Begin Brewing!

Having managed to get three successive batches out of the Brewie+ which hit my volume and gravity goals, today I decided to brew a Dry Irish Stout for possible competition. I like the style and I have never brewed it before, so it seemed like a good time to try. I began by reviewing some articles online about brewing the style, then by considering the BJCP criteria for it. I took one of the published recipes and tweaked it to suit my taste (hopefully).  I added Melanoidin malt and Carapils to try to get the beer to have a nice head on it. I used Willamette hops and Bramling Cross for a little twist to the style, while not taking it too far off base. The Bramling Cross hops are used in British stouts and reportedly carries fruity, citrusy notes with some blackcurrant, loganberry, gooseberry, and lemon - sometimes even with vanilla. That should all do nicely in the stout. I'm adding gypsum to help punch up the hops, since I'm hopping it toward the lower end of the style (the ...

Some time ago, I read about Black Bottle Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. They brewed a beer called Cerealiciously which included Count Chocula breakfast cereal in the mash and possibly secondary.  When I visited Fort Collins, I didn't have the opportunity to try the beer because they were out of it. I decided that someday I would brew one like it for myself at home. This past Saturday was that day... I began by researching recipes for sweet stouts and milk stouts. I thought these, combined with the General Mills Count Chocula breakfast cereal, would make a nice combo. The chocolate and sweetness of the stout should mingle with the same flavors in the cereal, but with enough roasty grain flavors to keep it from being a chocolate bar in a glass. The recipe presented here is my own, based on a couple of sweet stout recipes I found. The Recipe 4 pounds 2-row Brewer's Malt (because I ran out of 2-row Pale Malt) 2 pounds 2-row Pale Malt 1 pound Cara-Pils/Dextrine Malt ...

I bought a Wil Wheaton Wootstout extract kit from Northern Brewer quite a while ago... so long ago, in fact, that I won't be surprised if this thing is undrinkable when it's finished.  I read the instructions and they seemed so involved at the time that I wasn't comfortable brewing it.  Well, today I had the urge to brew and not a lot of time, which is the perfect scenario to brew an extract beer. The Recipe 1 pound Flaked Rye 10 ounces of Black Malt 10 ounces of Roasted Barley 5 ounces of Carastan Malt 5 ounces of Crystal Rye Malt 3.15 pounds of Golden Light DME 3.15 pounds of Wheat DME 1 pound of Golden Light LME 3 ounces of Target hops 6 pounds of Golden Light DME 1 pound of Simplicity Candi Syrup 8 ounces of toasted and crushed pecans 3 ounces of cacao liquor 2 ounces of medium+ toasted oak cubes 6-8 ounces of bourbon (not included in the kit) 1 teaspoon of Wyeast yeast nutrient 1 Whirlfloc tablet 1 packet of Safale US-05 yeast 1 packet of Saf...

Adventures in Homebrewing makes a number of all-grain and extract recipe kits for homebrewing.  During a sale earlier this year, I picked up their Peanut Butter Conspiracy Stout extract kit (on sale for $26.99 as of this writing in November 2015).  The kit includes: 6 pounds of Pale LME 1 pound of Flaked Barley 1 pound of Carafa II 4 ounces of Black Patent Malt 1 dram of Peanut Butter Flavoring 1 ounce of Willamette Hops (5.4% AA) It is recommended to use Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale, White Labs 004 Irish Ale, or Danstar Nottingham.  Since I ordered the kit during the warmer months, I settled for Danstar Nottingham dry yeast. Brew Day The brewing process was: Heat 2.5 gallons of water to 150-160F.  I used The Grainfather to do this. Drop the bagged grain into the water and steep for 20 minutes. Remove the grain from the water and let it drain, then discard. In my case, while doing the above, I heated 3 gallons of water in a kettle on my kitchen...