Today I brewed up an Irish Stout which the kit claims tastes like Guinness, which would be nice. This was my second attempt at beer, the first of which was a collaborative attempt with the GF. That attempt was an Irish Red, which is now complete, bottled, and the first couple of 6 packs are chilling in the fridge. I wasn’t feeling great tonight, so tomorrow I will be able to really sample how the Red came out. Since there was some manner of dispute about who did more work and/or the quality of the work in brewing last time, I bought my own carboy and brewed up this batch myself.
This was the first time I used a kit requiring the use of grains in addition to malt extract, so it was interesting making the ‘tea’ with the grains. The kit (from The Beer Nut) contained the grains, the socks, the hops, yeast, malt extract (syrup), bottle caps and priming sugar. I was rather impressed with the contents, for the $30 I paid. The basic steps I followed to brew were:
- Fill carboy and my sanitizing bucket with hot water and sanitizer
- Place all items which will come in contact with the wort into the santizer bucket to soak
- Boil 3 gallons of water on the stove, empty carboy, fill with water and let cool
- Bring 2 gallons to 155 degrees with the specialty grains in the grain sock, maintain for 35 minutes
- Remove grains, remove from heat, stir in the malt extract and add the hops in a grain sock, return to heat, bring to rolling boil
- Anger GF by letting it boil over onto her stove
- Turn down heat, maintain boil for 35 minutes
- Break the smack-pack yeast and set aside for pitching fr 3 hours
- Cool wort as much as possible, add to carboy
- Once the carboy is below 80 degrees, take a sample, pitch the yeast into the wort, install airlock, move to the basement
My sample measured a specific gravity of 1.041, and was a very dark color. The wort tasted much like a slightly burnt tea, with a hint of the hops and not very sugary. I’m looking forward to sampling it.
Tentatively, I think I may call this one ‘Black Cat Stout’.
Anyone who would like a few bottles, please let me know and I will save some for you. I’m also open to suggestions.
My future brew list so far would be:
- A hefeweizen
- A hefeweizen/ale with blueberries
- Possibly a mead
- An attempt at a pumpkin beer in the fall
This entry is as much a standard entry as it is notes to myself of what I did and where I want to go from here, which is why I detailed everything I did. Watch for updates as the fermentation finishes and I rack the beer into the secondary and bottle it. 
leave a reply