The last batch of beer was really good.

So good in fact that I couldn’t bring myself to throw out the dregs left in the keg after the wedding. But, what was I to do with a quart of left-over, completely flat stout?

Make ice cream, of course!

Stout Ice Cream Recipe

based on the recipe featured at BoingBoing:

• 16 oz stout (homemade is best :)
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup cream
• 1 cup half & half

Bring the stout to a boil and allow to reduce to about 1 cup. Will only take a few minutes in a wide saucepan. Yes, this will remove the alcohol

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks & sugar together.

Reduce the heat and add the dairy. Bring to a simmer. Very slowly stir into the egg mixture while whisking.  Continue to stir for a few minutes while the mixture is  thickens a bit.

Refrigerate until completely cold. Then churn, churn, churn.

After the success of the last stout, I decided to brew up enough to keg for my upcoming nuptials. I even added a few more adjuncts – bringing the total amount of “grains” to lucky number 13. The brew includes barely, wheat, oats, amaranth, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, rice, corn, flax, sesame, sunflower and hazelnuts. I also added a pound of Kiln Coffee Malt, which drew my attention at Stienbarts.

Malted Grains:

For 10 gallons.

• 15 lb – 2-row
• 1 lb – Barely, Roasted
• 1 lb – Chocolate Malt
• 1 lb – Caramel/Crystal Malt (80L)
• 1 lb – Kiln Coffee Malt (Yum!)
  

Unmalted “Grains”

Yes I know some of these are technically seeds.

• 2 lb – Oats
• 1 lb – Wheat
• 1 lb – Amaranth
• 1 lb – Millet
• 1 lb – Buckwheat
• 1 lb – Rice (Sushi Grade)
• 0.5 lb – Quinoa (it’s expensive!)
• 0.5 lb – Corn (popped!)
• 0.5 lb – Flax Seed
• 2 cups – Sesame Seeds
• 2 cups -Sunflower Seed
• 2 cups – Hazelnuts

Hops

• 1 oz Chinook for 50 min
• 1 oz Chinook for 15 min

Notes:

It was recommended that I add the adjunct grains to the strike water while heating it. The extra cooking time would help to free some of the starches for better conversion. So, I added the heaping bowl to the 4 gallons – unfortunately, the whole thing turned into a giant mess of portage (though, it smelled really good).

I dumped this mess on top of the cracked grain, heated 4 more gallons to 170 and mixed everything together. After an hour, I released the vorlauf and out came a thick, creamy concoction as black as midnight. I swear to you that it tasted just like chocolate sauce!

Unfortunately, the stream quickly minimized to a trickle. The adjuncts had completely gummed it up. I tried clearing it and even went so far at to separated it into another lauter tun, but in the end just had to wait several hours to sparge the required 11 gallons…

After that, everything else went very well. OG: 1.060

Note for next time: ADD RICE HULLS!

Finished off the last of the stout and decide to make a new batch. This time, inspired by the HUB Survival Stout, a bunch of extra grains were added. None were malted and only meant to add flavor – not sugars. I also plan to add some cold-brewed espresso when racked. OG was exactly 1.050.

Recipe:

• 7.5 lb – 2 Row
• 0.5 lb Caramel/Crystal
• 0.5 lb Chocolate
• 0.5 lb Barley, Roasted
• 1.0 lb Oats (Flaked)
• 0.5 lb Wheat (Flaked)
• 0.5 lb Amaranth
• 0.5 lb Quinoa
• 0.5 lb White Millet
• 0.5 lb Buckwheat
• 1.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.5 alpha) @ 50 min
• 1.0 oz Willamette (5 alpha) @ 10 min
• WyEast Scottish Ale Yeast

Load Recipe: Gabriel McGovern^Multigrain Oatmeal Stout^2008-01-03^55^44^5^60^9^4^77^100^8.8^0.3^0.8^0.7^0.4^0.3^70^70^7.5^66^66^1^9^9^0.5^41^41^0.5^34^34^0.5^98^97^0.5^0^0^0^0^0^0^58^58^25^1^50^1^2^42^1^10^1^2^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^70^157^1.2^1.05^^^In addition to barley, oats and wheat was 0.5 lb of each: Amaranth, Quinoa, Millet, Buckwheat. None were malted and only meant to add flavor – not sugars. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^8.5^5^0^0^0^0^0.2^

The spruce beer has been bottled and it is awesome!

Jamie racked it for me last week and snuck a sip for his trouble. He immediately called and tell me how good it was. Today we bottled and it was my chance to see what had been produced.  The beer is heavenly. In the carboy it looks golden-orange, but is a perfect amber in the bottle. All of the oat cloudiness is gone. It already tastes great – like spruce, but not overly pine, or resiny.  It is fragrant, citrus-like and spicy.

OG: 1.050 | FG: 1.015 | ABV: 4.59%

On Friday, we brewed a batch of beer that incorporated freshly picked spruce tips. I chose a pale ale (like this recipe), but altered the hops a bit and threw in some oats and ginger for good measure. Oats in  a pale ale? Why not?

Recipe

• 10 lb – 2 row malt
• 1.5 lb – Vienna malt
• 0.5 lb – Victory malt
• 0.2 lb -Flaked Oats (a few handfuls)
• 18 oz – fresh spruce tips for 45min (could also use frozen)
• 1.0 oz – Cascade hops (4.5 alpha) for 45min
• 2.0 oz Palisades (9.5 alpha) for 10 minutes (could use regular Willamette for longer)
• Some fresh ginger chunks for the last 5 minutes.
• WyEast London ESB yeast

Strike at 175 to hold around 153 for 1 hour. Then batch sparge for 6 gallons and boil for 50 minutes. We did not have much evaporation and ended up with 5.5 gallons with an OG of 1.050. Should produce an ABV around 4.6%. The final wort did not smell of pine at all (or even ginger). Supposedly, the spruce takes a few month of bottle conditioning to mature. Should make a great holiday beer.

Look how big Jamie’s hops are already!

Load recipe here:

Gabriel McGovern^Sitka Oatmeal Pale Ale^^41^33^5.5^50^9^4^66^100^8.8^0.3^0.8^0.7^0.4^0.3^71^71^10^92^91^1.5^91^90^0.5^66^66^0.2^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^61^61^5^1^45^0^1^42^1^10^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^63^153^1.2^^1.015^^Used Palisades not Willamette. Also add 18 oz of spruce tips for 45minutes. And ginger chunks for last 5. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^4.5^9.5^0^0^0^0^0.2^

It has been a while since I did any woodworking.

This weekend I decided to carve a special spoon/paddle used to stir the boiling wort when making homebrew. Most people refer to this utensil as a “mash rake”. I prefer the term “spurdle”. It is made from a Brazilian tigerwood board that my brother salvaged.

Spurdle?

Traditional, spurdle refers to the spoon/wand used to stir oats and other grain cereals. This post New Year, New Spurdle shows a good photo. However – since we are now brewing “all grain”, I would like to think that the name is somewhat fitting.

After the success of the last all-grain stout, we decided to try an oatmeal version.

We cooked oats in minimum amount of water as recommended by a book. Turned clumpy – probably kept it from adding much to the mash. In turn, the OG was low (1.042). Added 1lb natural cane sugar at end to up it to 1.050 This *should* give us a ABV above 5%

For full info, copy the following and load into this calculator:

Gabriel McGovern^Oatmeal Stout (Experiment 2)^2008-01-03^55^44^5^60^9^4^77^100^8.8^0.3^0.8^0.7^0.4^0.3^70^70^7.5^66^66^1^9^9^0.5^41^41^0.5^34^34^0.5^87^86^1^0^0^0^0^0^0^58^58^5^1^50^1^2^42^1.5^10^1^2^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^70^157^1.2^1.05^^^Cooked oats in minimum amount of water as recommended by book. Turned clumpy – probably kept it from adding much to the mash. In turn, the OG was low (1.042). Added 1lb natural cane sugar at end to up it to 1.050 This *should* give us a abv above 5%^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6.5^5^0^0^0^0^0.2^

What’s Next?

While at Stienbarts, I picked up the grain needed for:

• McKay 70 Schilling
• Drunk Monk Tripel Variant
  

I have been brewing more and more lately. The basics are firm, but I am still learning and finding new resources.

Just spotted this great calculator on powersbrewery.home.comcast.net

DragonSlayer (super easy mini mash) recipe:

Slightly modified version of Greydragon’s recipe.

Ingredients

(for approximately 12 gallons)

• 6 lbs – Wheat Malt (grain – we used 5.5lb white +1/2lb “special-b” for flavor)
• 6 lbs – Amber Unhopped Malt Extract (liquid)
• 6 lbs – Light Dry Malt Extract (dry)
• 3 oz – Boiling hops (Hallertau)
• 1 oz – Finishing hops (Willamette)
• 2 tbs – Gypsum powder (for clarity)
• 2 pkg – Yeast ( Wyeast 2206:Bavarian Lager and 1214:Belgain Ale – for separate carboys)

Steps to success

Get a big pot for mash. Add cracked grain and gypsum to about 7 quarts of water @ 160 degrees. Maintain for 1 hour @ 155 degrees. Strain out grains and rinse (sparge?) with 5quarts of water @ 170 degrees. Bring to a boil. Add all the extract (liquid and dry) and the boiling hops. Boil for 30 minutes. Add finishing hops during last 2 minutes of the boil.

Fill clean carboys with cold water. You need enough so that water + condensed malt = 12 gallons. After evaporation, we had about 3 gallons of malt – so each of our 5 gallon carboys got 3 gallons of cold water. Add hot malt mixture. When temps get reasonable add the yeast.

For yeast we experimented a bit. I used a traditional ale yeast, but Jamie insisted on a bavarian lager. The 3rd carboy received a mixture of the two… What will happen?

Some of those last pictures are from bottling a previous brew “Hop-Scotch Ale”. It was a long night.