 IBU 1.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (10 min) Hops 9.1 IBU 1.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (5 min) Hops 5.0 IBU 1.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (1 min) Hops 1.1 IBU 3.00 oz Citra [12.40%] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops - SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) or Wyeast 1968

Wyeast california lager yeast is also good. You can make a nice "steam" version with it or S-23 if you can't keep lower fermentation temps. It may not be to "style" but it's good.