I hadn’t noticed any such ring in my past brews and believe that this may indicate that I had an infection in the brew.  There weren’t any off flavors or odors that I could detect, so I figure that if I  had an infection it lost out to the yeast and its alcoholic byproducts.  I will know for sure in a couple of weeks whether or not the infection survived. It will be evident if any of the bottles turns out to be a gusher, a brew that foams excessively when opened.

 Other than that, I am quite hopeful for a good batch of stout. I am excited to let my parents give this one a try.  It turns out that my dad has never IN HIS WHOLE LIFE tried a stout beer.  My mother enjoys dark coffee, so I believe that she is sure to enjoy this style.  In any case, I will let you all know the results when the votes are in.

    After a taste, I was quite pleased.  At first taste, I did notice some subtle fruity esters, but I think that these will probably fade during the next month or two. The dominant flavor was a nice, lingering roasty flavor reminiscent of chocolate and coffee–very nice indeed.  The bitterness was nicely balanced, I am glad that I gave my bittering hops a little extra time in the boil.   The color is a very dark brown that looks black in the carboy; I really hit my mark in this regard.  

I was tempted to add coffee to this batch in the secondary but have decided against it; I want to get a good baseline for future alterations.  

 The residual yeast, when mixed with some of the beer in the bottom in the primary, reminded me of a (light) chocolate milkshake; like the color you get from Dairy Queen when the kid behind the counter doesn’t know what he is doing.  I am going to practive yeast collection this time..

I bagged up the 1 lb of flaked oats and the crystal 6o malt into a grain bag and placed the bag in 3.5 gallons of tap water at 70 degrees F. Over medium heat, I slowly raised the temperature to 153 degrees F. At this point, to practice some temperature control, I tried to hold the temp at 153 for 15 minutes. I managed to keep it within a degree or two–with more practive like this, I might just be ready to give all-grain brewing a try.

After about 40 minutes of steeping and the water was up to 170 degrees F, I removed the grain bag and set it aside, and then proceeded to bring the water up to a boil. To maintain the balance of the beer, I added my bittering hops at 20 minutes and my finnishing ups at 85 minutes. About an hour into the boil, I realized that I had forgotten to “sparge” my grain bag, so I slowly poured 4 cups of tap water over the grain bag, suspended with a metal strainer, into my boiling wort. I had underestimated the amount of protein and sugar that would be extracted during this progess and nearly had a boil over.

After 90 minutes of boiling, I moved my boil vessel into an ice bath that I had prepared shortly before. I agitated the ice water a bit to improve the heat transfer; the wort was cool enough for yeast pitching in about 20 minutes or so. I transfered the wort to my primary fermeter through a strainer–I was surprized how little residue accumulated in the strainer.

At that point, I took a gravity reading. The only problem was, I had followed Charlie Papazian’s “DWHAHB” suggestion too closely and don’t think (and hope) that I took a correct gravity reading. I read either 5 on the bailing scale or potential alcholol scale–one indicates a good initial gravity, the other a terrible initial gravity. [The beer has since gone through its primary fermentation, which lasted a solid 36 hours, so I am fairly certain that I am in the clear. ]

The processing of topping off the fermenter provided sufficient aeration for the wort, so I pitched the yeast after taking my gravity reading and sealed up the fermenter with an airlock.

I am tempted to start another brew, maybe some Apfelwein, just in case my beer turns out like water.

This was the first time that I have brewed with Crystal malt. I don’t think that this malted version needs to be mashed, but if I am wrong, please let me know.

I was all ready to brew this last weekend when I discovered I was out of ice. I was also a little concerned with the fact that I had just finished preparing some pizza dough–I made a flour mess and was worried about possible contamination from bacteria and yeast leaching onto airborn flour particals. Brewing will commence as soon as I have a free evening; it might be next weekend.

Staring Gravity: 1.050 – 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.015 – 1.020
ABV: 4.5% – 5.0%
Hop IBUs: 20
Ingredients:

3.3 x 2 lb Briess Dark Malt Extract
1 lb Flaked Oats
4 oz Briess Crushed Crystal 60 Malt
8 oz Muntons Crushed Roasted Barly
1 oz Ken Goldings Hops (bittering)
1 oz Fuggle Hops (Finishing)
1 packet Muntons Ale Yeast (dry)

Directions:

In two gallons of water, add the barly and oats. Heat the water from room temperature to 160-170 degrees F. Remove the grains; use a grain bag or strain appropriately.

Heat the brew pot to boiling. Remove from heat and add the extracts; stir until incorporated. Return the brew pot to the heat and return to boil. Add the bittering hops, the Goldings, and continue to boil for 55 minutes.
Add the finishing hops, the Fuggles, and then boil for an additional 5 minutes.

Cool the wort rapidly to about 75 degrees before pitching the yeast.