Feeling the growl again
This one was batch 30. I brewed it on President's Day, 2012. I had one bottle left and decided to drink it yesterday, on President's Day 5 years later. Age did not hurt it one bit.
Awesome.
Not beer, but I made a bit of an investment in my winemaking. A small winery a couple hours from here decided they no longer needed their stemmer/crusher. So I dropped a grand on it and brought it home. No more manually stomping grapes and hand extracting the stems for me!!! All stainless steel and 220V driven.
"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
Good Bad & The Monkey
#neverforget
The cooked oatmeal, ready to go The grain selection Focus on the chocolate malt Grinder setup, with a load of grain to grind Heating the water for the mash Pot of grains, including the pale malts and the cooked oatmeal Let the mash begin! Steeping the roasted malts and grains on the left, mashing on the right An early check of the specific gravity Draining the wort from the mash. Look at that inky blackness Close in on the wort, right before adding the molasses After the sparge, heating for the protein break 60 minutes of hopping with the Cascade and Golden 30 minutes of hopping with the Hallertau A final check on the specific gravity predicts up to 7-8% alcohol in this heady brew My house smells delicious!!
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Prince of Fatness
I certainly haven't forgotten how tasty that was. 7 years. Wow.
Not at it at all.
I've been slacking. Time to brew again. The beer quoted is drinking well so I want to do another big beer SMaSH. I am taking this coming Monday off and will brew then. The process will be the same as above with a change in ingredients. Malt will be Light Munich. Hops, German Tradition (3oz). Yeast, Wyeast German Ale (1007). I pitched a starter last night. I expect this to be a malt bomb, an Alt on steroids.
I've been slacking. Time to brew again. The beer quoted is drinking well so I want to do another big beer SMaSH. I am taking this coming Monday off and will brew then.
The process will be the same as above with a change in ingredients. Malt will be Light Munich. Hops, German Tradition (3oz). Yeast, Wyeast German Ale (1007). I pitched a starter last night.
I expect this to be a malt bomb, an Alt on steroids.
Bottled this up Friday. Lots of malt but those Tradition hops balanced it out nicely. Really pleased with this one. FG was 1.012 giving me 9.7% ABV.
I still have a few bottles.
That beer ended up being aged in a carboy surrounded by mud after my house was smote by the big landslide in 2010, just a short time after I brewed.
I still have a few bottles. That beer ended up being aged in a carboy surrounded by mud after my house was smote by the big landslide in 2010, just a short time after I brewed.
Just saw the pic recently of when we stopped by and tasted the Mud Aged Stout. I do recall it was very, very tasty.
Question for the pepper experts.
I will soon be brewing a mole stout. I will be using cocao, cinnamon, vanilla, and habanero peppers. This will be an 11 quart batch. My plan with all of these spices is to steep them in hot water for a couple of hours then adding the mix in at flameout, allowing them to steep even longer. I will half the peppers prior to steeping them.
So I am looking for feedback on how many peppers. I bought two habaneros. Is that going to make the beer too hot? I'm looking for moderate heat.
Short answer: there is no way to know.
I have heard of people using 2 habaneros for 5 gal. I have heard of people using 1. I have heard of people using a handful. Alcohol concentration can influence this as well.
Also, extraction is better with dried peppers.
Also, no reason to pre-hydrate. Just dump it in.
Also, don't add anything until after fermentation is complete. You can get some off flavors and can lose some of the adjunct character if you add prior to or during fermentation. Beers are always aged on these adjuncts, not fermented with them.
Adding: IWDT.
Not looking for an argument but this is contrary to my experience. I've always added adjuncts (and hops) at flameout and am really pleased with the results that I get. My theory is that because I take my time chilling the wort the adjuncts get a fair amount of steeping time. Pre-steeping is just something that I thought of doing as an experiment, just to see what would happen if I extended the steeping time. Anyway, in the spirit of sticking to what works for me, that's what I'll do.
Likely I will go with the two peppers, split in half. I was debating between one and two. While that may make it hotter than I would like, I've read nothing that says that this amount would make it undrinkable. In the end, it's just a batch of beer.
And of course when the time comes I'll send you a bottle and let you be the judge.
I mean specifically for a mole stout.
Not looking for an argument but this is contrary to my experience. I've always added adjuncts (and hops) at flameout and am really pleased with the results that I get.
I believe you have tasted a bottle of the version I did.
OK, that's fair. Still, I'm comfortable with my method and in researching it has been done that way with good results so for this exercise that's what I'll do.
Your dry pepper mention is noted, and I have read that roasting the peppers will enhance their effect. I will likely roast the peppers ahead of time.
Yeah, for mine I dried them and lightly roasted them in a toaster oven.
So I'll go with 2 habaneros and will lightly roast them prior to brewing. Brewing tomorrow evening.
Mole Stout
5.5 lbs US 2 Row
1 lb Light Munich
1 lb Flaked Barley
6 oz Roasted Barley
6 oz Chocolate Malt
6 oz CaraFoam
6 oz CaraMunich II
6 oz Blackstrap Molasses (oz by weight, add with 10 minutes left in the boil.
1 scoop coffee also added to the mash
1 oz Northern Brewer (~10% AA) hops (60 minutes)
Adjuncts (all pre-steeped then added at flame out)
2 oz cocao nibs
3 - 4 cinnamon sticks, broken up
2 vanilla beans, slit open
2 habanero peppers, lightly roasted and halved
SafeAle US-05 dry yeast
Mash 152 for 60 minutes. Boil for 60 minutes. Chill and pitch yeast. Primary for ~4 weeks then bottle.