Stupid Dogs

I was supposed to brew a Summit SMaSH (single malt and single hops) this weekend, but ran into some obstacles. Saturday started off great. A friend from work got us free tickets to the Badger game against Illinois. Another friend was working the beer tent, so we got to drink for tips only. Great seats and a great game! Badgers finally won their first Big 10 conference game of the season ('bout freaking time!). Went back to the beer tent after the game, met Wendel the Miller Hight Life guy, got some free swag. Good times. My buddy and I shared a cab ride back to my place to hang out and sober up. After a couple ours I drove him home and that's when the shit hit the fan.

I got back to my place after 10-15 minutes only to find our foster dog Einstein soaking wet and bleeding in our kitchen. Dexter (our forever dog) is lying under the table, his muzzle and neck covered in blood that's clearly not his own. Both dogs are panting heavily. Without hesitation I leave Dexter behind and take Einstein to the emergency vet. I spend an hour or so there while he gets checked out. They decide they want to sedate him to get a better look at his wounds and send me home, telling me they'll call in a few hours to come pick him up.

I get home, clean Dexter off and find a few nicks and bruises on him, but nothing too bad. After a few hours I get a call from the vet. They say they'd like to keep him overnight so they can keep a better eye on him as he comes out of sedation. I pick him up the next morning, and he's got four drainage tubes put into his bigger wounds. He is messed up! I don't know who or what started the fight as both dogs have been getting along very well for three weeks now, but Dexter most definitely won.

So my Sunday was spent picking up meds and cleaning wounds instead of brewing. But there's always next weekend.

Even Flow

Well, nothing too even about it. I have one tap that seems to want to give off a hell of a lot more foam than the other and I don't know why.
But that's neither here nor there. Some updates have occurred. The stout I brewed a couple weeks ago had an OG of 1.057, which is just about perfect in my opinion. It took me some time to decide on which yeast to use for that brew. I had read in BYO that a London ESB Ale yeast would work very well, but then had some reservations about it's low attenuation levels (only about 69%). Well, I fermented this beer in the fridge for two weeks at 68 degrees, and was very pleased to see that it attenuated very well. FG was 1.016, for a total of 71.9% attenuation. OK, that's not a huge difference, but it's better than I expected. Since this is a stout and doesn't really need much clarity, I just went straight to the bottle with it. I indent to condition and age it two months at least. Right now it has a strong roasted flavor to it, but it's very smooth and balanced. I'm fairly certain that roastiness will mellow out in time.

We finally kicked the Scottish Light keg. That was a very popular brew, and I have every intention on making it again soon only with a little more abv this time. We're coming up to the end of the Litehaus Wheat keg as well, but I just kegged the 5 gal strawberry Litehaus batch and it's hooked up to the gas right now at 13 psi (hoping for about 2.3 vols). Soon I will have another keg to fill and that will be the Holiday Ale, which I'm looking forward to finally trying.
There's so much beer I want to make and so little time, and too few taps.

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend was my first trip in to Michigan, 25 miles outside of Detroit in a city called Plymouth. Not much to see, just a small, nice suburban city. We were there for my wife's brother's wedding. And I've got to say, for a Wisconsin boy, yeesh, the beer selection was sub par. I know that sounds cruel, but there were two options: Miller Light (which I can completely tolerate), and Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat (yech!). Now I really, really do not enjoy even one sip of Leinies Sunset Wheat. I find it too syrupy, and very sweet. It really just isn't to my taste at all. So, with my options being two mea beers, I stuck to booze. Good old gin-toniks with a twist of lime. Those went down nice and easy.
Due to the long weekend, and my being tired from driving 7.5 hours each way, brewing was out of the question. So, once again a brew will be put on hold. Although I should certainly get to that porter this week as I have a 2.5 qt starter sitting in my fermenting fridge.

Finally, a Stout

I haven't made a stout since March of this year. Not because I don't love stouts, it's just that I'm constantly trying different and new brews. But today is the day, and I'm making an oatmeal stout that I, for no good reason, have been putting off for weeks. I made my starter two nights ago, 3 quarts worth, and I just started mashing my grains 20 min ago. I overshot my mash temp by 6 degrees (was going for 152), so I'm letting it cool down a bit. My inventory was off (no idea how), because I thought I had 3 oz of East Kent Golding whole hops, but I only have two. So I'll be subbing the missing ounce with Fuggles.
I'm 20 min into my boil, missed my pre-boil SG by 6 points, which is not that bad. The original recipe called for an OG of 1.055, I was looking at hitting 1.059, now it should come to about 1.056. Pretty good in my opinion.
My neighbors, en elderly couple, have seen me brewing in the garage a number of times. Today the wife (I forgot her name) came to ask what I was doing. So I told her, and she seemed fascinated. She told me about a son of a friend of hers who also brews, living in Minneapolis, who has won a few awards. I'll definitely have to bring them over a few brews.