Although I have been brewing since 2005, there are many things that I just haven’t done yet within the hobby.  Next week, I plan to accomplish these new-to-me things:

• Brew with Pale Chocolate malt
• Brew with Lactose
• Divide the sweet stout into 4 different secondary “tanks” for different flavor additives
• Use the WLP008 yeast strain

I guess that’s why brewing is so interesting as a hobby.  It seems like there so much to it and it’s hard to get bored.  I wonder if people who have been brewing for over 30 years feel like there is still more to learn.

Learn and do.

Learn and do.

Next week, I will have some photos/recaps of the two brew sessions.  Hmmm, I should start making my yeast starters this weekend.

When I dug up information on Maris Otter malt, I found many references to Golden Promise malt.  There seems to be some debate about which is a better base malt for English style beers.

At Brew Dudes, we believe that experimentation is the only way to figure out the answer.  Now we don’t conduct as many experiments as we should but someday we’ll live up to the promise of our ambitions.

For now, let’s learn more about the history of Golden Promise malt.

Golden Promise is malted from a spring barley variety which was recommended for cultivation in Scotland in 1968.  It was grown by Miln Masters throughout the 1970s through the 1990s.  The malt was used largely by distilleries in Scotland but many UK brewers used it as base malt as well.

Unfortunately, the barley is very susceptible to disease so its large scale production is no longer.   Commercially, it does not have wide use but it is still available to homebrewers.

Flavor:  Sweet, clean flavor.  Some say it is superior to Maris Otter.

Color: 1.7- 2.0°L

Body: N/A

Use: Certainly can be used in Scottish ales.  It might be interesting to brew the same beer twice, one with Maris Otter – the other with Golden Promise and note the differences.

Maris Otter malt is highly praised for use as a base malt in all English style beers. I ordered some for the milk stout I am brewing later on in the month. After I clicked “submit” on my order, I decided to learn more about this base malt. Here is the Maris Otter malt profile.

The malt was developed by the good doctor, Dr. G. D. H. Bell at the Plant Breeding Institute and was introduced to the public in 1966. He crossed two different barley varieties, Proctor and Pioneer.

Although I couldn’t find where the name “Otter” came from, “Maris” was the name of the lane where the institute was located in Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, England.

It is a winter barley which means it is sown in autumn and germinate before winter. The malt was bred to brew cask conditioned ales. Many sources stated how forgiving this malt is in the brewing process. I am not sure what that means but it’s probably a commentary on how it handles mash temps or duration.

Flavor:  Brings a nutty flavor to your beers.  Other sources claimed a biscuity flavor.

Color: 3.5- 4.5°L

Body: N/A

Use:  Base malt for all English style beers.  It could be a good experiment to brew 2 beers – one using American 2-row and the other using Maris Otter and compare/contrast the tastes.

Ok – enough making cider and mead. It’s time to get brewing beer again. Yay.

I am taking some time off of work in 2 weeks so I will hopefully have time to brew up a couple of beers before the end of the year.

First up is the Harvest Ale. I have all these homegrown hops in my freezer that are begging to be boiled in a kettle. Hops – they want what they want. The Harvest ale will be pretty straightforward and should be ready in January.

The second brew will be a sweet stout. With this one, I plan to have separate secondaries for different flavor combinations – chocolate, vanilla, cherry.

The plan is to ferment the full brew all at once and then rack it to separate secondary vessels and add particular flavorful ingredients to them like, uh, cacao nibs, vanilla beans, and cherry puree.

I gotta start ordering stuff this week so I have it in time for my staycation or brewcation. I gotta remember to buy a new autosiphon because I broke mine a few brews ago and more PBW.

Ok – end of ramble. Brew on.

With November coming to a close, I thought I would put up a quick post about the homebrewing competition scoresheets I got back from the NERHBC.

Pretty middle of the road scores as you can see from the photo above. The Oktoberfest did place but it is always interesting to see what scores and comments you get back.

Beers that did well in a previous competition got lower marks this time around.

Beer that I thought weren’t that great received some positive remarks.

Beers with a higher scores than the Oktoberfest didn’t place at all. It comes down to competition in the category, I guess.

Anyway, next year it’s all about brewing more and submitting more.

After a week in the bottle, the cider was carbonated enough to pass as sparkling.

My handy dandy carbonation alert system worked like a charm. It regained its original shape:

If you want to see what it look like before it carbonated, take a look at the cider bottling post.

After a few hours in the fridge, it was ready for Thanksgiving dinner. My target audience thought it was much, much better than my first attempt at making cider two years ago.

It was a bit cloudy in the glass but the bottles that didn’t make it out of the fridge have started to clear up. I’ll post a photo of a glass later.

There isn’t much left. I did put some in 12 ounce bottles for competitions so I will need to pasteurize them at some point. The rest will be gone soon.

With one month down in the secondary and at least one month to go, I added 2 ounces of oak chips to my raspberry mead last week.

I read in the Compleat Meadmaker that mead and oak work well together. I think my raspberry mead is going to benefit from some oaky/vanilla flavors.

I soaked the chips in water for 12 hours and steamed them for 10 minutes. I sanitized my big funnel and poured them right into the glass carboy.

So, the new plan is to let the mead and the oak play together for a while. I will be sneaking tastes every week to see how things are progressing. I am looking for balance so I will rack the mead off the oak when I think it’s oak-y enough.