Stoutish about the Middle

Some odds, some ends, and a pound of roast barley to make it a stout. My 40th batch!

Recipe

Batch size: 5 gallons

Grain bill:

• 3.5 lb Marris Otter
• 3 lb wheat
• 1.25 lb roast barley
• 1 lb Carapils
• Maybe 1 lb oats? my notes are, how you say, shit.

Hops:

• 4 oz homegrown hops from 2011

Yeast: Nottingham

Prep

August 24, 2012: Ground the grain today; tightened up the Victoria mill a lot because of the uncracked wheat from the last time I brewed.

Brew Day

August 26, 2012: All in one day today! Oh, and I broke my hydrometer last batch, so I'm flying blind. Whee! My youngest son helped out, which was nice. I put the hops in a paint strainer bag for fun, and it really made cleanup easier; it'll be interesting to see how that affects the hop flavour.

Bottling

September 3, 2012: My youngest son helped out again. Still no hydrometer. Bitter -- wow. Not sure if it's the extra quarter pound of roast barley (compared to what I usually throw in a stout) or the hops, but man it's bitter. Thick, dark, good. 18.5 litres yield

Tasting

September 8, 2012: First tast, and wow it's bitter. Sure hope it's the hops, 'cos at least then it'll mellow. Right now it's not very balanced.

September 15, 2012: My wife quite likes this, so that's good. Still bitter, but after a few sips I get used to it. Not so thick a mouthfeel as I thought. Still a lot of roast barley flavour in here; inclined to think it is the extra quarter pound.

November 2012: The roast barley flavour has mellowed a lot, which is nice; I guess it just needed more time. I'm coming to like this a lot more.