TasunkaWitko
Well-Known Member
After about a month's worth of false starts, I was able to brew my second beer project yesterday: the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie variation of Brooklyn Brew Shop's Oatmeal Stout:
[ame]http://vimeo.com/80167768[/ame]
This comes on the heels of my first-ever brew, BBS's Chocolate Maple Porter. I've never really been a "dark beer" person, but I wanted to try these for my first brews, due to the seasons (autumn and winter). I must say, I am a convert, and am loving the rich, dark, roasty beers! The porter was simply outstanding, with a rich, warm glow and all of the characteristics that were advertised. I was quite impressed, especially after comparing it to a couple of other porters in the area and finding that mine was at least as good as those, if not a little better - or maybe that was wishful thinking!
I learned a few things brewing my first batch - you can read about the experience by clicking here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/brooklyn-brew-shops-chocolate-maple-porter-tips-advice-492568/
Building on the success and the lessons learned during that brew, I felt that I was adequately prepared to start this second project, and had a great time making it. The first and possibly most efficient thing that I did was to buy a third kettle for the process, so that the mash, sparge etc. would go much more smoothly. The first time I brewed beer, I only had two - this worked, but was awkward in a couple of spots. Adding a third pot helped immensely.
One fundamental thing that I wanted to improve on was temperature control during the mash. My 8-quart stock pot is quite basic, made of rather thin-ish stainless steel. It works, and works well, but maintaining temperatures can be tricky, especially on our electric, glass-topped stove. Recalling experience gained with other cooking projects, I reasoned that setting the kettle in a wide, heavy cast-iron pan over the burner might effectively turn it into a thick-bottomed pot in order to help stabilise temperatures and keep the up-and-down swings from being as chaotic as they were the first time. After trying this "improvement" during the mash, I am indeed happy to report that it worked pretty darn well. I still needed to pay attention to what I was doing, but I was not constantly chasing my tail and over- (or sometimes under-) shooting my target range. I am sure that there are better ways to do it, but this was a definite, real improvement.
The sparge was another step where I wanted some better things; the first time, I had a fine-mesh strainer that was just barely big enough to hold the mash, making sparging quite awkward. I was able to get it done, but it was an uphill struggle the entire time. For my second attempt, I bought a slightly-larger, fine-mesh colander-type strainer that fit perfectly into my 12-quart stainless-steel stock pot, making a very effective lauter tun. This made things 100 per cent easier, and I was able to stir the mash around much more thoroughly while re-circulating the wort through the mash.
The rest of the process went pretty much without incident; since the boil was 90 minutes, I guesstimated the amount of wort that I wanted to start out with, and by the time the boil was over, I was maybe a cup or a cup-and-a-half below a full gallon - not bad!
As I mentioned before, I chose to make the oatmeal raisin cookie variation of this recipe (see video above), and was simply amazed at the aromas coming from the boiling kettle: first, I added a cinnamon stick along with 2/3 of my East Kent Golding Hops; similar to the Fuggle Hops that I used before, yet unique in their own right, wonderfully reminiscent of autumn, dried flowers and moss, with a rich under-tone. Later, I added the rest of the hops for aroma. Then, during the final stage of the boil, I added some brown sugar and raisins. Words are not enough to describe the result - you really must experience it for yourself to appreciate it. The hops, cinnamon stick, brown sugar and raisins really did meld together into something that was incredibly more than the sum of its parts - and it really did remind me of oatmeal raisin cookies coming out of the oven ~ amazing!
After pitching the yeast, I set up a blow-off tube and tucked it away in my closet, where as of this morning it was happily bubbling and fermenting away at about 64 degrees ambient temperature. In three weeks, I'll bottle it, and three or four weeks after that, we'll see what I came up with.
Loving it so far!
If anyone has made this variety and has any tips, advice, comments or experiences to add, please do so. If anyone is interested, please feel free to follow along on the journey, as well.
More as it happens ~
Ron
[ame]http://vimeo.com/80167768[/ame]
This comes on the heels of my first-ever brew, BBS's Chocolate Maple Porter. I've never really been a "dark beer" person, but I wanted to try these for my first brews, due to the seasons (autumn and winter). I must say, I am a convert, and am loving the rich, dark, roasty beers! The porter was simply outstanding, with a rich, warm glow and all of the characteristics that were advertised. I was quite impressed, especially after comparing it to a couple of other porters in the area and finding that mine was at least as good as those, if not a little better - or maybe that was wishful thinking!
I learned a few things brewing my first batch - you can read about the experience by clicking here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/brooklyn-brew-shops-chocolate-maple-porter-tips-advice-492568/
Building on the success and the lessons learned during that brew, I felt that I was adequately prepared to start this second project, and had a great time making it. The first and possibly most efficient thing that I did was to buy a third kettle for the process, so that the mash, sparge etc. would go much more smoothly. The first time I brewed beer, I only had two - this worked, but was awkward in a couple of spots. Adding a third pot helped immensely.
One fundamental thing that I wanted to improve on was temperature control during the mash. My 8-quart stock pot is quite basic, made of rather thin-ish stainless steel. It works, and works well, but maintaining temperatures can be tricky, especially on our electric, glass-topped stove. Recalling experience gained with other cooking projects, I reasoned that setting the kettle in a wide, heavy cast-iron pan over the burner might effectively turn it into a thick-bottomed pot in order to help stabilise temperatures and keep the up-and-down swings from being as chaotic as they were the first time. After trying this "improvement" during the mash, I am indeed happy to report that it worked pretty darn well. I still needed to pay attention to what I was doing, but I was not constantly chasing my tail and over- (or sometimes under-) shooting my target range. I am sure that there are better ways to do it, but this was a definite, real improvement.
The sparge was another step where I wanted some better things; the first time, I had a fine-mesh strainer that was just barely big enough to hold the mash, making sparging quite awkward. I was able to get it done, but it was an uphill struggle the entire time. For my second attempt, I bought a slightly-larger, fine-mesh colander-type strainer that fit perfectly into my 12-quart stainless-steel stock pot, making a very effective lauter tun. This made things 100 per cent easier, and I was able to stir the mash around much more thoroughly while re-circulating the wort through the mash.
The rest of the process went pretty much without incident; since the boil was 90 minutes, I guesstimated the amount of wort that I wanted to start out with, and by the time the boil was over, I was maybe a cup or a cup-and-a-half below a full gallon - not bad!
As I mentioned before, I chose to make the oatmeal raisin cookie variation of this recipe (see video above), and was simply amazed at the aromas coming from the boiling kettle: first, I added a cinnamon stick along with 2/3 of my East Kent Golding Hops; similar to the Fuggle Hops that I used before, yet unique in their own right, wonderfully reminiscent of autumn, dried flowers and moss, with a rich under-tone. Later, I added the rest of the hops for aroma. Then, during the final stage of the boil, I added some brown sugar and raisins. Words are not enough to describe the result - you really must experience it for yourself to appreciate it. The hops, cinnamon stick, brown sugar and raisins really did meld together into something that was incredibly more than the sum of its parts - and it really did remind me of oatmeal raisin cookies coming out of the oven ~ amazing!
After pitching the yeast, I set up a blow-off tube and tucked it away in my closet, where as of this morning it was happily bubbling and fermenting away at about 64 degrees ambient temperature. In three weeks, I'll bottle it, and three or four weeks after that, we'll see what I came up with.
Loving it so far!
If anyone has made this variety and has any tips, advice, comments or experiences to add, please do so. If anyone is interested, please feel free to follow along on the journey, as well.
More as it happens ~
Ron
