Ash-hole Hop Stout Finished

Ash-hole hop stout is now in the keggerator, and has been for about a week now. It finished with a FG of 1.013, giving it an abv of 4.2%. It's a pretty low alc but thick taste. It's extremely dark and stout like, some oatmeal taste, but all that is overpowered by the huge hop taste. The nice bitterness of the Warrior hops, and a strong cascade fresh hop taste with some hop spiciness. I think the dry hop may have been a little too much for this one to redo next time.

On a side note, I also put 1.5L of the beer into my little whisky cask to season the cask and that came out with a HUUUUUUUGE whisky and oak overtones. I bottled that yesterday after 2 weeks in the mini cask. I got about 5 bottles that will make an interesting beer.

Ash-hole Hop Stout

So the brew went off pretty well. I tried two new things for water control. First I added an extra gallon to the sparge process, then added another gallon to the boil and ended up with almost 6 gallons, and much lower SG than expected at 1.045 (expected 1.060). Next time I'll try just the extra gallon at sparge.

It's still very dark and ominous looking, and should be pretty good. We almost had an issue with the yeast, as the yeast bag didn't inflate, and the starter didn't really catch until a couple days later. I ended up throwing the yeast in on Wednesday morning after it finally started taking. It seems to be fermenting up well now.

The other small mistake was a little carelessness on my part, when I measured out 2 oz of Warrior hops, and I was supposed to had .5 oz at 30 min, and .5 oz at 5 min, then dry hop with the other oz. Instead I added 1 oz at each step, and I'll still dry hop. This thing is going to be a hop monster!

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.

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.