I figured I’d start the Beer portion of this ol’ blog off right with an entry about homebrewing. Whilst this was not with my partner in crime, Ian, it was with a few good dudes I work with. We came up with this hair-brained idea that a Root Beer Stout sounded interesting, and so we set to work finding ingredients and plotting out a recipe.

For recipe formulation, I use a program called Beersmith. Beersmith has aided my brewing and my knowledge thereof an extraordinary amount.

Here was our recipe:

Extract: 8 lb Pale Liquid
2 lb Dark Liquid

Grains: 1 lb crystal malt 120°
1 lb flaked rye (I LOVE RYE!)

Adjuncts/Herbs/Spices: all added at 20 min, except molasses
1 lb Black Strap Molasses added at 30 min
4 oz Maltodextrine
1 oz wintergreen
2 tbs vanilla extract
2 heads Star Anise
1 stick Cinnamon
1 oz Ginger

Hops: 1 oz columbus 30 min
1 oz Chinook 20 min
1 oz Centennial 15 min
1 oz mount hood. 5 min

We were planning on using California Ale yeast as well.

This is the problem, we finished brewing, poured the wort into the carboy, and as the carboy was outside, we dropped it in a snowbank, and by the laws of physics, it cracked and we lost our entire beer. What we HAD tasted was delicious, so this is on the docket again, as soon as we can make time to brew again.

All in all, a rather crappy loss, but good bonding time with friends. Hopefully the next go turns out better.

brian