I finally got around to bottling my oatmeal stout this week. Because I have been sick and still don’t have a lot of energy, I split the bottling work between two days (one half-batch per day). Continue reading
Bottled – Oatmeal Stout
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New Supplies Ordered
Yesterday I ordered supplies for version 2 of my Gimp Biscuit ESB. I made some major revisions to the original (which I liked a lot but was quite a bit off-style). Following recommendations from Ray Daniels Designing Great Beers (as well as feedback from my own taste buds), I wanted to make this beer: Continue reading
A Very Beery Christmas
It was a very Beery Christmas at our house. I received a lot of beer- and brewing-related gifts: a gift card to Midwest Homebrew, enough to pay for the ingredients for the next iteration of my Gimp Biscuit ESB; carboy covers complete with “Shh. I am Fermenting” embroidery; carboy draining and storage racks; a membership in the American Homebrewers Association, complete with a subscription to their monthly magazine Zymergy; a Christmas Story pint glass; a rare Belgian made with “wild” yeast. Thanks to wife Olivia, mother Marsha, brother Matt, and inlaws Don and Carolyn for supporting my addiction, er, hobby. Continue reading
Mash Paddle
The Oatmeal Stout brew also gave me a chance to try out my new maple mash paddle, which was a birthday gift from my in-laws (thanks again to Don and Carolyn). It worked much better than the long-handled plastic spoon I’ve been using, with less stress on my wrist and much less incidents of dough-balls and hot spots. I highly recommend!
Brewday with Pics – Oatmeal Stout 12/5/11
Today I brewed my Ghostly Juror Oatmeal Stout. The brew went very well. I missed the mash-in about a degree and a half on the low side (meaning the beer will end up a little boozy). But I hit my target gravities and volumes dead-on. Continue reading
Brewing Order Has Arrived
My Black Friday brewing supplies order has arrived! If all goes as planned, I should be able to brew my Ghostly Juror Oatmeal Stout on Monday.
Equipment and Supplies Order
Did a little Black Friday shopping from home (er, in-laws home). Finally pulled together an order for two brews and a bunch of equipment I’ve been coveting. Here’s my shopping list:
- ingredients for my Ghostly Juror Oatmeal Stout recipe
- ingredients for my IPA, with tentative name of Hoppy Gnome
- a Barley Crusher grain mill
- tubing and hardware for racking and aerating chilled wort out of the kettle into the fermenter
- a digital thermometer (finally!)
Bottled – Bavarian Dunkel
I finally got around to bottling the Bavarian Dunkel. Looks great, clear as a bell, and tastes fantastic too (which is, of course, far more important). Got a pretty good yield out of it, too, just shy of five gallons total. I finally feel like I’m getting my system dialed in.
IPA Recipe
I’ve also been hard at work on a new IPA recipe. I’m using Austin Homebrew’s clone of Green Flash’s West Coast IPA as a starting point. I made that once before, and it was fantastic. Overall, I’d like mine to be more citrusy, less grassy, and in less harsh on the back end (pretty sure that was the Columbus bittering hops in our hard water). Here’s where I’m at: Continue reading
Oatmeal Stout Recipe
I’ve been working on a new recipe for an oatmeal stout. I’m starting fresh on this one, basing it completely on the info in Designing Great Beers.
Here’s where I’m at with the recipe: