Feeling the growl again
Have you tried the coffee porter yet? You should.
No. I am trying to be better about beer calories.
That, and it seems I rarely spend time in my own house the past few months.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Prince of Fatness
Cripes, why did I stumble into this forum and this thread?
Just lucky I guess.
Not at it at all.
Home from work on a dreary day so I decided to brew. This time it is a Scottish Light and I am trying a little experiment. After the mash I took two quarts of the first runnings and boiled them down to a syrupy consistency. I am most of the way through the boil now and I will add the concoction back in with 10 minutes left. Hoping for about 4% ABV or a little under.
MTA: OG was 1.037, so this should come in between 3.5 and 4% when all is said and done.
Here is a picture of the syrup simmering...
Two quarts boiled down to a little under a pint.....
Home from work on a dreary day so I decided to brew. This time it is a Scottish Light and I am trying a little experiment. After the mash I took two quarts of the first runnings and boiled them down to a syrupy consistency. I am most of the way through the boil now and I will add the concoction back in with 10 minutes left. Hoping for about 4% ABV or a little under. MTA: OG was 1.037, so this should come in between 3.5 and 4% when all is said and done.
Just bottled it. FG was 1.010 giving me an ABV of ~3.6%. Sample definitely was lighter than what I am used to (I was drinking a barleywine when I sampled so there you go). Definitely had that Scottish malty flavor. We'll see in about 3 weeks.
Brewed a batch yesterday. Steeped 1/2 lb. each of Crystal 60L and biscuit malt, added 6 lbs. of Canadian pale male extract. 1 oz. Willamette hops for bittering. 30 minutes into the boil I added a "tea" made from a couple of cups of water and about 4 oz. of elderberries and about 1/2 teaspoon toasted & crushed grains of paradise. Cascade hops added at 45 minutes & and at flameout (0.5 oz. each time), and 1 oz. Tettnang hops also added at flameout. Safbrew T-58 yeast. Into the fermenter at around 3:00 p.m. yesterday. No apparent fermentation action yet, which has me a little concerned.
It's gurgling away now. Phew. Thought I was going to have to repitch another envelope of yeast, which itself is simple enough but the contamination risk from opening the fermenter, etc., had me nervous.
Most of the time mine take off within 12 hours but I have had them take a couple of days on occasion. I have never had one not get going. Don't worry about opening up the fermenter if you need to. Honestly it's pretty hard to infect a batch of beer.
I brewed a small stove top batch yesterday ... A 2 row and Columbus SMaSH. Can't wait to taste it. Patience.
Most of the time mine take off within 12 hours but I have had them take a couple of days on occasion. I have never had one not get going. Don't worry about opening up the fermenter if you need to. Honestly it's pretty hard to infect a batch of beer. I brewed a small stove top batch yesterday ... A 2 row and Columbus SMaSH. Can't wait to taste it. Patience.
I'm just paranoid, I suppose. I've had too many terrible green-apple tasting, bacteria-infected homebrews from my idiot friends. It's really rolling now so I'm not too worried about it any longer. Interested to see how this batch turns out.
I brewed a small stove top batch yesterday ... A 2 row and Columbus SMaSH.
Always good to have a visual.
Tomorrow I will be brewing 5 gallons of an Arrogant Bastard Clone in my garage. I have moved away from cloning beers but this one turned out good last time (very close to AB) I brewed it and I have a half a pound of Chinook hops that I need to use up..
When I brew in my garage I normally have people come over to help and socialize. I provide home brews and others usually bring some craft beer with them. So I will be sampling some good beer I am sure.
Wow. That stuff is tasty. Drinkable, but rich, sweet, heady and loaded with all the flavors that went into it. Black as night with a nearly-spongy chocolate mousse head and a load of ABV that you don't notice going down. I am very happy with this stuff. As were the runner chicks.
Wow. That stuff is tasty. Drinkable, but rich, sweet, heady and loaded with all the flavors that went into it. Black as night with a nearly-spongy chocolate mousse head and a load of ABV that you don't notice going down. I am very happy with this stuff.
As were the runner chicks.
I was fortunate enough to try one of these this past weekend and was as happy with it as these runner chicks.
Bottled my batch last Saturday and of course had a taste. Pretty good! Definitely a Belgian character with some banana and clove notes, which rounded out the very subtle elderberry flavor pretty nicely. Can't wait to try one of these after conditioning/carbonation.
Good to hear. Your plight reminds me of a rye saison that I brewed a couple of years ago. All sorts of problems on brew day. Stuck sparge (and I used rice hulls), issues racking to the fermenting bucket which led to some "unsanitary" recovery procedures (we were tired and had been drinking). It probably took four hours longer than normal to finish. With all of that the beer turned out great.
I took yesterday off from work and brewed an oatmeal stout. I like to brew a couple of batches of beer early in the year and age them for the holidays (already have a old ale bottle conditioning). Pretty simple recipe, Maris Otter, chocolate malt, roasted barley, oat malt, and some quaker quick oats. I also added a pinch of molasses at the end of the boil. I will ferment for four weeks then bottle. So I should get 8 - 9 months of bottle conditioning. It's not a high gravity beer so should be good.
This is my first time using oat malt. I have used quick oats a few times but never the malt. I sampled some of the grains and wow was there a strong oat flavor. Much more so than the quick oats. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
Aged oatmeal stout sounds pretty good.
Curious about why you added the molasses at the end of the boil. My next brew will be a strong ale that will include some sorghum and molasses. I suppose I hadn't thought of when to add those to the boil.