Scottish Export Ale

I brewed a Scottish Export Ale last Friday 2/24. I did a step infusion mash. The first temperature was 140 degrees F for 45 minutes. The second was 150 for 45 minutes. The third was 159 for 45 minutes. I sparged well and boiled for 90 minutes.

The brew worked out great with an O.G. of 1.058. The only odd thing that happened was when I activated the liquid yeast. I "thought" I smashed it and mixed the yeast with the nutrient, but it really didn't break and mix. So, I had to pitch the yeast as it was. This resulted in a very slow start to the fermentation. But, I checked it today and the gravity is now 1.012. The color is pretty dark for a Scottish Export Ale, but still within bjcp guidelines.

I brewed this batch to enter into the beer contest at Forest City Brewers.

Visit my site at beerandwineathome.com for other information.

Beer & Ingredients II, The Ultimate Beer Ingredient Guide, What does What. Take your homebrew to the next level, homebrew's ingredient guide.

The second release of my beer book is out on Kindle now.  I have already gotten some good feedback that I'll take and use for release three.  Click here to take a look!  I've added some ingredients missing in the first book and updated the formatting.

This book was written to give brewers a general feel of the ingredient needed to make the beer they want to make.  Many ingredients are similar so when you get to the store and the store is out of stock, you can use my book to come up with an alternative ingredient and still brew up a great batch of beer.  Who knows....  Experimenting with ingredients to make a new batch of beer may make the beer better.  My book is geared to help you experiment and love brewing beer.

The printed version of the book should be out early next week!

Happy Brewing!

The Russian Imperial Stout is in the Bourbon Barrel

My friends at Forest City Brewers built a stand for the 55 gallon bourbon barrel and added a fresh bottle of bourbon to re-saturate the wood.  We all got together and brewed a Russian Imperial Stout.  All the batches worked out well and are now in the bourbon barrel aging and soaking in that lovely bourbon flavor.  This is going to be a great brew!  I think we ended up around 40 gallons and I think they told me another 10 gallons is on the way.  We should end up at around 50 gallons of beer.  

Great teamwork guys!

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The Russian Imperial Stout is going to the Bourbon Barrel

I moved the Russian Imperial Stout to the secondary carboy.  It had a final gravity of 1.018, which is slightly low.  The BJCP states that the low end of the Final Gravity is 1.018, but others are saying 1.020.  So, I'm going with the BJCP.

I took a small sample to taste.  It was very good.  Today is the Forest City Brewers meeting and I plan to take the beer in the carboy to the meeting and give it to my friend who owns the bourbon barrel.  This beer will have no issues passing the strict quality tests they are doing to everyone's beer that will potentially go into the bourbon barrel.  I can't wait to taste it after it ages!

Visit my site at www.beerandwineathome.com

Patrick