Has it really been that long since my last post? Oops!
Have no fear! The brewing has continued! The latest round was my swing at a winter/spiced stout. Yes, it was a bit inspired by Stone's Xocoveza, but it is by no means meant as an attempt at a clone. It is more of an agreement that some of those flavors are appealing in a stout to me - and no, I did not include all of the flavors listed on the Xoco bottle. Enough about that though...
Brew day itself went off without a hitch.
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| Oh, the wonderful aroma! |
Grains mashed. Wort boiled.
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| Boil you lazy bugger! |
The house smelled GREAT! ...especially at the end when I added my spices. Cool. Strain. Pitched the recovered yeast from a previous stout into the cooled wart and, while it took a bit longer to get going than I expected, (the yeast did spend a bit more time in the refrigerator than I would have liked) it did get going after about 24 hours.
After about a week, it was time to rack...and hellllooooo chocolately looking goopy mess. Big trub, but given the pitched yeast cake, I'm not surprised.
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| The pretty side of brewing |
I definitely nailed my volume though! One VERY full gallon jug for secondary.
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| Getting closer to taste test time! |
Fast forward to today, and it's time to bottle. I'm still debating on what the label will look like, but that can wait a bit.
In other news, since I did make a mess of my 2 carboys, they had to get cleaned....outside...with help. Fun was had.
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| Yes, he is telling me what needs to be done. He is pro at this now....at 3 years old. |
The holidays (aka, my parents) have also been kind enough to help me increase production capacity with a shiny new 8 gallon kettle! This will be very nice when I step up that Kiwi Hef recipe for summer, as well as anything else that I really want to go to town with. ...and, of course, auto-siphons are just soooo much nicer. Though, now I want a small one since I'm in one gallon mode for a few more months.
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| It would be a shame not to fill it, right?? |
Next up on the brew list? My rauchbier is disappearring quickly, so that's a front runner along with an Irish Red since St. Patty's Day is getting close as far as the brew calendar goes.