Journal of a Home Brewer

Mocha Stout Now in Bottles!

james3v1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:38:42 +0000

a few guys came over last night and we bottled the Mocha Stout. Put in 9 shots of espresso this time, and used molasses for priming as usual.

A few weeks and we’ll know how it came out. I tasted a little and it has that nice, mocha stout flavor.

Fatbottom is aging nicely–really enjoying it. And the Pumpkin Ale is still undrinable. I guess one bad batch out of 20 or so should be expected.

Countdown to tasting the stout begins….now.

Short Fermentation Update

james3v1 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:29:35 +0000

I finally got around to (with the help of DW) racking the Mocha Stout and the Mead into the secondaries. The Mocah Stout SG came in at 1.039. OG was 1.076. Last batch of the Mocha Stout was OG=1.055/FG=1.014. This is a higher gravity stout than the last one, some of which can be accounted for in the addition of the lactose, but not all of it. It was a different brand of LME. The color is still beautiful and dark. Did not taste, but will at bottling. Of course it still has molasses and espresso to come in.

The mead weighed in at 1.002. It’s probably done fermenting, but I’m going to give it a few months in the secondary anyway. I don’t want another batch of sparkling mead if I can help it.

I’ll probably bottle the stout during Thanksgiving weekend and schedule the next brew night for mid december to try it out.

Bad News on the Pumpkin Ale Front

james3v1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:30:09 +0000

I’ve opened three separate bottles of the pumpkin ale so far, and they’ve all turned out to be volcanic in the carbonation end. Maybe I’ll post a video of one of them, but I’m not optimistic about getting to drink any of it. That means both the fall beers that I tried to make from the BYO recipes didn’t come out very well for me. I’m sure it’s not the recipe, but it’s a bummer anyway.

Mocha Stout–Brew Night Report

james3v1 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:26:53 +0000

3 gallons distilled water, 1 1/2 tsp. gypsum

Warm to 100 degrees, steep the 4# of crushed grains. Leave at 150F for 20 minutes. Heat to 200, pull grains.

Bring to boil.

Add 6.6# LME and 1# Lactose, 8oz of cocoa.

Bring back to boil.

After 10 minutes, add hops. At 50 minutes, add finishing hops.

It looks really beautiful in the carboy. OG, 1.076. mmmm. Note: there were two issues I’m concerned about here. one was a little spillage at the straining stage that caused me not to top off completely to 5 gal. That may account for the higher OG than last time. Second, the yeast activator wouldn’t activate, so I mixed in the whole thing and the activator, and added some dry yeast as backup. We’ll see what that does, and I’ll get the other packet out earlier for the next batch.

**Bottled the Pumpkin Ale. Fg was 1.010, and the mead is currently at 1.006. I did not rack it into the secondary though.

We had a good time tonight. The Lord Fatbottom is carbonating, and we tasted two bottles but it’ll age even better. Yield on the pumpkin ale was 34 bottles plus a really big ez cap bottle.

More later as the Mocha Stout ferments.

Updates

james3v1 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:18:26 +0000

I added a new page to the blog, “On Deck” which lists what’s in the fermenters and bottles that is not ready to drink yet, and what’s coming up. You can follow the fermentation of the current batches there. It’ll be a little easier to manage having a third secondary now.

Tonight is brew night. Come on over. We’re brewing two batches of Mocha Stout and bottling the Pumpkin Ale, as well as transferring the mead into a secondary. And we’ll enjoy some nice beverages, including a bottle of the sparkling mead and a bottle of an Allagash ale I picked up recently.

Safe Arrival

james3v1 — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:43:57 +0000

Today, excepting the cocoa, espresso and molasses, all of the ingredients for two entire batches of Mocha Stout arrived at my house. Including a new, second, glass secondary, which means I can be aging three batches of beer/wine at a time in secondaries. That will be helpful.

I’m using a different yeast this time, and adding two different things (one to each batch) to the recipe, and we’ll see how it comes out. I’m really liking playing with this recipe and everyone says it’s my best.

Mmmm. I’m getting thirsty and I won’t be able to try it for two months.

Coming Soon: Mocha Stout

james3v1 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:04:54 +0000

Tonight (or last night of sorts) I ordered enough ingredients, save the cocoa and the coffee for two batches of my ever popular Mocha Stout. This will be batches 3 and 4 of the product, and to date it is the most likely to be a favorite among the friends (read: people who come over to insult me while drinking my beer).

On Wednesday (8th) we’ll be brewing up both batches, and I’m going to try a couple of variants with the recipe. I’ve got enough fermenters to make two separate batches and I’m pretty excited about 10 gallons of Mocha Stout.

Don’t, however, get too excited. It won’t be ready to drink until at least Thanksgiving. But by December brew night, it’ll be ready to enjoy and aging nicely.

Come on over on the 8th.

It’s In The Bottles

james3v1 — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:46:42 +0000

Thursday night a couple of friends came over for a spontaneous bottling adventure. I had planned to bottle two batches, but we left the one and I’ll get it later. It’s only been in the secondary for a week or two.

Finally into bottles, though, is the Lord Fatbottom. It’s been in the secondary for six months and I am very much looking forward to it conditioning. It looks lovely, and we tasted some. Even flat, it has a lot of flavor and will be a great, hoppy adventure as it ages. We got 48 bottles plus a 22 oz for the cellar. A good yield considering the amount of trub at the bottom of the secondary and the blowover in both fermenters at the beginning. This is a good mix from Northern and if you can stand the wait I’d recommend it. That’s two for two on good kits from Northern.

We’ll still meet for brewing on October 8th, but the Fatbottom won’t be ready to drink yet. There will be plenty to do and on the calendar is a batch of my Mocha Stout.

Another Update of Lotta News

james3v1 — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:58:50 +0000

This past week I racked the pumpkin ale into the secondary. I’m a little concerned about how it’s going to come out–the fg on the beer was only 1.007. I don’t think I’ve ever had a final gravity that low–but that may not be a problem. Difficulty is that the recipe in BYO did not have an OG or expected FG to gauge it by. I’ll bottle it in a couple of weeks.

The second batch of mead is fermenting nicely. It’ll go into the secondary as soon as the pumpkin ale is ready to bottle, or possibly I’ll rack it into my glass primary, and then re-rack into the secondary.

OR–I’ll rack it into my glass secondary (the pumpkin ale is in a Better Bottle plastic carboy) after I bottle the Lord Fatbottom. It’s time to add the dry hops soon, and a week after that into bottles. I am very much looking forward to that one–only another month and it’ll be ready. Yay!

The first batch of mead tastes great, though I want to see how it ages. Some of it will wait for a feast we’re scheduling for early June, but we’ll drink a little as we go, and some of it at a family celebration in November.

I’ve decided not to have a brew night in September (busy life), but the October one is tentatively scheduled for the 8th. Mark your calendars. The Lord Fatbottom won’t quite be ready, but I think the pumpkin ale *might* be. If not, we’ll have to drink something else. Still a good bit of steam beer left, and I’m clearing out most of the cellar since I think the lack of a secondary is causing it not to age quite as well. Hence the pumpkin ale in the secondary. We’ll save some of it for Fall 2009.

That’s all for now–feel free to comment here and I hope to see some of you on October 8th.

August Brew Night Successful

james3v1 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:02:24 +0000

We met last night and brewed up a batch of pumpkin ale. I’ve never tried one before, so I’m a little nervous. We also mixed up another batch of mead (pasturized honey so the mead takes very little time), and bottled the last batch and sampled it. 24 bottles, including one that we drank in celebration:

We enjoyed ourselves and tried the Steam Beer from last month. I had previously tried a bottle once it was carbonated, and wasn’t impressed, but it has gained some flavor in aging a little longer. It’s not my favorite, but it’s pretty enjoyable for a late summer beer. As fall arrives it may improve even more.