Black Beauty

Because I simply couldn't wait, I put a bottle of my black, bitter stout in the frig last night so I could try it today. And quite simply, this is the best beer I have ever made. Coming in at about 6.5% ABV and with an IBU of 63, it tastes much mellower. There's a hint of smoky, a hint of chocolatey and a bit of sweetness, but not much. It's great - a truly wonderful beer. Thank you beer gods.

The sweet smell of success

After several disasterous batches over the winters, I have now produced three consecutive amazing brews. The summer wheat ale I made with grains of paradise is a winner, the black stout with 63 IBUs will be ready to drink in a few days and tasted amazing right out of the fermenter and the Oberon clone using Oberon yeast is in the secondary and looking good. I think I am starting to get the hang of this!

The only real issue I have is that I have made so much beer that I really have to give some of it away. It's gotten ridiculous. I have at least three cases of beer in the house. I think a tasting party is in order.

The Oberon experiment

So - I started collecting yeast from the bottom of Oberon bottles a month ago or so and used a 1-gallon fermenting jug to build up the yeast supply. I made two additions of amber malt dissolved in water. I made a batch of beer yesterday (May 15) with the following recipe: 1 pound of light, dry malt extract, 1 pound of caramel malt 10 steeped at 150 degrees for 20 minutes. 3.5 pounds of liquid wheat extract and 2.5 pounds of liquid light malt extract. 1 ounce of Willamette for 60 minutes and 1 ounce of Cascade for 15 minutes. OG was 1.055. IBU - 24.

I pitched the yeast and it is bubbling nicely. Here's my concern. After four weeks in the fermenting jug, it smelled a bit cidery. I didn't see any growth that would indicate bacteria infection, but something didn't smell right. In a 5-gallon batch, a little stinky liquid wouldn't ruin the batch, but bacteria and funky yeast that makes cidery beer could. In the end, it could be a $25 mistake, but at least I proved I could make beer after the apocalypse.

Wheat beer, mmmmm

After a run of bad luck with beers, I feel like I have emerged from a dark, dark night and produced some killer products. After two weeks in the secondary, I bottled my wheat beer, and of course sampled it - warm and uncarbonated. It was very sound. Very dry and with a hint of spice. The final gravity was an amazing 1.00, meaning there is very little sugar left in the beer. The ABV works out to roughly 4.2% and it has a nice caramel color and surprisingly is very clear for a wheat.

My effort to grow yeast from Oberon bottles has worked very well and I will pitch my next batch with the Oberon yeast. I hope it turns out ok. As a back up, I plan on gathering some yeast from the first few bottles of this wheat, which uses a Safale style. I also put my black, hoppy, stout into the secondary - mainly to prevent autolysis (death and stinkiness) of the yeast. I think it is ready to bottle now, but I don't have enough bottles available.