MAGTAG Brew is on its way.

[gflynn]

So I spent saturday with a friend brewing 10 gallons of an Amber and 10 gallons of Oatmeal Stout. It will ferment for 9 days then be retanked and continue to ferment for 9 more days and I will bottle on the 20th of July.

It should have been in the bottle for 4 weeks by the time we meet at MAGTAG; I hope thats enough time. I may have to amend the process if it's not enough.

I will make some simple labels and incorperate Cecilas Logo.

Any ideas for names of the two brews?

Greg

[Dunkel]

No Dunkel?

[gflynn]

No time.

I considered it but I had run out of time and I didn't want to make anything that would require lots of conditioning. I made a great one once but haven't made one since.

You'll have to take a rain check for next year ;-)

I tasted tested the Oatmeal stout last weekend and it was great; smooth and almost chocolatey. I am going to bottle it this weekend and that will give it 6 weeks in a bottle. That should be enough for carbonation.

Sorry for the dissapointment but I have been so over commited lately that it has been real hard to get my act together sooner.

Greg

[Dunkel]

That's fine. I'm sure you could tell my disappointment was in jest. Oatmeal Stout MMMMM I love Samuel Smith's version. I look forward to it!

[gflynn]

Last night (July, 18th) I bottled six case of MAGTAG brew. It took me from 10PM until 2AM; now I just hope it carbonates in time for MAGTAG.

To make sure it carbonates I am putting 3 cases in a warm location and 3 in a cool location. I am assuming the warmer location will carbonate first but there is always the danger of the beer spoiling so thats why I have the other 3 cases in the cooler location just in case.

Next I have to create the labels

Greg

[critterologist]

What a neat idea! My brother-in-law is a dedicated home brewer, as were a couple of my friends in graduate school (I helped drive several cases halfway across the country to a friend's wedding... the groom's family thought it was fabulous; the bride's mother was definitely unimpressed. We were happy for the bride that she was marrying into a less uptight family! LOL)

You've given me another reason to see if DH and I can juggle our schedules and attend! :-)

I did have a thought on names, if you haven't printed up your labels yet... So many of the tomato varieties have such fabulous names, and you could incorporate a couple of your favorites into these labels...

'Big Beef' Brew
'German Queen' Stout
'Pruden's Purple' Pilsner
'Pomodoro' Porter
'Arkansas Traveler' Amber
'Brandywine' Ale

Hmm, there must be a better "A" tomato to go with "Amber"... oh, what's that lovely one that bluekat grew last year... Azchoyka? something like that, LOL.

If we're not too late for labels, maybe somebody will take this notion and run with it....

:-)

[gflynn]

Critterologist,

Trudi had an idea for a couple of names but I haven't put labels on yet. Her ideas were:

Red Magma
Brown Bearrie

These are not bad considering that one is an oatmeal stout and the other is a nearly red amber. The Amber was an intended pale ale except we reduced the bittering hops in half while maintaining the same amount of flavor and aroma hops. During the brewing process of the amber I added a good portion of crystal 60 and a very small amount of chocolate malt for the sake of clarity.

Over the past few weeks I have tried some of the brew to see how it tasted and if it carbonated. My original intention was to ferment it for 9 days in one tank and then retank for another 9 days. As it turns out I never retanked but simply bottled after two weeks because of advice that I re-read in the Homebrewers Bible. As a result it has been in the bottle for nearly 4 weeks.

When I first tried the brew after 2 weeks I was very suprised to find that it was already carbonated and I was concerned that it would become over carbonated. I usually ferment for 2 week and then retank for 2 weeks or longer so the yeast is much less active. As it turns out it has not over carbonated in fact the bottles are hit and miss; some are not yet carbonated but of the 12 I have opened :wink: so far I have only found 1 that was not carbonated.

The head on the amber is beautiful, however, the head on the stout is a little more sparse. During the mashing process (this was an all grain batch) the amber's grain sat at a perfect 154 degrees for an hour, however, the stout sat at a less perfect 148 degees meaning that it had more fermentable sugar then was, perhaps, desireable.

After doing a specific gravity check I found the amber which had started at 52 to have landed at 12 (perfection) but the stout that started at 58 ended at 8. This is a little more dry than I had wanted but it ain't all that bad either. If you do the math that makes the amber 5.4% alcohol and the stout 6.8%. If you figure that Budwiser is about 5.5% I am in a reasonable range.

The amber tasted delicious from the first try and I think this one is definitely a winner, however, when I first tried the oatmeal stout I was concerned that it seemed harsh and was wondering if I had used too much dark malt. In this recipe I used (per 5 gallons and I made 10):

8 ounces Black Patent
8 ounces Roasted Barley
8 ounces Chocolate

This is a recipe I have used twice before so I felt confident that this would not be over done but I had another nagging concern that during the brewing process, I had to search for one of my compatriots lost keys, and I leaft another in charge of regulating the mashout temperature, so he let it get up to 190 degrees as upposed to the perfect 168 degrees that I like.

I didn't give the guy a hard time because I realize that I had put him in difficult position but it worried me that the high temperature at that phase could leach harsh tannins from the malt. I assumed, however, that all would be well since this was a stout and in the end the bottle I tried tonight was smooth as silk.

As I had hoped all is well in beerland and we should have some good MAGTAG brew come august 26th.

Greg

[Dunkel]

Great beer report Greg! I look forward to sampling a few bottles of your hand crafted brews!

[gflynn]

KCTomato,

I knew someone was going to question the wisdom of using Budwiser as an example but I figure that college kids have been drinking it for breakfast for so long that, at least, it would be something familiar.

Dunkel,

Indeed and I am waiting to try some of your WV heirlooms! If you don't have seeds yet maybe we can just squeeze a tomato??? :-)

Greg