my neighborhood bar just put Mikkeller - it's alive on tap. one of my top 5 beers. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13307/43080

Yesterday the wife and I, and a couple friends who wanted to learn, embarked on doing some more brewing this season. This time we're doing a stout and it should be ready right before Christmas! Are there any other brainers out there that have brewed their own batch(es)? I'd love to hear what you've made. Any hints/tips?

Here's the recipe.
6.5 lbs of Pale Liquid Malt Extract
1.6 lbs of blended Crystal, Roasted, Black and Chocolate Malts (Crushed)
Bittering and Aroma hops
10 gms Nottingham Dry Yeast

I took some pics of the step-by-step process.

Here's the 6.5 lbs malt extract


Prepping the kettle with 3 gallons of water.


Steeping the grains to a max temp of 170F


Here we are pouring 1 cup of hot water over the grains to wash them out. You never want to squeeze the bag as it will create bitterness.


Pouring half of the malt extract into the steeped grains and then get it to a boil.


Time to add the bittering hops. At this point the water has been boiling but removed from heat. After placing hops in, return to boiling.


Now comes the most excruciating part. Letting it boil for 1 hour and making sure it doesn't boil over. At 45 minutes we added the rest of the malt extract and at 55 minutes, added the aroma hops.


The aroma hops.


Now I should had snapped a pic but time is of the essence. You need to chill your wort fast. We chilled it in the tub with 20lbs of ice and cold water. And added 1 gallon of frozen spring water into the pot and covered it.

After the wort chilled, we transferred it into a settling tank. We let it rest for over 2 hours so the sediment would fall to the bottom.

After the wort has settled, we transferred it into the fermenting tank fanning the liquid around the sides to aerate it as much as possible.


After that we added our yeast, gave it a nice good stir and then took a sample to measure the gravity. Right now it's estimated to be around 6% abv.


Now it's chilling in a tub fermenting and should be ready to bottle in 2 weeks.


At that point we'll be adding the primer sugar to create that wonderful carbonation.

Looks awesome, I love stouts, and am eager to hear how this turns out for you. How long is the fermenting cycle are you expecting? This is something I really want to get in to when I have the time and money. I still have earmarked Dustin's recommendation for a great guide from back in this thread.

thank you for resurrecting this thread!



I was really excited to pour this one. unfortunately it was like drinking liquid smoke... feel free to shake the bottom of a bag of pork rinds into your least favorite brown ale to recreate the flavor. love the bottle but the beer inside was a huge letdown, and I am usually a fan of Rogue.



Weyerbacher updated their label this year... same awesome beer.



My brother used to be into the competitive brewing scene, he took first in his region and third in the state with a mocha cream stout. He complained that the state level competitions were rigged, and being from NJ, I would expect no less =P

Crap, I forgot about that thread! And I'm the one who created it. Thanks for resurrecting it.

The fermenting cycle should be about 2 weeks. After that, it will be bottling time which will be another couple of weeks to create the carbonation. So a total of a month or more before cracking them open.

We came very close to doing a cream stout. Hmmmm, a mocha cream stout sounds delicious.

And I tried the Voodoo Doughnut by Rogue this last weekend. It's definitely different. Lots of smoke and maple. If you're not a fan of maple, you're not going to like this.

Also tried the Voodoo doughnut recently. I didn't mind it at all, but I was about the only one I can definitely see how it would be an aquired taste. I am a huge fan of Rauchbier though, and am planning a trip to Bamberg to tour the breweries. I also dig maple, but the sweetness was a bit much. I can't see sitting down and drinking more than a couple at a time.

Cold weather means I'm craving stouts. Got to have a few odin's tipple's from HaandBryggeriet. Hands down this beer is awesome and I am in love with it. Of course Haand isn't making it anymore and a bar here in town has two kegs.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/15 ... =1&start=0

any of you all use untappd?
http://untappd.com/

I do now =)

My brother runs

Columbus Brewing Co

He's the main brewer

Awesome beer guys.

Mike, I'll get you a 12 pack for x mas,
This stuffs awesome!!!!!

if anyone wants to follow my beer drinking my user name is wayne_hesh

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm wysiwyg666

And a little update. Last night the fermenting started taking off. I checked it around 7pm and bam, the airlock was getting clogged and was rapidly building pressure. I'm sure if I wasn't home, the lid would had blown off eventually. So I had to made a make-shift blow off tube.

My current favorite beer.



I also tried the Voodoo Donut beer. Who doesn't like Maple and Bacon? It was very hard to drink. I heard aging it might mellow it out but I don't know if I need to try that.

been on a serious sour kick. Weyerbacher "Riserva" is OUTSTANDING! too bad I only got to drink one bottle before my local spot ran out... cant wait for the 2012 to be finished. It's pricey but if you have get the chance to grab it, do it!

Horny Devil - Alesmith, Rosey Nosey - Bateman's, Hum Bug'r - MacTarnahan's, Campfire Stout - High Water Brewing

Every year the bar down the street from me(Nach Bar) has a "Black Friday Black Out." All of these beers they had on tap starting at 2pm. I got there at 3 and had to tap out by 11pm. As you can see all the beers where "dark" in someway. I am both lucky/unlucky this bar is a block from my house.

Against the grain / De Molen - Bo & Luke
Bluegrass brewing company - Big fella
Bluegrass brewing company - Tsar Bomba
Bell's - Black Note
Bell's - Expedition Stout
De Molen - Rasputin
Dogfish head - Bitches Brew
Founder's - Imperial Stout
Haandbryggeriet - Dark Force
Jolly Pumpkin - Madrugada Obscura
Köstritzer - Schwarzbier
NABC - Bourbon daddy
Harvieston - Engineer's Reserve
Schlafly - Black IPA
Stone - Smoked porter with vanilla bean
Thornbridge - Raven
To Øl - Mochaccino Messiah
Yeastie Boys - Pot kettle black.

^^ That is my kinda evening. Would have spent any amount of money there gladly rather than needless shopping. I am a huge stout/dark beer fan, but sadly have not had a chance to try most of those, as your great microbrews are generally only available in the US.

I left with a 40 dollar tab and I bought some beers for my lady as well. Thankfully they where doing pint , 12oz and 8 oz pours so you could try as many as you wanted with out drinking whole pints or spending a huge wad of cash.

Had some Halida - a Vietnamese beer - the other day. Not bad!

CAST
Rosey Nosey........Bill Murray
zincsaucier..........himself

You must have gotten something bad as the 3 I drank tasted like breakfast.

My cousin has been brewing his own beer since he was 18. He opened a brewery in Norway. http://www.flamsbrygga.no/en/aegir-brewery/

Beau's

Great beers, I was really disappointed to have missed the Beau's Oktoberfest celebration outside of Ottawa this year, I hear it is amazing - and of course the beer is stellar.

My new place is really close to SlyFox's brewpub. They just rolled out their Xmas ale, very heavy on the ginger / clove / cinnamon. love it!

Slyfox's Rauchbier is also awesome if you are into that style.