Double Chocolate Espresso Stout

So a month ago I finally tried the Stout that I made in December, and I thought it was great. I was a little worried that the flavor of the beer would be over powered by the espresso, so I let it sit in secondary longer than usual to mellow the taste. I bottle conditioned it and after about 4 weeks in the bottle I thought it tasted great. I got the recipe from BYO and made a few modifications but kept it pretty close to that recipe. Here it is:

  • 8 # Dark malt extract
  • 0.5 # Crystal malt 20L
  • 0.5 # Chocolate malt
  • 0.5 # Roasted Barley
  • 1 # Ghirardelli Premium Sweet Ground Chocolate
  • 2 oz Northern Brewer 7.4% AA
    • 1.5 oz @ 60 min
    • 0.5 oz @ 15 min
  • 0.5 # espresso ground espresso beans
  • 1 pkg. White Labs Irish Ale Yeast WLP004
  • 1 tsp heading powder (for head retention when bottle conditioning)

Procedure:

  1. Steap grains @ 150F for 30 min.
  2. Heat to 17F and add extract
  3. Add hops at designated times and add chocolate at begining of boil
  4. Add yeast and ferment and water to make 4 gallons in primary.
  5. At secondary add espresso that has been brewed to a gallon of coffee

OG-1.072, FG-1.020, ABV-5%, IBU-56

Yakima IPA 3

I reformulated my Yakima IPA for a 3rd time this weekend. I’m taking advantage of my abundant hop supply to experiment with different boil times and post boil techniques. This time I used 2oz of Centennials for 60 minutes, 1.5 oz of Cascade at 15 minutes, and .5 ounces more at 5 minutes. Then I used .5 ounces of Cascades in a pseudo-hop-back, by putting the hops into a strainer and pouring the warm wort over them into the carboy. We’ll see what happens. Here’s the Recipe.

Changes to page, looking at different content manager

While I was sick, I validated the entire site for XHTML compliance. At the time, it passed.
Valid XHTML 1.0!
Also, I’m looking at a different content management system to replace Moveable type. Hopefully something in PHP. You’ll probably notice that this page doesn’t validate correctly. I’m not sure how that happened. I’m getting tired of MT.

Bert on Tap

I’ve moved my Yakima IPA 2 and Michelle’s Scotch Ale into the kegs, and they’re carbonating.

Also, we’ve got a new addition to the kegerator: a bronzed Bert Grant tap handle. Its cool. Pictures forthcoming.

Odd e-mail

I got an e-mail from a dude in Brazil who had an argument with a local importer about Pilsner Urquell. He wanted me to prove that Pilsner Urquell wasn’t bitter like the importer said it was. I gave him a history on the beer, a lesson in bitterness, and commented on personal taste. He can’t get Pilsner Urquell in Brazil anymore. Did you know they’re owned by SABMiller too? What’s this world coming to?

Tumwater Brewery Closing

The Tumwater Brewery, at 107 years of age, is being closed by Miller. Formerly the home of Olympia, it now brews Henry Weinhards, Hamms, Mickey’s and Old English 800.

Sorry to heard another NW institution is being closed due to conglomeration and capitalization. Soon, if you want to drink a NW beer, all that’ll be left are Micros. Oh well.

Yakima IPA 2

Michelle and I are both doing a batch this time. Its the first time she’s brewed since 2000. She’s doing a Scotch Ale, and I’m doing a variation on a previous IPA.

Here’s the revised Yakima IPA:

  • 6lb light malt extract
  • 1 lb. Victory Malt
  • 1 lb. Munich Malt
  • 1 lb. Domestic 2-Row Malt
  • 1.5 oz. Nugget Hops (14% alpha)
  • 1.0 oz. Cascade Hops (5.3% alpha)
  • 1.0 oz Cascade Hops (dry hopping)
  • White Labs English Ale Yeast WLP005

You know the rest…