Beer Post

I’ve been brewing beer for a few months now but I haven’t taken the time to sit and write about it.  I haven’t really even had a chance to talk with any other brewers about what I’m doing, how I could be doing it better or what they learn in their own pursuit of brewing a fine beer they can call their own.  I’m a bit down on the lack of community I have but that could extend to a number of things from baking to raising the chickens.  I probably just need to get out more.

In any case, today I’m brewing batch of beer number 6.  It’s a creamy brown ale based on a recipe found in Stephen Snyder’s “The Brewmaster’s Bible” as submitted by Ric Genthner of Wine Barrel Plus in Livonia, Michigan.  This will be my second brew based on a recipe from The Bible, and as the other turned out really nice I’m thinking positively about what I have going now.

As a bit of a recap, below are the beers I’ve made so far:
1. Basic Wheat, 5 Gallon, Extract kit - Cooper’s Wheat Beer
2. Australian Pale Ale, 5 Gallon, Extract kit - Coopers APA
3. Cream Ale, 3 Gallon, Partial Grain - Recipe from the Brewess
4. Chocolate Maple Porter, 1 Gallon, All Grain, kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop
5. Oatmeal Stout, 5 Gallon, Partial Grain - Based on recipe from The Bible
6. Creamy Brown Ale, 5 Gallon, Parial Grain - Based on recipe from The Bible

So far, none of my beers have been disappointing.  In fact, the basic wheat from the kit which was really not very drinkable early on, got quite good after about week 5 of conditioning.  I have a few bottles left that I’m saving to try in the spring, and I will probably brew up a partial grain batch from recipe to compare it to, as my next project.

The APA which was also had a pretty good chance of being awful, is quite nice.  It’s very thin and probably the furthest thing from a beer I’d actually buy on my own, but it has nice hints of apple and a smooth tartness to it.  There isn’t much aftertaste or bitterness to it -- it’s good cold but warms up to have some nice flavor too.

If there’s one beer that’s been most disappointing it’s actually been the 1 gallon all grain kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop.  And it is getting much better the longer it sits too.  I’ve given a few bottles of it away and people are pretty complimentary.  The problem with this brew is akin to buying coffee beans that are already ground.  The longer cracked grains sit in a bag, the more stale they become.  When I do a partial grain brew now, I use the grains freshly cracked from my homebrew store -- they crack them while I wait so I don’t have to make a mess at home.  Those are like using freshly ground beans to make your morning pot of coffee.  There’s no staleness and the flavors of the grains come through.  Also, I think there’s probably something to the husks sitting open like that for very long.  They impart bitterness (like garbanzo skins in hummus) so the sooner after you crack the grains that you brew, the better.

My cream ale was really good and I’ll do another batch of beer from The Brewess sometime soon.  Her recipes are nice because a 3-gallon recipe can almost be all-grain on the stove, which makes is really inexpensive.

So far though, I’m most proud of my Oatmeal Stout and my soon to be Creamy Brown because feel like I really did something to make those 5-gallon batches, I enjoy the partial grain process, and they are some darn good beers.

More to come on this front, including pictures and possibly a report about baking with spent grains, but I wanted to get this out of my head.  

The mash is done steeping so it’s time to boil.  More soon.