4 Dog Brewery

Just your standard Blonde Ale which I started brewing like 40 years ago. Using the Escarpment Labs House Ale yeast I got free from Toronto Brewing. Watching the world juniors and Canada doesn't play today, so get brewing. Escarpment Labs dry yeast has a sachet inside a sachet, interesting... MASHED TOO LOW AGAIN, GO BACK TO F INSTEAD OF C. Ingredients 11 lbs. German Pilsner 8 ozs. Crystal 40 56.7 g Hallertauer at 60 min. Escarpment Labs House Ale dry yeast Package says good for only 5 gallons so that is what I am going to do.  Water Profile - Yellow Balanced CA - 50 MG - 9 S04 - 75 CI - 61 PH - 5.35 O.G. - 1.046 - 79% efficiency F.G. -  1.005 % -     5.4 SRM - 5 BU - 21 ( too high in my opinion. 15 is where I used to be ) Mash Gyp - 1.4 g CI - 1.9 g Eps - 1.9 g Lactic Acid - 1.7 ml Boil  Gyp - 1.3 g CI - 1.8 g Eps - 1.8 g Sparge - .2 ml Mash Water - 5.5 gallons Sparge Water - 5 gallons                     ...

I seriously need to think on buying a replacement board. It is starting to wear I guess. It does not always want to fire up when I hit the power button. Not sure about the board though. I think Kegland will stop making the boards. I definitely will buy one next year and another one either later on in 2024 or early 2025. I have to use it in the winter instead of my big system. Too big and cleaning is a real pain.

 Almost the same recipe as the last one. Slight change in hops as an inventory adjustment. Brewday was Thursday, nope, changed it to Friday, nope, now changed it to Saturday. I got it in!! A lot of issues around here the last day or so, but I dam well got it in. I am going to filter this just after I keg it. Again, I won't get to age this that much but this is my last one and I really do not care what it tastes like, my last lager. I can still age it after filtering. O.G. - 1.046  - 77% F.G. - % - SRM - 3.4 BU - 23 Last batch was only 1.044. I used too much sparge water, so watch it carefully this time. I had 2 - 3 L left over in Mr. Robobrew. Heat up the mash water to 71C.  Mash at 66 C.  I mashed too low. Should of been 75C instead of 71C. For some reason it screws around with the enzymes in the barley. I switched to Celsius when I made my first lager. Dummy!! Pat Attention!!   Ingredients 11 lbs. Pils Malt 8 ozs. Vienna 8 ozs. CaraFoam 56 g Hallertauer at 60 ...

 I just hate sitting out there in the cold weather. Will fire it up next May after San Diego and the pool is opened.

First time using the WSM. Hope all goes well, If it rains the smoke is cancelled. If it rains in the middle of the smoke, stay the course but clean up will be messy. Water will get in there and end up at the bottom part. Cannot clean that out until it is 100% cooled down which will be the next day at the earliest. I am starting this around 5 am and go from there. I am quite excited to do this. Rain is in the forecast every day now, but hopefully it will end when I start to do this. I can wait awhile and start it later but that means it will be later in the evening when I am done. The Brisket will be cooked a day or two early and I think I can just toss it in the slow cooker on warm the day we eat it. Next summer I can do this on any day as it doesn't seem to rain as much. Bring fire extinguisher out there too. Never know, shit happens. Ingredients Brisket - 17 lbs. but I cut it up into the six pieces, the flat and point. Had a real hard time doing it too. I think I can get 3 meals ...

Getting an early start on my Helles Lagers. No use to wait until spring, may as well get'r done now. Using liquid yeast with an over build and I hope it does a lot more than my Kolsch yeast which was near dead for some reason. Since we are going away I have to let this ferment for 5 - 6 days. That is fine. I will shut the fridge off when we get back on Monday, Nov. 6.                         FOUND THE REASON FOR THE ODD TASTING BEERS I switched to using Celsius and didn't mash in at the right temperature. That is an enzyme problem. I should of mashed in at 75C instead of 70C. Dummy!! Ingredients 11 lbs. Pilsner Malt 8 ozs. Vienna 8 ozs. Carafoam Dextrine 40 grams Czech Saaz at 60 min. Biergarten Lager Yeast with over build - ( 500 ml ) - ( 9 - 13 C) - ( 48 - 55 F ) O.G. - 1.044 - 73% F.G. - % - SRM - 3.4 BU - 18 Mash Water - 5.75 gallons Sparge Water - 5 gallons Water Profile - 4 Dog Brewery CA - 22 MG - 8 S04 - 31 CI - 39 PH -...

I am not using beer gas as I don't think I will make a lot of UK styles of beer. This will be on tap down in the beer room. I will use my stout faucet and try to get a creamy head on it the best I can do. If it is okay, I will make another one sometime in the winter of 2024. Ingredients 9 lbs. Horton Ridge Organic 2 lbs. Flaked Barley 1 lb. Carafa Special III 1 lb. Choclate Malt 1 lb. Roasted Barley 40 grams Challenger at 60 min. US-05 Mashing the 2 row and flaked barley only. Cold Steeping the roasted malts On the day before brew day, mix the roasted grains with 6 qts. RO water and toss it in the fridge over night. Take out of fridge sometime during the day to warm up. Add to the boil kettle the last 10 minutes of the boil.                Water Profile - Yellow Balanced Mash Water - 5.25 gallons Sparge Water - 5 gallons CA - 50 MG - 9 S04 - 75 CI - 59 PH - 5.40 Mash Gyp - 1.4 g CI - 1.8 g Eps - 1.8 g Lactic Acid - 1.7 ml Boil Gyp- 1.4 g CI - 1.7 ...

I finally found some Kolsch yeast. Brewing this the rest of this year using Mr. Robobrew. Guelph only had one left so I had to grab it. Can buy some noble hops anytime after this brew. Low hop bitterness and aroma are the key to making up for my previous mess of a Kolsch. A very simple Kolsch recipe fermented at 62F. Will try to brew this and cpbf in my pet bottles which I have never used. After that will brew my stouts and bitters. I have 96 PET bottles and I want to fill them all. I can store bottles in the fridge with less space than kegs and that means a fridge that will not be on. Supposed to brew this soon but of course Urban Winery had problems getting it to me so this will be brewed after PEI. Make a 1.75 L starter. Pitch 1.5 L after evaporation on the stove.. After it is done, save 500 ml in a jar for an over build. Stir well before removing 500 ml. That means getting all the trub and yeast off the bottom of the flask. Use 170 grams of DME. That's it and brew on...  Ingred...

Frank and Rhonda brought me home from Nova Scotia a 55 lb. bag of Horton Ridge Pale Organic Malt. Could not find any specs on the malt, but I assume it is around 3 srm. Going with that. This will be fresh beer since the malt is probably as fresh as you can get. It should make a good darker beer like a stout or an English style too. The web-site states it is very malty and that is good. Even with all of these hops, the beer should taste better than using Pils Malt. This is the last brew on Mr. Conical. I hope to use it next summer sometime. I don't need all of this beer like I used to. On the other hand, I have 96 PET bottles I have never used. I can always bottle condition my beers and just store them in the basement. I can't use Gelatin to clear them because I have trouble getting carbonation when I do that. I can, however, use my CPBF which I rarely use. Time consuming though, but I used it all the time when I was working. But you know who was at work and not here bugging me....

The weather may start to cool down in early June. You only need 10 days of reasonable weather to make this. If not, don't. Can't do any temp control. The forecast is mainly cool with themps around 22C. I think I can make this on the bench and close the door if needed. I can always move the pails upstairs if I have to. I am going ahead and using well water for this batch. Marty made his wine with their well water and he had no problem with it. Made both on June 12.                        FIRST TIME USING WELL WATER - HOPE IT WASN'T A MISTAKE Spring water comes from the ground a few miles north of us. My well water comes from the ground. The only thing is sanitation. I don't think spring water is sanitized. It is captured from an under ground spring and pumped into trucks for transport. Mine is similar, so I went with it. I do have a water softener and turning the valve off is a no no. It is quite hard to do so I never touch it. ...

Tossed this one and the next one out. Just way too much hops at the 60 min. mark. What were you thinking? I need to go through my recipes more and think about how it will taste. I should of used some Magnum at the 60 min. mark with some Hallertauer at the end of the boil, but not too much. Keep it light. Make a starter on June 5 - One step. Pitched the Kolsch in the flask at around 3 pm. I forgot to add some wort to the package of Kolsch or even massage it to get all of it to come out of the package. Next time you have to add some wort and put in a long handled spoon to mix it all up. At least shake it a lot to mix in with the already wort in it. In the end though, I got it all as I added a lot of wort from a plastic cup and shook it somewhat. Hard to do as the risk of spillage was great. I ended up with 4.5 L in the flask. Starter done on June 7. Took out the over build and am ready for brewday. Looking at the 5 L flask, I seem to get more yeast in the over build than I do after I tak...

I want to get in another brew before baseball starts. Hopefully I figured out the correct amount of mash water for Mr. Robobrew. You still need to take a look at the pump inside it to see if there are some foreign materials inside it like the pics I have see on the internet. Clean the Robobrew valve or at least take a look at it. I took it apart and it did have some hop sludge in it. The lower white valve ring was damaged. Seems if you don't get it in just right, it drags on the ss ball and warps or gets some marks on it. I had to hammer it in to use it. I will try to order a few more but have never seen one online. Cannot find one in Canada. Gee, a surprise there.                                                                  WLP830 I should never of used this yeast. Sulphur bomb. I read about it and thought I could do an...

 First thing I need to do is to buy a muslum bag to toss in the oak chips. They floated on top, but hopefully they will sink a bit to get a little flavour in the wine. I hate oak chips. I did notice in Marty's wine it had an edge to it, so I bought a muslum bag for our wine. I didn't go 10 days with my wine like I did with Marty's wine. I need to buy some marbles at the dollar store to make the bag sink. I did that before and the wine was good.  O.G. -  Kit #1 - 1.092 - The left one started on April 10. ( Marty's Wine ) O.G. -  Kit #2 - 1.092 - The right one started on April 11. ( My Wine ) R.G. -  Kit #1 - 1.010 - Racked it on April 19 R.G. -  Kit #2 - 1.020 - (Leaving it a few more days to see if it will get lower) R.G. -  Kit #2 - .995 or lower. Racked on April 26. Day 1 - Next Day - Bubbling started around 9 am. Temp was too high ( 74 F ) so I turned off the heat. Day 2 - Pail on left going slow. Pail on right is not. Day 3 - Both are now bubbling ...

This is a fast ferment to eliminate the dreaded diacetyl in lagers. Fermentation schedule will be down in my notes. This is what I am brewing a lot this year, so get it right. My notes from 2020 when covid hit when I made this same, exact beer. I did a D rest on Day 7. The beer was good. Repeat that...                                                     IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON OBK Their shipping is out of control. For years they were the cheapest around. Not at this time, actually by a long shot. Urban Winery in Guelph was $25 cheaper. I didn't go there because they were always more. Big difference. I am not going to use OBK any more. After this bag I am going to use Urban Winery for all of my homebrew purchases. Not sure what is going on with OBK, but they have priced themselves out of my pocket book. Urban Winery Pils malt went from $80 to $94. WTF? Even s...