I’ve had Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout a few times before and was pretty impressed with it. I decided to do a clone of it, and found a few different recipes online. I made a few changes suggested by people who had tried it before, such as adding the flaked barley to improve head retention and letting the oats rest at least overnight after toasting them.

Process:

The night before, I spread out my oats on a cookie sheet and toasted them in the oven. I only had Quick Oats available, and since these are already cooked they didn’t take very long to toast. The toasting was done in about 12 minutes at 300 F, turning the oats about halfway through. The recipe said that if you use flaked oats (which aren’t cooked) it can take up to 75 minutes. However, several people who commented on similar clone recipes said it only took 25-30 minutes to toast their oats.

On the brew day I activated the yeast pack. Put 1.5 gallons of water into my cooking pot and heated it to 160 F, at which point I added my grains in a grain bag to steep for 50 minutes, which brought the temperature down to 155 F. After steeping I rinsed the grains with another gallon of warm water, and then I heated the wort to a boil. As it was heating I added my liquid malt extract to dissolve. I also rinsed out my malt container with another gallon or so of water and added that to the wort. Then I began making some Spent Grain Bread until the wort began to boil.

When the boil began I started my timer for 90 minutes. With 60 minutes left, I added all the hops I am using for this beer. I then let the boil continue until the full 90 minutes was up. I then poured my wort into a primary bucket. I added about 2 gallons worth of ice and a bit of cold water, bringing the temperature down to 77 F. I pitched my yeast, attached a blow-off tube, and sealed up the bucket.

1-28-12: Put into primary and pitched yeast. OG measured at 1.058 giving an alcohol potential of 7.6 %ABV.

2-4-12: Racked to secondary carboy. SG measured at 1.019 giving a strength of 5.1 %ABV.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of spent grain (drained, but still damp)
• 1.5 cups of warm water
• 1 tablespoon dry BAKER’S yeast
• 1/3 cup sugar (white or brown)
• 3-5 cups flour
• Dash of salt
• Cornmeal (optional)

Directions

1. Mix warm water, sugar, and yeast in a bowl to create a starter. Let it start to show activity.
2. Add spent grains and salt to a large mixing bowl. Add yeast starter and mix.
3. Continue adding flour and mixing until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky.
4. Knead dough for 10 minutes.
5. Place dough in an oiled or floured bowl and cover with a towel while it rises (double the size, about 60 minutes).
6. Punch down the dough and form into a large round loaf or divide into smaller loafs. Place loaf on cornmeal-dusted baking sheet or into greased bread pans.
7. Allow bread to rise again (double the size, about 60 minutes).
8. Bake at 375 F for 30-40 minutes.
9. Let cool.

*Notes: You might need to use more flour than this recipe calls for, just continue adding flour until the dough is workable and can be kneaded. The dough can be placed in a warm oven (~100 F) to help it rise more quickly, about 30-40 minutes instead of 60.

Last year for Christmas, I gave my sister-in-law a starter kit to learn how to home-brew along with a promise that I would come by and walk her through it. Well, I guess it was a busy year, because 2011 went by and I never got around to it. So I headed up to Westchester County for the day to deliver some late Christmas-gifts to my niece and nephew and finally brew a batch of beer. This would be the Sterr Bros first brew on the East Coast.

Process:

Activated the yeast pack. Put about 1.5 gallons of water into 20qt stockpot and heated it to 155˙F. Added grains in a nylon grain bag to steep for an hour. Then rinsed the grains with a half gallon or so of hot water and heated the wort to a boil. Once boiling, added the liquid malt and the sugar and stirred it in until it dissolved.

When it returned to a boil, I added the first half of the hops. At 30 minutes, I added the second half of the U.S. Golding hops and boiled for another 30 minutes. After the full 60 minutes, I removed the wort from the stove.

I added 7lbs of ice to my primary bucket and then poured my wort into the bucket. Stirred it to melt the ice and had to add more ice. It still only dropped to about 90˙F, so we placed it outside in the 20˙ weather to cool to 70˙F. Measured the OG and pitched the yeast.

Fermenting/Bottling:

Left the beer in primary (brew bucket) for one week. Then it was racked to a 5 gal carboy, where it stayed for two weeks. Transferred it back to the bucket and bottled it on February 4th with a yield of 50 bottles.

Bottling with my brother

…and capping.

While I was down in Florida over Christmas break I was able to try some imported German beer. I really like the Köstritzer Black that I tried, and even my mom who doesn’t drink beer thought it tasted good. It was a very smooth beer, a black lager that drank easily and didn’t leave any aftertaste. Now that I have my new beer fridge I decided that I could try a clone of this beer and lager it in the fridge at 35 F. This will be my first lagering attempt, other than the Gun Closet Kölsch which was lagered at around 50 F in my dad’s basement.

Process:

Activated the yeast pack. Put 1.5 gallons of water into my cooking pot and heated it to 155 F, at which point I added my grains in a grain bag to steep for 30 minutes. After steeping I rinsed the grains with another gallon of warm water, and then I heated the wort to a boil. As it was heating I added my liquid malt extract to dissolve. I also rinsed out my malt container with another gallon or so of water and added that to the wort.

When the boil began I added my first addition of 0.75 ounces of Hallertau hops. At 40 minutes I added another 0.75 ounces of Hallertau, and another half ounce at 20 minutes. At 15 minutes I put in a Whirlfloc tablet to help the beer clarify. After 90 minutes I turned off the heat and removed the wort from the stove.

I added ice to my primary bucket and then poured my wort into the bucket through a strainer to remove the hops. Stirred it to melt the ice and ended up with a final temperature of 75 F so there was no need for additional cooling. I measured the OG and pitched the yeast, then sealed the bucket and attached the blow-off tube.

1-14-12: Put into primary. OG measured at 1.051 giving an alcohol potential of 6.3%ABV.

1-25-12: Racked to secondary carboy, and placed carboy in my fridge to lager at about 35 F. SG measured at 1.018.

2-4-12: Checked SG and it was 1.017, so it has continued working a bit but very slowly. I was doing some reading about lagering and apparently it is suggested to go from primary fermentation temperature to lagering temperature over a period of serveral days as not to shock the yeast. I did it over one day, so the yeast may have been shocked into dormancy, but I hope they will continue to work a bit over the next few weeks and achieve an FG around 1.014.

Process:

Heated one gallon of water to a boil. While it was heating I thinly sliced my ounce of ginger, leaving the skin on. I then added the ginger to the water when it began boiling, and simmered for 15 minutes.

As the ginger steeped, I washed my zucchini. I then cut them into four sections lengthwise and sliced them thin. I added the cut zucchini to my primary bucket. I also added the sugar on top of the zucchini.

After the 15 minute steep was done, I poured the boiling water over the sugar and zucchini in my primary bucket. I then added the acid blend and crushed Campden tablets. TA% was 0.6 and the OG was 1.110 giving a potential strength of 14.4 %ABV.

10-23-11: Put the wine into primary with Campden tablets. OG measured at 1.110.

10-24-11: Pitched the yeast and stirred it into the must.

10-26-11: No airlock activity yet. I removed the blow-off tube and attached a regular airlock. I added 1.5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient and moved the primary bucket to a warmer location (from 55 F to 65 F) in hopes of getting it to start fermenting.

10-28-11: Fermentation was just beginning to start yesterday. Today the airlock is bubbling away steadily and the yeast is finally doing its job.

12-17-11: Finally got around to straining and racking this to a secondary 1-gallon carboy. FG measured at 0.990 giving it a strength of 14. %ABV. Has a pale color with a green tint, and tastes strongly of ginger.

Pears are ripe and falling off of our tree so I’ve been preparing to make Perry, a pear mead or more technically a melomel. It sounds like it should be very tasty but like my other meads it will take some time to mature. Apparently perry used to be very popular towards the end of the Roman Empire and also in 14th century France.

Process:

Collected pears as they became very ripe and then trimmed them of stems and bad spots. I then ran the pears through a food grinder and froze the pulp until I was ready to use it.

On the brew day I thawed the pulp and added half a gallon of water to make it a bit more fluid. Heated this up to 150 F and let it sit for 30 minutes to sterilize the fruit. I then removed it from the stove and added it to my primary bucket.

While the fruit was sterilizing on the stove, I placed my honey into a warm water bath to allow it to flow more easily. When the fruit had been added to primary I then poured in the honey and added enough water to reach a volume of just over 3 gallons. I measured the OG and it was 1.096 giving an alcohol potential of 12.6 %ABV. I added the pectic enzyme and the yeast nutrient, pitched the yeast, and sealed the bucket with a blow-off tube.

9-27-11: Put into primary. OG measured at 1.096.

10-23-11: Racked into 3 1-gallon carboys. Very cloudy even after I strained it to remove all the large bits of pulp (took about an hour to do). SG measured at 1.008 giving a strength of 12.5 %ABV.

After liking the Blackberry Wheat Ale I made last year around this time, I decided to try a different style of blackberry beer. I found this recipe sometime last year and made some modifications based on the advice of one of the employees at Larry’s Brewing Supply. I think it is going to turn out well, and I’m excited to try a porter with fruit.

Process:

Activated the yeast pack. Put 1 gallon of water into my cooking pot and heated it to 155 F, at which point I added my grains in a grain bag to steep for 30 minutes. After steeping I rinsed the grains with another gallon and a half of warm water, and then I heated the wort to a boil. As it was heating I added my liquid malt extract to dissolve.

When the boil began I added my ounce of Northern Brewer and half an ounce of Fuggles hops for bittering. At 15 minutes I added the other half ounce of Fuggles for flavor, and also added the malto-dextrine for some added body and the Whirlfloc tablet to help clarify the beer. After 60 minutes of boiling I removed the pot from the heat and poured it into my primary bucket with some ice to cool it to around 80 F, reaching a volume of 5.5 gallons. I then pitched the yeast and sealed with a blow-off tube.

9-24-11: Put into primary. OG measured at 1.064 giving an alcohol potential of 8.6 %ABV.

10-1-11: Added blackberries to secondary and then racked beer onto them. SG measured at 1.026 giving a strength of 5.3 %ABV before the blackberries were added.

10-18-11: Racked off the blackberries and yeast into a bottling bucket, and I ended up with just 5 gallons of beer. I dissolved the priming sugar in a pint of water and added it to the bucket and then bottled. FG measured at 1.020 giving a strength of 6.0 %ABV, though this figure is based only off the OG before the blackberries were added so it is a  bit stronger than this.

Process:

Removed the stems from the strawberries and then cut them in half and sliced them thinly. Once I had 6 pounds of sliced strawberries I put them in a cooking pot with about a gallon of water. I heated this up to 150 F to let it steep for 30 minutes. During this time I crushed up the strawberries with a potato masher which helped break them down and extract more of their juices.

When the 30 minutes was up, I added the strawberries to my primary bucket. I then added on gallon of cold water, bringing the total volume to just under 3 gallons (allowing roughly a gallon being lost to pulp and sediment when racking to secondary). I measured my sugar and added that next, stirring the must to dissolve the sugar. I took a reading and got an OG of 1.078, giving a potential strength of 11.3 %ABV. I added my pectic enzyme, acid blend, and yeast to the primary and then sealed it with a blow-off tube. I measured the acidity and it was 0.4%, so I added 3 tablespoons of acid blend to reach a TA of 0.7 %.

9-17-11: Put into primary. OG measured at 1.078.

9-27-11: Racked off of the fruit pulp into two one-gallon carboys and one half-gallon carboy. SG measured at 1.002 giving a strength of 10.4 %ABV.