Brew # 7 is Ash-hole Hop stout Labor Day

Hi All,
Next Monday will be Labor Day, Sept 7th. I actually have a day off from work, so why not spend it brewing beer. Brew #7 the Ash-hole hop stout is officially set for this date, first boil set for 2pm. Hope you can all make it. We will also be filming more scenes for the premiere episode of the brewing show, name yet to be determined. It will cover the brewing process etc.

Bourbon Drunken Irishman

The Champagne yeast seemed to start fermenting but didn't do much. I threw in the oak char from Buffalo trace casks that were soaked in bourbon. Let that sit for a week or so and finally decided to bottle/keg it. When sucking it out of the secondary the cloth that was holding the charred wood chips was sucked into the sucker and ripped open, spilling the chips all over the beer. I also measured a FG of 1.027, or about 9% alcohol BEFORE adding all the bourbon. With that I added some water to bring it down to about 1.020 and produce more product.

At the same time I figured that since the conditions in the beer were too crazy for the yeast to survive, I wouldn't be able to bottle condition it. I decided to keg it and use the keg to carbonate it, then bottle half of it from the keg after it was carbonated, a new experiment. I filtered it through a mesh screen as I poured it into the keg to remove all the oak chips, but lots of very small cloudy particulate got in, giving it a cloudy and charred wood taste. Which I also tasted it, its got a shitton of alcohol, lots of bourbon and charred wood, still pretty sweet, a strong ale like taste, I can't get much rye yet, but it tastes great! Can't wait to try it when it's carbonated tomorrow. I'm estimating that the total alcohol is around 11-12% or so. It's pretty crazy!

Brew # 7?

Perhaps brew #7 will be shortly. I'm looking at Labor day, Monday Sept 6th or possibly this coming weekend (this weekend would be tough). The beer will be called Ash-hole Hop Stout. Its basically an Imperial Oatmeal stout. I'm trying to keep the alcohol down a bit in this one, starting the SG at 1.060, with a couple pounds of oats, plenty of roasted and chocolate malts, and lots of hops at 73IBUs. Bittering hops are Warrior and Columbus, and dry hopped with more Warrior, and Irish Ale yeast to give it a dry, slightly fruity and stouty quality. More details will be posted when they are known.

Bourbon Drunken Irishman

The fermentation had completely stopped for the Scottish ale yeast in the primary, so I moved it to the secondary. And just as I thought, there is too much alcohol and too high a starting gravity for the Scottish Ale yeast to completely ferment. It finished at 1.030 already at 8.5% alcohol and a little more to go. So I added some Champagne yeast and that seems to be fermenting its way towards the finish. If I can catch it in time I will stop it around 1.018 and leave it with a touch of sweetness. The final est alc would be about 10.25% (before adding the bourbon soaked oak chips, which already started). Can't wait to try it.

Brew Updates

Updates on the last two brews and general news.

Info: I did a full cleaning of the brewery last week and it looked great when we brewed on Saturday. My sister Jen also unveiled the Black and White version of the new RMB logo, it looks awesome! I can't wait to get the color and post it. She also showed a couple concepts of Angry Ogre vs Warrior, and Mostquito Trapped in Amber.

Brew #5: was the Mosquito Trapped in Amber was put into the keg for the BrewBQ this weekend. It weighed out at 1.011 grav giving it an alcohol of about 7.6%, another big one. I'm all about the big beers btw. It went over well for the guests at the BrewBQ. Still needs a little more carbonation though.

Brew#6: Bourbon Drunken Irishman went well despite the hosting duties I did (with thanks to Andy for cooking, and Pemmet and Danielle for some brewing help). At first there wasn't enough water to cover the massive grain bill, so I had to add more, and it ended up mashing at 158 deg F, which is higher than normal for me, but many other brewers use this temp.

There were two issues at hand, first the yeast starter didn't seem to take, I'm not sure if I got a bad yeast package or what but if it doesn't start fermenting by tonight I'll have to pickup another package tomorrow.

The other issue is the same continuing one of low yield. Ended up with 3.5 gallons again and I'm sure I started the boil with around 5.5 gallons. This makes me believe that I have to cover the boil and only remove the cover after adding hops since it boils up with the hops. I'll try a simple beer next time and see if I can get a good yield out of it. Since i already got a good gravity of 1.096 to the expected 1.095 I'm not going to add water and sugar and throw off this and the flavor. Instead I'll have a smaller batch and if it's good I'll do it again next time with a bigger yield.

Depending on how the yeast situation goes I'm planning to soak some oak chips in bourbon and throw them into the secondary. Not sure which bourbon to use yet, probably a Four Roses since they have a high rye bill and I have a bunch of their bourbons (and its delicious).

Next brew will probably be an Octoberfest that I can use to see if i can get a better yield. Date TBD.

Brew #6 Bourbon Drunk Irishman date set, Brew #5 updates

So brew #6 will be called "Bourbon Drunk Irishman", it starts with an Irish Red ale, the adding 15% rye, upping the malts to bring it to 1.095 or so SG, and adding a Scottish ale yeast to kill the high gravity, then adding bourbon soaked oak chips to top it off. A crazy beer. The date is set for next Saturday, August 8th at 2pm, accompanied by a big BBQ.

I will also be putting the Brew #5 Mosquito Stuck in Amber into the secondary tomorrow and kegging it Friday night hopefully. At the same time I will do a full cleaning of the brewery.