2 hour brew,part 2

Okay, the schwartzbier seems to be coming along just fine, so I want to try another 2 hour brew.

Start time, 11:00 am

fermenter is already filled with sanitizer

about a gallon of water heating on the stove to make dissolving the malt extract easier

starter is made, yeast looks very good

oats go into cool oven to toast as it preheats to 350F



The recipe:

Toasted Oatmeal Stout

#1 toasted oats

12 ounces chocolate rye

8 ounces 90L US crystal

12 ounces dehusked carafa 1

4 ounces roasted barley

4 ounces mild ale malt



#6-6 ounces Munton's amber malt extract

After I mixed the extract into the gallon of hot water on the stove @11:12, stirred well with spatula, then I started topping off to boil volume with quarts of H2O that I had heating up for 3 minutes in the microwave. That should get everything up to a boil quicker. Oats toasted to a golden color in about 20 minutes. Don't forget them! As soon as you can smell them, it's time to stir or take them out.



11:36 Boil! Set timer for 1 hour

Hops:

1-1/2 ounces E. Kent Golding pellets, 5.5% AAU @ 60 minutes

1-1/2 ounces E Kent Golding pellets, @20 minutes



12:15 am rinse out funnel, cup, strainer, fermenter Add wort chiller to boil. Add 20 minute hop addition



12:39 Boil is done; wort chiller hooked up. Grain bag is in the middle of the chiller.

1:05 Pitched and covered @ 72F



Because the oatmeal grain blend was bigger than most recipes, it really filled the funnel/strainer. Luckily I had the better part of a suitcase of water, so I was able to use that to rinse the grain bag. Did that, then topped it off with tap water.
Okay, a little more than 2 hours, but not bad. done!

No stout for St. Patrick's day....

It's my Sunday brewday, and today's homebrew is an oatmeal stout. I'm doing pretty good on my efficiency so instead of a regular dry stout, I've got a foreign export stout. With oats. But not a lot so I don't think that will change the beer and cause me to label it that way. Got a little crazy with the grain & hops, so for better or worse, here's the recipe:

Munton's 2 row, chocolate, black, roasted barley, crystal 60, dark wheat, US 6 row, oats, Munich, Target, UK Goldings, Challenger, Northdown and W. Yorkshire ale yeast. Whew....not my usual recipe, but I had a odd assortment of grain and hops to use up, so there it is. Too bad it won't be ready for St. Patty's but a nice stout in April will still be just fine.

Headslapper of the day (so far, but it's still early): Russert talking to Doris Kearns Goodwin and Maureen Dowd: "so who could have predicted 9-11?" And NOBODY corrects him!!!!!!!!!! WTF? Yo, Punkin' Head, have you ever heard of the August 6 pdb, Osama Bin Laden determined to attack the US? Maybe Rudy Giuliani, since the World Trade Towers had already been attacked, maybe he had a guess about that. Why don't you ask him? Although, since he had his emergency ops in the WTC, maybe not..............

I bottled my witbier this week. Did a little bottling day tinkering with it. It's very good, but maybe too clear. Very low final gravity, had to check it twice: 1.008 Nice delicate orange nose, very crisp and dry. I liked it quite a bit.

Now for something I haven't done here before. A beer tasting. A good friend was in Long Island and brought me back some Uerige Altbier. Just the regular, not the sticke or dubbelsticke. Which I've had and didn't really think much of. I like to brew/drink Dusseldorf style altbier and I've won a lot of ribbons for it, but other than a Diebels once, I've never had the real thing. So I'll think I'll open one up and taste it with an eye towards brewing one....

It's 4.5% alc/vol and a light/medium copper color. So, don't think you'd want to go over 1.048 OG. The color suggests a fair amount of Munich malt. The bottle says: wasser, Gerstenmalz, Caramelmalz, Rostmalz, Dolenhopfen, Uerige-hefe. So looks a little translation is necessary. I think that a blend of Munich/Pilsner malt, a fair bit of cara-red, maybe an ounce of carafa (the rostmalz) would get you there. It smells a bit long in the tooth, somewhat oxidized, but there is no hop aroma to speak of. Maltiness dominates the nose. There is just a bit of residual bitterness, more hop flavor in the mouth while I drink. So don't think I'd want to go over 40-45 IBU's. Of course, the color will be darkened by a decoction so I might instead go with a light Munich/pilsner/cara-hell/pinch of carafa blend and then do a 20 minute decoction for the extra intensity of maltiness/copper color. This is a tasty beer and I bet it goes down amazingly smooth in Dusseldorf. Gotta get there.......................