As we're gearing up to make another batch of Leaf Blower, our fall seasonal of a Butternut Squash Nut Brown Ale, I'm looking back at the second beer we made at this same time last year, the Milk Stout. I'm currently nursing over a hangover brought on by a Maryland tailgate coupled with friends and $3 Rocktoberfest's at Rock Bottom. I finally brought myself to want to be near beer again, now that I had to open a bottle of Dogfish Head Punkin' to simmer some meatballs in.
The Milk Stout was our first foray into an all-grain batch of beer. I think Milk Stout ranks pretty highly for Liz and I as our favorite type of beer, so I'm surprised it took us this long to try ouhr hand on it. Our favorites being the one Duck Rabbit makes, as well as Lefthand's and Terrapin's "Moo-Hoo." I'm surprised it isn't a more accessible type of beer, but it can be hard to find them. I found a recipe that claimed it was close in nature to "Snow Plow" a winter seasonal by Widmer. Liz and I had just been to their brewery in August of 2010 for my best friend from high school's rehearsal dinner. We did not get a chance to taste that beer at the time, but did get a chance to heavily sample some of their more regular ones. We really enjoyed what they made, so we thought the recipe would find us well.
Liz and I ventured up to the Flying Barrel in Frederick to pick up some grain. They were absolutely wonderful with the help they provided me. They pulled some one aside to assist me in locating what I needed and teach me through the weighing and gathering process. They even gave us some free beer of some kegged Home Brew they had in a fridge keggerator on the premise. I must admit, the coolest part of the whole process is when Liz and I got to mill the grain we pulled together for the recipe. It made us feel closer to the end product that we had ever experienced before. It was also uncanny how much grain you need for 5 gallons of beer, needing nearly 14 pounds of grain.
Now that grains are involved, temperature becomes a little more important. So where we sometimes go more on "feel" we were using the thermometer more religiously.
Bailey, our beagle, went nuts for this spent grain mash once we finished sparging it.
This smelled soooooooooooo delicious and actually tasted pretty good. It basically tasted like really sweet and rich oatmeal.
The picture below show just how unprepared we were for the all-grain process. We did not have the outside space or the proper equipment. We ended up needing 3 pots to hold all the grain. It got messy pretty quickly, and our building's AC was not quite the best at the time, so it also got swelteringly hot with all the burners going.
The color is pretty interesting. It is hard to believe such a color was coming from basically a grain-tea.
So this is where the lack of proper equipment comes into play. We couldn't really sparge (basically running water through the spent grain to make sure all the sugars are drawn out) our grain properly, so I'm basically burning my hands here trying to get it done. There actually some video circulating of me that Ed took of this goose-like sound I was screaming every time I squeezed the hot bags of grain.
Ed got in on it too, though opting for a shirtless operation. I stripped down eventually too, because of the heat. Also, man-sweat is a necessary ingredient in any proper beer.
What a mess. Beer's a weird process where you clean the kitchen better than it has ever been cleaned, only to mess it up immediately with sticky dark goop.
Ed, who had to eventually call it quits to work on homework, abandoned the kitchen to do discussion board posts in the living room. I was left to finish on my own. I do not blame Ed for his decision, and actually regretted having all my grad school work done heading into this day. The whole process hear took about 7 hours, so it was more time intensive than the 3 or 4 that we were used to.
Equipment was the name of the game here, and where you don't legit equipment if you are going to play around with all-grain brewing, it is important to have some things like a couple huge pots or buckets along with a large metal colander. I broke a small colander in the process here, and stress fractured a plastic one. The next week I discovered a nice metal strainer in Liz's pot cabinet. My second go at it was a lot easier when I made an all-grain chai tea beer, because I halved my recipe and used that metal colander. It was seamless compared to this.
Finally have a more finished wort ready for hop additions.
Then lingering grain was being a pain straining the finished wort into the carboy. Liz is exercising her wrists here for the greater good of the beer.
The Milk Stout is on the left here, with the Leaf Blower I mentioned being on the right. What a beautiful sight to see two active carboys at once.
So the beer turned out okay. It had a weird aftertaste, though our friend Craig swears by it, so I've been funneling him 4 packs through the year since it hasn't been a fast mover. He's supported Battery Brewing way before it was Battery Brewing, even seeing it through an incident caused by leaving a little bleach in a bottle during the cleaning process (getting an oxygen based cleaner is real easy, even though a bit more expensive, lesson learned). So I'm happy to give him outstanding inventory for no special occasion. I'll have one on occasion, but it surely isn't one of my favorites. I'm definitely going to try it over again in a smaller, more easily managed batch.
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