#8 : sullen beaver oatmeal stout

now, in hindsight, with an airlock burping the familiar, estery gasses of a proper fermentation (at least, this is what my experience tells me is proper), i can say with some hope for the future: that went well. it's always a bit of a harrowing first (or, bog forbid, first and second) night as we waits and we sees if fermentation will begin. well, it began. the kreusen isn't as thick as with my old pal the burton ale yeast, which i've been using for at least the three last batches. i've had this sort of less-than-bubblicious fermentation before so i'm not spooked. in fact, even the burton was less foamy than my first couple of ales.

but the fermentation bubbles are only the middle of the story: the brewing itself is the topic of the minute. as i said, in retrospect, that went well.

the forces of brewing chaos banded against me to present me with many problems. and so, to break it down for us, may i present my good friend: me.

me reminds me that there were three brewers assistants present: brewers assistant first class lt. spu, brewers assistant second class, bottling master 203, and brewers assistant provisional, ensign mister noob the mook. the task at hand was simple: to brew from a recipe kit (my first in many batches) an oatmeal stout, utilizing several brand new techniques, listed here for my listing pleasure in the order in which they were utilized during the brewing process:

NEW PIECE OF EQUIPMENT NUMBER ONE: outdoor propane burner. nice and sturdy, relatively inexpensive, REI bought. only problem: it was precisely the right size to exactly not fit my new brewpot (below!). the diameter of the pot-ring was such that my brewpot could sit neither on the ring nor within it, only balance precariously and lopsidedly upon it. this was worked around by the addition of two screws to provide a still shaky platform, but at least we were not lopsided.

NEW PIECE OF EQUIPMENT NUMBER THE SECOND: 9 gallon SS brewpot with spigot and thermometer. oh how this pissed me off: the gorram thing leaked! there was a bad weld in one place, and a loose fitting in another. fortunately, my brewing team improvised a seal using saran wrap and kitchen string. we still got some leakage but not much. i returned the pot the next day for a new one, leak checked before i left the store.

NEW TECHNIQUE NUMBER ONE : outdoor brewing. that's what you do when you brew with propane, yeah?

NEW TECHNIQUE NUMERO DOS : mini mash. we learned all about mashing and sparging. how fun oh my. the mini mash instructions mentioned putting a lid on the mini mash bucket, but alas, a lid was not included with the kit sold to me by the same folks who wrote the instructions (argh). fortunately, i have many many lids, and one of them fit perfectly. also fitting perfectly was a nice blanket to insulate the mash. the sparge was slow and boring but workable. we didn't get the proper timing, exactly, but we were close enough. at times we may have sparged with water too hot, and today i discovered that because of this, i can look forward to husky astringent flavors in the beer. oh yum.

NEW TECHNIQUE NUMBER DOS EQUIS : full boil. starting with (probably) (about) six gallons, we ended up with 4.5 gallons after a steady 1 hour boil. the new propane burner took about 30 mins to get to boiling, but once there, it was a proper, rolling boil like we'd never seen on my crappy kitchen stove. since a large surface area of water is exposed by my wide brewpot, perhaps next time we'll take the boil a little more gently. also next time, we'll have better gallon markings so we'll know if there is actually 6 gals in the pot or not.

NEW EQUIPMENT/TECHNIQUE NUMBER FIVE (NO, THREE!) : wort chiller. a nice long coil of copper tube attached to really long vinyl tubes attached to my sink. the damned thing leaked sink water into the cooling wort (ARGH!) and i'm not sure how to fix it. the brewstore guy said to try moving the worm clamps closer to teh end of the copper, which i will do next time. we'll see. aside from the leaks (which we caught (mostly) with towels), the cooling was accomplished quickly enough. interestingly, i observed a 10F difference in temps between the top (hot) portion of hte wort (as measured by the in-pot thermometer) and the bottom (cooler) portion of the wort. this will have to be remembered for next time.

by the end of the five hour brew session we were getting tired of it all so i hastily dumped the wort into teh carboy, tossed in the yeast, and closeted it. no thermometer readings, no hydrometer readings. don't care for this batch. we dumped the wort when it read about 90F by the pot-thermometer (or 80F if you believe the floating thermometer), but by the time we got the thermostat thermometer in the wort, it read 70F. perfect! and of course, the next day, fermentation.

that's not all for the new stuff -- this beer will be kegged, i should think, and dispensed from the to-be-built kegerator. yesterday i recalled, while driving around, that i had a beer name on hold (203 wouldn't let me use it for the wedding brew) and i applied it to this batch. i regretted it later since it's a good name but a kit batch. still, i suppose i can re-use it. or maybe i'll just come up with a new one, ya think?

ADDENDUM :

I am relatively sure that the next batch will be all-grain. i'm moving up in the world. won't that be exciting? yes, yes it will.

POST-SCRIPT TO THE ADDENDUM :

we consumed some firefly ale during the making of the sullen beaver. it was good but i think i fancy the EPA more. alas, the EPA is nearly gone. EPA certainly has a nicer color.

ADDENDUM TO THE POST-SCRIPT TO THE ADDENDUM :

last night we cracked open a st. peter's cream stout, which i contend will be somewhat similar to the SBOS, or at least, more similar to the SBOS than to the EPA. 203 didn't care greatly for the stout, which implies that i'll be drinking the entire five gallons of SBOS. huzzah!