Brew Day!

Today I ended up with no dryer vents to clean, so I got to brew my kitchen sink IPA. This is made with all the leftovers from my past batches. But it ends up to be just about right for an IPA. I decided to call it "CornucopIPA" - like "Cornucopia IPA" sort of as a conjunction. Seems fitting, for the time of year.

There was one difficult aspect to the day. Of 3.5 lbs of grain in this partial mash batch, I had 0.75 lbs flaked oats, and 0.69 lbs wheat malt. This made for quite a tricky vorlauf and sparge. Same thing happened when I brewed my Belgian Trippel IPA, which had a less severe proportion of wheat and oats. But I just could not remember how I got past it last time.

I tried stirring the mash, and blowing on the drain, and altering the flow rate, and a few similar things, but nothing worked. I ended up dumping the whole mash into the brew kettle, and then scooping in just the liquid (to the extent possible) until I could get that to flow. Then I started slowly adding in the grains. Once I figured I had enough in there, I dumped the rest of the grains in there. All the while, I kept vorlauf going so I wouldn't risk getting it stuck again. I just hope I don't have to worry about oxidation from all the blowing and dumping. Guess I'll just have to drink it fast!

I'm looking forward to making a full sized all-grain batch again. The Oatquake didn't get stuck in vorlauf. I wonder what I'll make next. I have a vial of Brett B sitting here. But I might want to make something like a winter warmer very soon. Maybe I could even have one ready for XMas if I hurry.

Pils and Stout (edit: and IPA)

Two notes:

I got another real Pilsner. It is Victory Prima Pils. I had heard at my local beer store that Victory wasn't distributed in Connecticut any more, but they had it up at Manchester Wine and Liquor (the greatest beer store in Connecticut) anyway. It has a grainy nose, and a typical medium body, but the hops are subtle compared to the Lagunitas. It is very good nonetheless, and probably a bit more accessible than the Lagunitas which may verge on obsessively hopped.

I brought my stout, Oatquake, to poker on Saturday, and it was well received. I always find it interesting that Stouts are well received, because it isn't exacly the easiest style to drink. But I guess I can thank the likes of Guinness for mainstreaming stouts. Mine is more like Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (or whatever it's called - the stuff that is just in a 22-oz. bomber sans nitrogen). The more I have it, I don't feel is is overattenuated as I had pontificated before. I think it may have been still a bit young before. It is really getting enjoyable now. Sadly, just in time for it to be almost half gone :(

OK, I know I said two, but... third thought. Up next for me to brew is the "kitchen sink" IPA made from all the leftover stuff. I am still looking for a good name. Something that means like "all that is" or something. Kind of like Namaste (which I don't know what that means (OK Wikipedia says it means "I bow to you", and is a general greeting and departure, so I guess it is sort of like "Aloha")). Just a cool word that means something to the effect of "this beer includes everything". Maybe Cornucopia IPA in honor of Thanksgiving, since it will be brewed around that time of the month. It will be brewed this week if I am lucky, but even if I made it last week, it probably wouldn't really be ready for turkey day anyway.

Oatquake Oatmeal Stout is Overattenuated

I know I've written a lot here today. But here's one last thought.

I have been tasting my Oatquake 2 Oatmeal Stout the past few days. It is bottled and almost fully carbed and ready to go. Tonight I put it head-to-head with Sammy Smith's Oatmeal Stout. And I understand the problem I've got.

But first, to explain mine. The smell is roasty and dark. The appearance is black and opaque, with a sort of small head (it is still conditioning) that pretty quickly dissipates. The taste is bitter and roasty. Bitterness comes from hops, which are strong, and also from malts, which are dark. It doesn't really have that rich smooth feeling I was expecting the oats to give me, and that I had last time I used a similar recipe to this. The mouthfeel is a bit watery but sharp, combined with a prickly hops sensation. Overall it has a pretty low body, perhaps less than the pilsners I've been drinking lately.

Sammy's is so much richer smelling and fuller in the mouth. The basic flavor is pretty much the same, and the hops are pretty close. The problem is that I mashed my Oatmeal stout at too low a temperature. Until now, I've been confusing low mash temp with high efficiency. I can still get a good high efficiency mash at a higher temp, it's just that I might not hit a low FG with a higher mash temp. Which in this case would have been better. Mine is just too watery in the mouthfeel department. It has a mild body to say the least. I guess that's what happens when you finish at 1.015 on a stout. Well live and learn. I guess that's why the first Oatquake, which finished at 1.028 (for a whopping 1.8% ABV) was so tasty.

So this one is overattenuated. Normally you talk about beers being underattenuated. That normally means there are too many residual sugars and the resultant beer is too sweet. Well mine had the opposite problem. I made too many fermentable sugars, and didn't leave enough residuals there to make a substantial body that a stout needs.