I've been planning to brew a beer with spruce tips and did some research to decide how to go about doing it. The gold standard in spruce tip syrup making is half a glass jar of tightly packed fresh spruce tips with the top half of the jar full of white sugar. This goes on a south-facing window and the sun supposedly melts the sugar and as it runs down, it captures the taste and healthiness from the spruce tips better than any other method.

Looked up the melting temperature of pure white sugar: 160 °C. Got a bit doubtful of the aforementioned method (wife has also tried and failed). So my plan would be to pack the tips and sugar on top in a tall kettle and melt the sugar in the oven. Tips go in a mesh insert, so after the sugar has melted, I could pour hot water into the kettle, dissolve the sugar in the water and lift out the mesh insert with the tips.

Today was the time to act it out. Spruce tips from the back yard, 1 kg of sugar. In the oven set at 160 °C, and yes indeed, sugar melts and the aroma from the spruce tips is amazing and appetising!

The beer has 4,75 kg of Viking Sahti malt mix, 1 kg Viking wheat malt, 1 kg Viking Munich Light and 250 g Simpsons Premium English Caramalt in a 19 liter mash. For hops I used Challenger from the start of the boil and some Simcoe for the last 20 minutes. It all came together to make a lovely pale brew.

The spruce component ended up as 2 litres of surprisingly dark green-brown liquid. I made sure all sugar was dissolved and dunked it into the fermenter first, followed by the wort. Both were filtered with reusable coffee filters.

My last doubt was that the spruce tips might contain stuff that would kill the yeast, so I made a starter with some of the spruce-sugar liquid. Sure enough, it got on bubbling like a champ!

The front shock absorber on my Vespa GTS 250 has been dying fast since the season started. A new one is on its way. I'll stay with the Carbone Sport but the replacement is going to have a black spring instead of red.

Looks like the shock comes with a tool for rotating the bit at the bottom that sets preload for the spring. As seen in the pic, the previous owner (bless the guy - the bike is customised with great execution) opted to tighten it a notch. I love the feel as it is, so I'll need to adjust the new one to the same notch.

Now, the tool is not very long, and I'd imagine it'll be hard work to work against the spring with little leverage. Does anybody know how stiff is it going to be - can I expect to be able to set the preload after installation with the provided tool, or should I do it beforehand when I can put the shock in a vise and use a more substantial tool?

I've been chasing more maltiness with this recipe and it's now getting to be in the ballpark of a couple of favourites - Plevna Dry Stout and Sinebrychoff Porter. This 21 l run had 6,7 kg of malt of which 500 g was 1300 EBC Black Malt and 1 kg was 400 EBC Chocolate Light from Viking Malt. The chocolate in particular is a great find with strong and unique taste.

Active malts in the mix are 1085 g leftovers of Simpsons Maris Otter Pale and Viking Sahti malt for the rest. 75 g Challenger and 15 g Citra hops for the duration of the boil. The recipe calls for 90 g of bitterness and of course I forgot to buy hops, so I had to fill in with the Citra.

Yeast was the Sahti standard fresh yeast, so I can call this a sahti-stout. Friendly, smooth mouthfeel as it always delivers. Next go at the recipe will need a new moniker though, as I want to try Alzymologist's malty lager critters :)

SOLVED: I was stupid. One litre less water in the kettle meant my temperature probe wasn't touching the water and strike temperature ended up being higher than intended, which obviously obliterated the enzymes and no sugar was produced.

First total failure of my homebrew journey, and I have no idea why... I was really looking forward to this brew, a pitch-black stout with smoked wheat, chocolate malt and black malt. For yeast, I was anticipating to try Alzymologist's speciality.

However, it's been four days in the fermenter and I've pitched three yeasts – first the Alzymologist (made a starter), then my usual fresh yeast without a starter and for the last desperate attempt some dry wine yeast – I can only come to the conclusion that my wort is poison. Not a sliver of CO2 has been produced. First yeast did produce heat in the wort for a day, but no CO2. Tried heating the wort, agitating and all, but it remains dead.

Some little changes in my process were made – 18 liters instead of 19 for mashing so that I could fit 900 grams extra malt in, and strike temperature up by one degree to 72 °C due to less water and more grain. Tomorrow evening I'm going to have to dump 20 litres of fine wort down the toilet and plan another brew day. Damn, this loss hits like having to bury a pet...

Sinne meni Ottawan sopimus silppurin ruoaksi. Piirsin tuon grafiikan, kun hekottelin jonkun PV-kuulapään vakuuttelua, että Suomi on VASTUULLINEN MIINOITTAJA. Tilasin eilen koekappaleen paidasta, ja jos toimii, niin kohta näitä saa... Kenties laitan printtiin mukaan QR-koodin, jolla pääsee ihastelemaan Ylen 'Suomi on vastuullinen miinoittaja' -otsikkoa.

Lemmitor @A_[email protected] in this community tipped that if the process serves and luck is on one's side, fermented birch sap can be better than champagne. Right now is the time when sap can be collected, so I'm giving it a shot!

The tree isn't terribly bothered, the tap hole is only a few millimeters deep. I only do one tap per tree.

Plan is to empty these tap bottles off several trees once a day into an intermediate container, use a Campden tablet per container and keep the intermediates in the fridge until I have enough, five liters maybe? Then one liter yeast starter, possibly with some cane sugar to lend a little extra aroma and colour (the sap is clear). Ferment fingers crossed. Serve force carbonated. Wish mi luck :D

... great time to get a brew going :D Yes, Big Brew is getting struck by a week-long strike starting today. Sure enough I hope the workers will get what they are going for. I know what I'll be getting, this is the fourth run of the lemon + ginger recipe and it's guud:D

I'm sharing this mostly to show my malt grind station ideas: making it operable by power drill (hand crank replaced with just a regular bolt) and having a vacuum cleaner positioned where the output falls so that it picks our the lightest dust. Helps with keeping the room clean as well as hopefully makes the beer a bit clearer. The hoover collects a fair bit of dust every run: I weighed it once and now adjust the amount of malt going into the grind up by 2 % to account for the lost dust: 1000 g -> 1020 g.

The Simpsons Maris Otter Pale Ale & caramel malts and the Viking Munich Light will be joined by a small amount of smoked wheat. Viking Malt says that this stuff can be used just like regular pilsner malt, being active and all, but it's going to add a very gentle smoke aroma. I'll be using more of it in my next dark Sahti x Stout batch, but I'll try a little bit on this one to get a feel for it.

Löysitkö kirppikseltä muovikassillisen kynttiläntynkiä ja naureskelitko, että johan on taas joku kirppistä jäteasemana käyttänyt? Sytytätkö usein tulia arjessasi? Tervetuloa tämän vinkin myötä ryhmään 'one man's treasure' :D

Poimi mukaan kynttilät ja samalla joku huono (esim. alumiininen) kattila tai pannu. Sulata kynttilöitä pannussa. Dippaa vanulappuja sulaan steariiniin yksi kerrallaan esim. pinseteillä. Vanulappu imaisee nopeasti itseensä steariinia. Laita jäähtymään sopivalle alustalle. Loput sulat steariinit voi jättää huonoon kattilaan seuraavaa sessiota varten.

Saat todella pitkään palavia sytykelappuja, joita voi myös repiä pienemmäksi. Retkellä neljäsosa lapusta riittää risukeittimen sytyttämiseen, kotona kokonainen lappu sytyttää tulisijan kuin tulisijan. Kannattaa repäistä pieni halkio lappuun, jotta vanulapun kuidut tulevat esiin. Näin lappu syttyy herkemmin.

I've recently developed a taste for Blanc 1664, a lemon lager that's produced in bulk by one of my country's big industrial brewers. I'm also a fan of ginger beers. Here goes an attempt to combine the two on a more robust malty foundation than what the store options offer.

I've brewed successful ginger beers before, but my first attempt with lemon in the mix didn't have nearly enough lemon, and the ginger was too strong. Triple the lemon and half the ginger this time around. Didn't check the pH (I only have a full-scale kit that would leave me none the wiser), remains to be seen how it ferments.

Malts are three parts Simpson's Maris Otter Pale Ale, two parts Viking Munich Light and one part Simpson's Premium English Caramalt. I'm trying fancy Saaz hops for the first time – had to look up a few forum discussions on how it's supposed to be used, and as per popular opinion I put a good dollop of the pellets in at the beginning of the boil alongside a little bit of Challenger. I'm hoping my trampling on traditions and not making a po-faced lager with the stuff isn't going to trigger a flame war :D

Lemons, ginger and a fair bit of Saaz and Amarillo hops went into the smaller kettle in a filter bag. I've done this before – not boiling the 'late addition' hops but instead infusing them like tea, and it seems to work great. The smaller kettle is filled with boiled water and let to sit with the lid on for more than the duration of the boil. When there's 10 minutes of boiling left, I add the infusion into the big kettle and burn vigorously to bring back the boil for the last few minutes.

In the picture with the big kettle on the stove, there's a bit of an innovation handed down to me by the previous owner of my brewing gear: a steel bucket with holes drilled in the bottom. I put my own spin on the idea by sitting the bucket on a smaller steel container. The mashing bag can be left to drip there, and I can also heat some water to my mashing temperature and pour it onto the mash bag to get a little bit more goodness out.

One more thing that I've come to appreciate is a pair of reusable coffee filters. Great for filtering while running the kettle into the Kegmenter. Also great for putting a tea filter bag with hops in and adding yet more hops at the last moment before the wort is laid to rest in the fermentation vessel :)

Sharing just to give this community a little bit of content. This December has been temperamental with snow – we've gone from tons to nothing and back several times. I do prefer it like this, last winter was just tons and that sucked XD

Three of us took to the sticks to make some good food, enjoy some homebrew beer, sleep soundly in the fresh -5 °C conditions and perhaps get up before sunrise to take the shotgun for a walk. Did all that save for the early walk, everyone chose sleep instead :)

Tried cooking with a 'jätkänkynttilä' / log torch for the first time. It was a revelation. A single log that would make four pieces of firewood lasts long enough to cook a whole meal if not two. This was cut from fresh pine that had been felled by wind two weeks earlier. The log torch is going to see a lot more use in our future adventures, for the winter it's perfect!

My sleeping arrangements consist of a self-made monofil / silnylon double layer hammock, an Enlightened Equipment short down underquilt rated for 20 °F ( -6 °C ) and a Carinthia Defence 4 synthetic sleeping bag, I think that promises comforts down to -10 °C. Forgot to pack a tarp, so I had to use my ground cloth in it's place :o) I did also put a string up across some trees and put some pine branches on it to make a windbreak towards the lake.

It's been clearing out at 2,5 °C for over 24 hours already, so I couldn't wait any longer and took a little sampling. And it's a-lovely :D

This is pretty much a classic stout, but with Viking Malt's Sahti malt for the majority of the grist. The void-ness comes from Viking Malt's Black malt (1300 - 1500 EBC). Some leftovers of Tuoppi caramel rye malt and a calculated dose of Simpson's Premium English caramalt also went in. The rye in particular is keen to hijack the taste profile, bringing in the taste of Finnish classic 'kotikalja', a non-fermented malt beverage. That one is kept in it's place, but I do regret not using a bit more of the English caramalt.

The yeast used was the fresh yeast that's a hallmark of the sahti style. It gives a banana-like flavour, and I've found it can be controlled to a great extent by adjusting fermentation temperature. This one was set to 16,5 °C. Around 14 °C the banana aroma tends to get overpowered by fruity hops. Pressurised fermentation at 0,8 bar as always.

I made this batch to use up some leftovers, so I went with a pretty daring dosing of Moutere hop pellets for the first hop addition, followed up towards the end of the boil with Challenger. On this first tasting the Moutere is surprisingly subdued.

Plenty of time to run some xmas bottles for friends and family :) Cheers!