Greetings! I'm looking forward to learning and sharing in my beer brewing (and drinking) experiences.
At the time that I signed up for this forum, I had an Avenitus Wheat Doppelbock and a Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout clone bottled and aging.
The Oatmeal Stout was the most recent and would be the 5th brew I've done.
1) A kit for a light ale, which turned out great!
2) A kit for a corona clone, which turned out great, but didn't really taste like Corona.
3) I tried the Samuel Smith's Oatmeal stout. I went straight from kits to all-grain without the proper equipment. On top of that, I got the grains uncrushed and I don't have a mill. So, I put the grains in my blender. I'm not sure what happened, since this was a long time ago, but I do remember that my original gravity came out to over 1.1 and my final gravity was around 1.06. It was some pretty thick stuff and it had floaties. lol
4) Several years later, I get back into a place that has a gas stove, so I start again, all-grain, this time with the proper equipment. The Avenitus Wheat Doppelbock was my first all-grain with the new equipment. I think that brew was too much for the 5-gallon mash tun, so my theory is that the mash water got close to saturation before enough of the sugars were extracted. My second mistake was, I had my boil going way too heavy, which yielded me 4 gallons (should have been 5). As it turned out, the two mistakes cancelled themselves and my original/final gravities were right where they were supposed to be. Before I bottled it, it tasted very nice and I'm anxious to try it out.
5) Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. This one was riddled with mistakes. I don't have a big enough boil pot and it doesn't have measurements on it. I sparged it way too much and didn't boil it long enough, so I yielded 6 gallons. My OG was way low, so I added some cane sugar. The heat of summer crept up and hit us suddenly right when I was fermenting it, so I couldn't get the temp down below 78° (should have been between 68° and 73°). It tasted surprisingly okay when I bottled it (a little weak), so we'll see how it turns out.
My next brew I have planned is a Fuller's ESB clone. MMMMMMMmmmm!! Not until I get a bigger kettle, an immersion chiller, and something to control fermentation temperature more efficiently.
At the time that I signed up for this forum, I had an Avenitus Wheat Doppelbock and a Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout clone bottled and aging.
The Oatmeal Stout was the most recent and would be the 5th brew I've done.
1) A kit for a light ale, which turned out great!
2) A kit for a corona clone, which turned out great, but didn't really taste like Corona.
3) I tried the Samuel Smith's Oatmeal stout. I went straight from kits to all-grain without the proper equipment. On top of that, I got the grains uncrushed and I don't have a mill. So, I put the grains in my blender. I'm not sure what happened, since this was a long time ago, but I do remember that my original gravity came out to over 1.1 and my final gravity was around 1.06. It was some pretty thick stuff and it had floaties. lol
4) Several years later, I get back into a place that has a gas stove, so I start again, all-grain, this time with the proper equipment. The Avenitus Wheat Doppelbock was my first all-grain with the new equipment. I think that brew was too much for the 5-gallon mash tun, so my theory is that the mash water got close to saturation before enough of the sugars were extracted. My second mistake was, I had my boil going way too heavy, which yielded me 4 gallons (should have been 5). As it turned out, the two mistakes cancelled themselves and my original/final gravities were right where they were supposed to be. Before I bottled it, it tasted very nice and I'm anxious to try it out.
5) Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. This one was riddled with mistakes. I don't have a big enough boil pot and it doesn't have measurements on it. I sparged it way too much and didn't boil it long enough, so I yielded 6 gallons. My OG was way low, so I added some cane sugar. The heat of summer crept up and hit us suddenly right when I was fermenting it, so I couldn't get the temp down below 78° (should have been between 68° and 73°). It tasted surprisingly okay when I bottled it (a little weak), so we'll see how it turns out.
My next brew I have planned is a Fuller's ESB clone. MMMMMMMmmmm!! Not until I get a bigger kettle, an immersion chiller, and something to control fermentation temperature more efficiently.
