Author: stoutmaker

Start of the Weekend

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Coming up on Memorial day, so we I got a four day weekend coming up. We are totaly unprepared as usual. Gots almost no beer kegged. All I have is about 2 pints of the Cream Ale left. But the stout is ready to be kegged. I hopefully will be doing that tonight, after going to get a load of firewood for the weekend. Because its a stout means a couple good things. It wont have to be super carbed,, and I will prolly be the only one drinking it. I do have a bit of the Old Republic left, but saving that for our next Rackers meeting.
 
Seeing that I have that 4 day er, I better brew something. So Friday I am going to brew a beer that I havent brewed in quite a while, and even then it was an extract. Woot!zenbock. I bumped it up to a 5 gallon batch,, but will need to partial mash it because my mash tun is only a 5 gallon. I also changed the recipe a bit, because back then I had no idea what a bock beer was supposed to be like, so now I know and that recipe seems to be off just a bit.  The only dark grains were a bit of special B, so I added a bit more of chocolate malt to color it.
Still have to get going on more Crop Circles. Possibly Saturday. Need to get er up and going so its ready for the 4th. Shouldn't be a problem though.
Thats what on the ready. Will post the full recipe on the Friday brew day

Back to the Beginings

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After sitting and looking at all this stuff we got , and have had growning, I got a little pissed at my self for not fermenting it. Sheesh when we were kids we made wine outta everything we could find. Apples, pears, rice … Now I'm sitting here looking at rhubarb, red currents, and never thought about using them. Well maybe my currants, but those are going into a wheat beer later on.
 
I think I get asked about 5 times a day this time of year if I want any rhubarb, and always say no. But this year I'm gonna take all I can get. I havent made rhubarb wine in quite a while, but I'm guessing I'm gonna use the same basic procedure, but this time I have better equipment.
 
Here is what I plan on doing. 3 gallon batches. 
-chop and Freeze my rhubarb. thinkin maybe 7-8-9 lbs. (estimating)
-thaw it out and put into bucket dump about 4 lbs sugar on it and let sit in a cool spot for 2 days (maybe brown sugar)
-heat up 3 1/2 water. (Hot, not boiling) again estimating. and dump over the rhubarb and sugar mixture that is prolly looking all soupy by now.
-strain all that out. cool,  and put into fermenter with oh I dunno, a cup of rasins and a cut up lemon and wine yeast.
-secondary
-bottle, Gonna use bombers
 
Ah yea. just like the good old days,, but better. Gotta get home and make some space for this

On the Move, Crop Circles

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Got a text about @jcparsons3 cooking up a batch today. The rain was starting to move in so I took off to sit in during his brew.
He was originally going to help another guy brew a Scottish 60, but the guy couldnt make it, so he decided he had enough stuff to make an ESB.

Another one of the Rackers Tim was there with some Some Lagunitas beers to sample. Gotta admit, for a over the top hop beer, they were good. They were the Hop Stoopid, and WTF. Not so sure I would buy the Hop Stoopid, but the WTF was something I could buy again.

Well anyway, we were talking about sour beer. I I have been thinking of trying a slightly soured stout for a while. From the sounds of it, it seems to be pretty damn easy. And something that I may try to pull off sometime fairly soon.
I’m not looking for a pucker up sour kinda thing (but I’d be ok with that if I did) but something like the newest version of Guinness draught in the bottle. Not sure how it is when its in the can yet, but in the bottles its totally different lately. Got a bit more tang to it.
Thats all i want. Just a hint of sour. But I gotta admit that from everything I have read so far on souring, the general feel that i get is that it sounds easy,, but is hard to gauge the level of sour power. But I still wanna give it a shot.

Lastly, My latest version of Crop Circles (found in the 2011 recipes section) is now the final version. As I believe it is now what I was looking for. I made this beer for my brother in law who only drinks Bud, and he has requested more, so if he thinks its good, then its finalized.