Category: homebrewing

Sweet Stout. The pre-game.

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My philosophy in brewing has always been to keep it as simple as possible. Roughly keeping to processes, ingredients and theories of the 17-18-1900s.
But admittedly, I am still in the dark regarding quite a few styles. Why did they brew it? Why did they use what they used? How has it changed today?

The list is pretty long, but I recently have changed my mind regarding Sweet Stout. I had always been under the impression that this style was a relatively modern style, and the use of its signature milk sugar was just a gimmick in todays brewing.
I there for had refused to brew one , much less research it. (didn’t stop me from drinking them though. I thought I would throw that in)

Was I wrong. There is a long history of not just the Sweet stout, but the milk sugar use in general. There have been documents mentioning the use of milk and/or milk sugar as far back as the late 1700s. More so in the 1800s when the fortifying of beers for workers was very common place. And there is even stories of doctors of the early 1900s prescribing Milk stouts for certain ailments!

While today we don’t use lactose to keep workers healthy, we do still use it. And in more or less, the same way. And get more or less the same results. Heavier body. Sweeter taste.

So, in finding the long history of Milk sugars in brewing, I have changed my mind. And have decided to forge ahead and brew my first Sweet stout. 
I have a pretty good idea of what I want it to taste like, and an understanding of how the sweet should play and effect the roast of a stout. So I came up with this recipe this morning.

Un-named Sweet Stout  5 gallons
8 lbs 2 row
.5 lb choc malt (450L)
.5 lb Black Patent
.5 ib roast barley
1 lb Lactose
1.5 oz Goldings (60)
Nottingham yeast.  156 mash.

It is my guess that if I just added the lactose to a stout recipe you would probably end up far too sweet. But if you were to make the stout far more roastier, the extra sweet and the extra roast will sorta mellow each other out. Well that’s what I’m hoping.
And I have learned that it’s better to have a little too much roast than not enough. After all, it’s a stout. 

I will be brewing this this week and will check back in then with the progress.




Change?

stoutmakerLeave a comment
Most of you out there that I have brewed with, or even just talked with, know that I have been brewing a while. And that I like doing things in an old fashion sort of way.
In fact, my brewery set up is virtually exactly the same as it was 15 years ago. And for the most part, the exact same equipment. 

I like my process, I make good beer. Why change? 
I don’t wanna have some automated system where I just push a button and I walk away. I don’t need fancy lights to try to impress people. Hell, if I could build a fire driven kettle I would.
But when I can use my same hands on process with modern tech, I’ll take a look.

Slightly out of necessity I began to look at electric brewing. Seems to be the rage now days. Indoors, quiet, way cheaper. And most important to me, I don’t have to change my style. Just use electric elements instead of propane to heat and boil with.
Well sure I could add pids and pods and lights and buzzers. But I don’t need that.

So Since I have been forging ahead and moving most things I brew to 3 gallon batches, I decided to go ahead and make an electric kettle. 
Aside from cooling, everything can be done exactly as before. Heat mash water, mash, boil. Nothing changed except now I plug in my heat source, instead of turning up a flame.

And then Biab caught my eye. Brew in a bag. Mash and boil in the same pot.
Skeptical? Hell yes I was. But when you see it done, and look at it objectively, you come to realize that it really is the same thing I am doing right now.

I’m heating the same exact amount of water, to mash the same amount of grain, for the same amount of time, to get the same amount of wort, that’s boiled for the same amount of time, that makes the same amount of beer. Except I have less equipment and do far less work.

Cant beat that. 

Everytime I look at my regular sized batch equipment now I wonder why I still use my old technique.
Baby steps. Cant just up and abandon tradition and habit.
Not just yet. 

Iron Porter – homegrown edition

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Iron Porter

A couple weeks ago I came up with this recipe for the kind of porter that you just cannot find any more. 
But I took that recipe and substituted in my own homegrown Mt Hood hops. 
Not really knowing the IBU, I planned for the highest alpha, but if they were even as low as half of what they should be they would fit in nice with the porter style
You really need some sort of bag when using whole hops or they tend to plug things up. 
Iron Porter – homegrown 
9 lbs 2 row
12 choc malt
4 oz black patent
1 oz roast barley
8 oz crystal 80
2.5 oz dried Mt Hood @ 60
2.5 oz dried Mt Hood @ 10
Mashed at 152
05 yeast
** skip ahead to bottling day**
OG of .058
FG of .010
Had to hold my self back from drinking to much if this right from bottling bucket. Once carbed  this is gonna be one great beer. I think I hit it right where I wanted it. Slight roasty and just the right sweet. The IBU seems in the mid range of the style. 
But we will see once it’s fully ready