coming up to temp for the mash. please pardon my janky ass thermometer clip lol.

grains are 1.5lb each honey malt and crystal 80.

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ok mash done. definitely got too hot because i don’t know how stove dials work 🤪

wrung out the grain sock to the best of my ability, and then brought the wort up to a boil and removed it from the heat to add my liquid extract to avoid scorching. also added in some hot water just to bring the volume up in the pot. (we’re gonna be diluting this a lot to make up five gallons anyway.)

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we boiled for an hour, with a hop addition at 45 minutes and one at 10 minutes, along with a carageenan tablet for clarifying.

dropped two and a half tablespoons of yeast nutrient down into the fermenter, then dumped in the wort syrup, then added water from the sink sprayer to make up volume and aerate the wort at the same time.

once the wort was about 70°f, i pitched two packets of saflager w34/70. i wanted to make this an ale originally, but it stays pretty cold in my house, so i figured lager yeast would have an easier time.

and then i couldn’t get my digital brew sheet to print, so i had to write it all down and tape it to the fermenter lol.

starting gravity is 1.050 before adding any peaches!

thank you for following along. if you would like a copy of this recipe, lmk.

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gravity reading today came to about 1.014 which puts us at or around 4.72% abv. fermented way quicker than i thought it would! tastes good. i pureed the vodka peaches and chucked those in so we’ve resumed more vigorous activity for a bit. once that calms down i’ll take another sample and if it looks like primary fermentation is well and truly finished, i’ll add the basil and let that infuse.

then a week or two to clarify and settle, and bottling, and bottle conditioning!

and then we get to drink it!!

hmmm these carb drops are very lacking in information. the package says 1 per 12oz bottle and 2 per 22oz bomber but no ingredients

the website says each drop is 73% sugar (i assume cane sugar but could be dextrose from corn) and 23% glucose. what is the other 6%?? where is the data???

according to some quick research, less than 3oz of priming sugar would be sufficient to bottle condition, but i don’t have a second bucket for racking and portioning out 52 portions of priming solution seems like it would suck……

maybe it’s time to invest in another bucket!

or maybe i just take the plunge with the carb drops since i already paid for them… maybe do a few test ones to start with?

god dang what a beautiful color

it is not at all clear in the glass however so we will be waiting quite some time to bottle

i also neglected to take a gravity reading immediately after adding the peaches so… idrk where the alcohol is at or will end up. but somewhere between 5 and 6% would be my estimate

got our beer racked over to a fresh new clean bucket tonight using the autosiphon i picked up. what a handy dandy gadget! minimal spillage and splashing and only one or two big bubbles up through the transferred beer, which hopefully won’t result in any THP formation or other off flavors. lagering can work some of those out anyway. we did also see a fair bit of sediment come through the siphon, but the majority stayed in the ferm bucket.

gravity seems to have stabilized in the 1.012-1.013 range, so i’m comfortable saying that fermentation is over and it’s time to lager. est ABV is between 5 and 6%, probably closer to 6.

tastewise, the beer is on the maltier side with a nice touch of sweetness from the peaches. i quite like it and my three sample tasters have said it’s good. i also chucked in two bunches of dry thai basil in tea bags to infuse, which will hopefully add some nice herbaceousness. fingers crossed!

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got bottled up today! mixed up some priming sugar, added that to the original fermenter, and then racked the beer over again (after cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment of course).

a very gentle mix with a whisk and we were off to the races!

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unfortunately about half my bottles were the wrong shape for my capper, but KP had given me several of these aldi lemonade swing top bottles which came in very handy.

ended up filling 31 12oz bottles, 1 pint bottle, and 6 25oz swingtops, which was about an 84% yield. not bad!

the glass i poured is mostly the dregs out of the bucket so it’s not the clearest but you can see the color pretty well.

i have stationed the bottles in the shower for conditioning because that’s gonna be the easiest spot to clean if they go pop.

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