Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

First Brew Session 2009

On March 18, 2009

Well after a long winter my garden hose is still partially buried under one last snow bank that sits in the shade. But enough of the hose is exposed that I can run water into the garage, SO ITS TIME TO BREW.

My plan is to fire off 10 gallons of Oatmeal Stout. I’ll post the latest version of the recipe soon (sorry no oat malt planned yet).

I just got back from my LHBS (Modern Brewer on Mass Ave, Cambridge). I picked up a good list of supplies to get me through my first few planned batches. This weekend I am going to mash in for 10 gallons of Oatmeal Stout. I also got what I needed to round out the BKB Spring Pale ale (I might try and knock that out in the same session). There will be an Ordinary bitter in the near future too.

I just want to properly plug Modern Brewer. Those guys really have got a great supply of grains AND hops!
Here is my shopping list of stuff I picked up (it’s not all for the Stout):

55# Maris Otter Pale malt
1# Roasted Barely
1# Torrified wheat
1# Munich malt
0.5# Victory malt
0.5# Aromatic malt
0.5# Melanoidin malt
WLP004 Irish Ale yeast
WLP008 East Coast Ale yeast
WLP029 Kolsch/Alt yeast
1.0oz Cascade hops
1.0oz Magnum hops
2.0oz Centennial hops
3.5oz EKG hops
0.5# Rice hulls
Whirlfloc tablets
StarSan (the big bottle)

Check back again soon, I’ll try and get some pictures up of the process.
Tomorrow night, I’ll make my yeast starters for the Stout.

Nugget Hops

By John Krochune

On March 18, 2009

In Hops

After learning and writing about Millennium hops, I thought I would take a trip down the road to discovering Nugget hops, Mike has brewed with these hops before. I feel they are a pretty well known American hop variety. I learned they were first bred in 1970 from a fairly extensive mix of parent hops including:

Brewers Gold
Early Green
Canterbury Golding
Bavarian
Unknown

My favorite from this list, of course, is Unknown. It’s like my favorite poet – Anonymous.

Nugget hops were released to the public in 1983 by the USDA.

Origin: I think Yakima, WA – United States

Aroma: Descriptors include Heavy (I like that one), spicy-herbal, and similar to Northern Brewer.

Alpha Acid: 12.5 – 14.0%

Typical Usage: Bittering mostly. Some sources reported getting some good dry hopping results from using Nugget.

Beer Styles: Another great one for American ales and lagers.

Millennium Hops

By John Krochune

On March 16, 2009

In Hops

As I was looking for other new, American bittering hops, I found one variety called Millennium hops. Millennium is the product of a cross breeding of Nugget and Columbus hops in 1989. It was made publicly available in the year 2000. As it is the case for a great number of new varieties, Millennium hops were bred for commercial goals including higher tolerance to mildew, higher cone production per acre, and higher storage capabilities than other, older American bittering hop varieties. These goals all make sense for hop growers trying to maximize their efforts for the larger breweries. For the homebrewers, it gives us the chance to brew with more varieties of hops.

Origin: Pacific Northwest – United States

Aroma: From the sources I read, Millennium hops are very similar to Nugget hops in aroma and flavor. Some descriptors included floral, resiny, and a bit spicy/herbal. I should probably write a profile on Nugget hops soon.

Alpha Acid: 14.5 – 16.5%

Typical Usage: Bittering mostly.

Beer Styles: Very good bittering hop for American ale styles.

Brewing Update- Snowed in!

By Mike

On March 12, 2009

In Brew Log

I haven’t brewed since November!!! All that snow still has encased my garden hose along my driveway.
But as I left for work this morning, I could see well over 70% of it exposed, the last bit is actually encased in ice in a shady spot near the house.

It’s almost time to fire up the brew kettle once again.
The top of the list is a revisit my Oatmeal Stout recipe with some revisions.
I thought I would be able to start brewing sooner, so does it make sense to brew up an Oatmeal Stout as the weather starts to warm. (dare I challenge Mother Nature by making that statement?)

I also have a Pale Ale and some Cream Ale on the top of the list as well… tough decisions.

BREW ON!

Original Post 12/22/08Well I had plans to fire off that Cascade Pale ale to complete my comparison to the Brown Ale I made but mother nature has different plans for me it seems.

We have received ice and snow over the last two weeks which has basically shut down my brewing operations. I hook up to my water source from an exterior faucet on the house here. I use it for filling pots, but more importantly it’s my chiller water source. Regardless of that fact but my water hose is buried under 2 feet of snow out there. I draped it down the front lawn to drain it. Now it’s completely buried!

So until I can dig out the hose and the faucet, I’ll just have to make do with what I have.
The good news is that it’s so cold I have decided to keg my American Brown Ale instead of bottling it. I’ll keep it on the enclosed porch where it should stay plenty cold to carbonate and to serve. I have some bottled beer out there and it doesn’t freeze normally. So I’ll get back into my kegging practices without a beer fridge. Hey, that’s green brewing right????

I hope you are brewing more than I am now despite the winter weather here in New England.

BREW ON!

Oat Malt

By John Krochune

On March 12, 2009

In Malts

I was looking through my Northern Brewer catalog and found Oat Malt. It appears to be a pretty rare malt. Along with Wheat Malt, it is an interesting alternative to the actual non-malted grain as an addition to your beer recipe. I did some research into this malt but I also wanted to get more information from our readers.

Flavor: Not much information about the flavor. I am guessing it adds more to the mouthfeel of the beer which is sorta slick, sorta creamy.
Color: 4° L – I don’t think it adds much color.
Body: Northern Brewer described the warmth that Oat Malt adds to a beer. It’s got to be similar to the feel of oatmeal.
Use: It’s got to be great for Oatmeal Stouts. Probably good for robust porters and ambers.

So what say you? When you brew recipes that call for oats, would you rather brew with oats or oat malt?

Does anyone have experience in brewing with oat malt?

Pleas leave a comment. Thanks!