Sealed in steel

The St. Patrick's Day Stout is primed and kegged. It is a nice, light drink, with a final gravity of 1.010 or 2.5 ºP. I expect the abv to be about 4%. That should make it eminently quaffable. I enjoy a full-flavored beer that is low in alcohol because I get to drink a lot more of it in one sitting!

a.d. IX Kal. Mar.

Racking the stout

Racking means moving the beer. In this case, fermentation is over and I want to get the stout off the yeast sludge (trub) at the bottom of the carboy. Yeast starts to feed on itself (autolysis) after it is done feeding on the wort, so it helps the flavor to get the new beer into a fresh vessel. I happen to have a lovely Better Bottle carboy (with valve) for this very purpose. Today I moved the stout from the primary fermenter. It will be ready for the keg this weekend.

a.d. XV Kal. Mar.

Stupor Bowl Stout

I made beer today, and managed to catch a little of the 2nd half of the Stupid Bowl. I have to admit that I was rooting for New Orleans. I'm proud of the fact that I watched NOT ONE SINGLE FOOKIN' COMMERCIAL. A television event that celebrates advertising is not one I can get excited about. Football is pretty dull stuff--I can handle about two games or so per year. It was a relatively warm and sunny day here in the State of Jefferson. I put together a very simple dry stout for St. Patrick's Day. I used only 9 lbs. of Pilsner malt and 1 lb. of specialty malts (1/2 black malt, 1/4 Carafa 2--German chocolate, 1/4 roasted barley). I infused the grist with 175 ºF liquor (10 quarts) and the mash settled in at 152 ºF. I have some high-alpha (14-15 %) whole Belgian Admiral hops, and it only takes a half ounce to to get 30 IBU with a 60 minute boil. The yield was just short of 5 gallons with an OG of 1.040 (10 ºPlato). I pitched a package of dry Safale US-05 right on top. It was an easy brew day and everything went smoothly. I'll probably rack the beer to another carboy later this week as the Safale strains are pretty fast-acting. Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in only SEVEN DAYS!!

a.d. VII Id. Feb.