Milk Stout

Let's pretend this post is from two days ago, when I actually brewed. After my previous post about now being a professional brewer, I was very disappointed in my homebrewing, or should I say my lack of it. So I did something about it. After a great Bears victory, I abandoned my traditional Sunday events of watching the rest of the football games with my friends, and instead chose to brew some beer.

My favorite beer right now if Left Hand Brewery's Milk Stout. So when I was at the homebrew shop I saw a milk stout kit, so I had to give it a try. This was a partial grain kit. That means that a majority of the flavor would come from an extract in the kit, but it would be supplemented by some specialty grains that steep in hot water, similar to tea.

For those that may be interested in the brewing details:

I steeped the specialty grains for 20 minutes at around 160 degrees. The specialty grains for this brew were 8oz Caramel 120L, 4oz Roasted Barley and 4oz Dark Chocolate. Then I took the wort and boiled it with 6.6lbs of Special Dark extract, 0.5lb of Lactose and 0.5lb of Maltodextrin. After bringing everything back to a boil I added 0.5oz of my Warrior bittering hops(17.2%). Fifty minutes later I added 0.5oz of my Willamette aroma hops(4.7%). Ten minutes after that I terminated boil. I cooled the wort, but I don't think I cooled it enough. I had it down to 86 degrees before I topped off the batch to five gallons. I really need to get myself a wort chiller. So the OG at 1.040 was most likely at a higher temp than it should have been. So I missed the target OG of 1.057-1.061. Then I pitched the yeast.

The good thing about writing this two days later is I know that the beer is fermenting. I'm holding it in a temperature stable 68 degrees. The little airlock is bubbling away. I figure by Friday or Saturday, I'll transfer to a secondary fermenter. I can taste it already.

Funny Beer Picture

I am a Brewer!

At least I'm an assistant brewer.  I just saw that my last post was almost two years ago.  I am shamed by this for two reasons.  One, what's the point of having a blog if you're not going to update it.  And more importantly, number two, I see that I've done almost nothing in that time to get where I said I wanted to go. Well hopefully that all starts to change now.

So, about that assistant brewer position I now hold.  A friend of mine's wife works at a local brewpub near here, Stockholm's.  One day we went over to have drinks at her place.  The owner happened to be there and we got to chatting.  I mentioned that I home brewed and asked if he needed any help.  In the politest of blow-offs he said it was pretty much a one man operation.  Fine, I didn't expect much.  We just finished our night out and I went on my merry way.

Stockholm's Vardshus

I believe a couple months went by and my friend calls me.  He said that Michael, the owner of Stockholm's, needed help with the brewing, and asked if I was still interested.  Was I ever!  Michael had hurt himself and was unable to do the heavy lifting that was necessary.  So that's where I came in.  So starting in May, I began doing the heavy lifting and bending involved with the brewing.  Things have gone well since then, as the job has progressed from just following directions to being in control of the process on brew days.  Management is minimal and I am often left alone to follow the process on my own.

Brew days are generally on Thursday's, and they start very early.  Due to electric circuit problems with the kitchen, brewing equipment and kitchen equipment can not be run at the same time.  That means I get to get up at 5 am to start brewing.  That usually will take around three hours if I'm strictly brewing that day.  Other duties include measuring ingredients, cleaning kegs, and rotating stock.

Keg days are Mondays.  They also start at 5 am, although I suspect that since the circuit problem is irrelevant, we don't run the pump or heating element, I could get more sleep and do it later in the day.  It is nice however, not having to try to fight around wait or kitchen staff.  Kegging is a quicker day and I'm usually done in under two hours.

Aside from the weekly beer making, I've also been a part of a couple beer festivals this summer.  The first was at the beautiful Garfield Conservatory in Chicago.  It was some sort of benefit thing that they've been doing for a couple years.  On a side note, a few weeks after being there a bad storm came by and sent hail through a large majority of the glass windows that make up the conservatory.  The other one was the Midwest Brewers Fest.  It was a first year fest held in Plainfield, IL.  It was a long twelve hour day, with strict rules from the Plainfield police, that prohibited beer pourers from sampling other breweries beer.  That's one of the perks of working these festivals!

Wish me luck with Stockholm's.  I hope to gain knowledge and contacts while working there.  It's been a fun few months.  On the homebrew front, I need to get on it.  I haven't brewed in a long time.  I'm planning on giving beer out as my Christmas gifts this year, so that should be fun.

Skol!