Unorthodox Brewing Practices

I found myself with a five hour block of free time on Saturday when my sister took the girls for the day. My original plans were to spend the day on a ladder finishing up the trim on the east side of the house. Well moist weather ensued and I decided to head down to the brewery to brew something on the fly. I quickly milled up the grist for the Red Rye in anticipation that I would run into Ray and secure some yeast.
Unfortunately, Ray was not around. I failed to get the yeast I desired for this beer. Instead I made a rather unorthodox decision by deciding to pitch one of my Belgian strains into this batch.
Alchemy at it's best....

Ack!

So I reformatted the layout of my blog and it reverted back to an old setting with outdated links.
Blechhhh! I want to use the old format!

Red Rye could get bumped to a standard

The Red Rye may become one of the standards in brew the brewhouse. It is a fairly big beer that is made with 20% Rye and is aggressively hopped with Brewers Gold, Perle, Chinook, Cascade and Centennial hops. It received great feedback from those that enjoyed it this past weekend.
Speaking of my standard offerings...It's almost time to get them fermenters full for the holiday season.
Cast your vote and help me decide!

Dubbel bubbling

The Dubbel is enjoying a very active fermentation. In fact the top blew off the airlock at some point Monday. Make note to self, when fermenting in glass carbouys: use a blow-off tube.

The Dubbel

I brewed a Belgian dubbel on Sunday. Other then missing my gravity by a few points, It looks like it will work out nicely. I only made five gallons, so it may be awhile before this one is unveiled.

Indecision

I'm very excited to make beer this weekend. I'm so excited that Isimply cannot decide what I would like to brew. I'm thinking perhaps a dubbel now, or maybe scale the Strong Scotish ale back and go with a five gallon pilot batch. Decisions, decisions.

Taking the show on the road

As previously mentioned I'm getting together with some fellow brewers in Windham this weekend for a brew session.

Making ten gallons on the fly in someone else's backyard can be rather complicated. I'm scaling back to a five gallon batch this weekend. With that said, it's going be another behemoth brew not unlike August's DIPA which used an obscene amount of hops. I have decided on another DIPA, this time around instead of Warrior, Methinks I'll go with a combo using Willamette, Brewers Gold, and a third mystery hop to be determined.
On second thought, maybe I'll shoot for a RIS.

Productivity

Despite the absence of the double decoction doppelbock brew session, this past weekend proved to be successful in other ways. I attended my OEC refresher, racked fifteen gallons of beer, and managed to get my haircut. Life is good. I'm supposed to be making beer with some friends up in Windham this weekend. Getting another batch in the fermenter before Sunday's run is going to be unlikely.

New brew not happening this weekend.

On Thursday night it was decided that I really don't have time to brew this weekend. With everything I have going on it's simply going to be to hectic. Instead, I have decided to prepare for the next brew and button a few items up in the brewery.
With that said, I'm going to rack the Tripel and the Munich Dunkel. Five more gallons of the Red Rye will go to final packaging. I'll also get two additional kegs to cold storage.
Then there are the carbouys that need to be cleaned.

Scrubbing Kegs

After putting the girls to bed for the second time last night, I ventured down into the brewery to rack beer to final packaging. B was slated to come over around 9:00 pm to meet me for a beer. We ended up cleaning a couple kegs and then filled them with the AAPA and the Red Rye. I still have ten gallons of the Munich Dunkel to rack as well as five gallons or Red Rye that got dry hopped with Willamette.
Let's not forget about the Tripel which is hanging out in the conical at this time. I'm still thinking I may be able to slip a brew in this weekend. I have since had a reality check, and am considering the Strong Scottish Ale for Saturday night.