2021 Q1 SheppyBrew Stats

Q1 of 2021 is already over, which means its time to report our brewing stats for the year so far.

Continuing on the trend from last year, I brewed a ridiculous amount of beer over the first 3 months of the year.

The first quarter of 2020, I brewed 7 whole batches with 35 gallons. In 2021, I brewed even more in Q1 ... 

I brewed 8 batches and 42 gallons of beer.

Arctic Vortex Winter Saison

Stouticus vs. Left Hand Milk Stout

As I mentioned in 2021 Stouticus American Stout (batch 278) ... I brewed my final beer in my Homebrew Colorado 6 pack.

Stouticus American Stout

Stouticus represented Left Hand Brewing Company's Milk Stout, which is still an iconic Colorado beer.

Unlike some of the beers in my Colorado Six Pack, actually still exists, so I was able to compare my homebrewed beer to the commercial beer it is meant represent.

To be honest, though,  Stouticus wasn't really designed to clone Left Hand's Milk Stout.

And ... they are significantly different.

Regardless, I thought it would be fun to try Stouticus and Left Hand side by side.

2021 Stouticus American Stout (batch 278)

Back in 2011, I came up with a recipe for Stouticus American Stout as sort of a company beer for the start-up that I worked for.

I brewed it a second time after we were acquired and joined a new corporation.

I really liked how it turned out. I'm not sure why I never tried to make it again after 2011.

Anyway ... fast forward to 2020, and I added the Stouticus to my Homebrew 6 Pack list as a beer that comes pretty close to Left Hand Milk Stout.

And since in 2020, I brewed the 5 other beers on the "6 Pack Project" ... the beginning of 2021 seemed like a good time to get Stouticus brewed again.

If you follow this blog, you know that I brewed Arctic Vortex on the 1st. 

At the same time I picked up ingredients for that brew day, I picked up my ingredients for 

Stouticus American Stout

Homebrew Colorado 6 pack

I've noticed recently that my May 2013 post "Colorado 6 pack" has been getting some traffic.

Unless you just followed the link, you probably don't remember much about "Colorado 6 pack", but it was basically a blogging collaboration that @BryanDRoth at This Is Why I'm Drunk. set up.

He wanted to get 6 different bloggers from six different states to each come up with a 6-pack of beers that "best represent your state and/or state's beer culture".

So I did that back in 2013 for Colorado. The blog post seems to have been fairly popular over the past month or so. It has been getting more traffic than my more recent posts. 

It got me thinking ... wouldn't it be fun to brew up beers inspired by this "Colorado 6 pack"?

My answer to myself was "Yes".

So ... here are the beers I picked:

#StoutDay 2012

Here it is International #StoutDay again.

I was going to go out and grab a half-growler of some local small brewery's stout today, but things just got too busy at work and I decided to just head home after. I do, after all, have beers at home.

I was able to earn the 2012 untappd Stout Day badge tonight with my world-famous Stouticus American Stout.

Stouticus Chili - icus

The former CEO of the company that I formerly worked for announced last Wednesday:

"Because of Beth’s recent chili smack talk, we will have a Chili-icus Cook Off.  The competition will be Monday, December 12th.  All types of chili will be accepted (...even potentially lame white bean and chicken chili from Ariel…)."

I had the former CEO's chili before, and while it is a fine chili, I would not characterize it as spectacular in any way. It is strikingly mundane. Personally, out of all the chili I've had in the past year, I would rank his somewhere around the 45th percentile. (leave a comment if you come across this, Tim)

I had not made chili in awhile, but I knew that I can make better chili than the chili he has given me.

So, this weekend, I made some chili.

Happy #StoutDay

So, here it is International #StoutDay. I hope you are having a good one. I'm hoping my sister can forgive me for saying this: "Happy #StoutDay!".

To be honest, Stouts are one of those styles that it took me getting into brewing to really appreciate. I would try one from time to time ... mostly as part of sample platters in brew-pubs, but would hardly ever get myself a pint. I never purchased stouts from liquor stores.

But, SheppyBrew has brewed a few Stouts, and I'm really beginning to seek them out more. And the more I drink, the more I like them.

I think most non-beer-geeks (at least here in America) think Guinness when they think Stout. But, "Stout" is a pretty wide range of beers, many of which are really unlike Guinness. Personally, I've never really been a big fan of Guinness. I still think the lack of carbonation make them taste too flat. I prefer more carbonation than the nitrogen smoothness I guess. I would say that I'm much more a fan of American Stouts than other types.

Back to the mash tun

Saturday, I took the wife and kids on a field trip to The Brew Hut to get ingredients for the 2011 version of SheppyBrew's X-Mas Ale. I brewed it up on Sunday.

The kids really like the Dry Dock

Of course, my big fermenter was full of Stouticus American Stout, so I got up early and bottled up Stouticus. This time, I mixed sugar and the beer in a corny keg and used my Beer Gun to bottle it up. It seems to have gone smoother this way, but that may have just been the fun of a new process. One decent advantage of using the keg is that it is easier to get every bit of beer out of the keg than it is out of a bottling bucket.

Thankyou Stouticus

You may remember that Stouticus came about because the COO of the company I work for asked me to make a beer. I ended up sharing the first batch with everyone in the company.

When the SheppyBrew beer model signed us up for the 2nd wind fund again this year, I sent out an email at work offering everyone who donated some more Stouticus. A few people took me up on the offer by donating. Today, I brewed the "Thank you" batch of Stouticus.

The recipe changed just a bit from last time. You can see the recipe on the Stouticus page on the SheppyBrew site. It is a quite a bit higher in alcohol and is not nearly as afraid of the stout roast. It also uses some flaked barely (first time I've used flaked barely).

#StoutDay is November 3rd

Hmmm... remember I told you about the social media "International #IPADay" on this blog (August 4th)? Apparently, the powers that be decided that it was such a huge success that they would go ahead and follow it up with International #StoutDay on November 3rd. I'm not sure how they defined success, but I suspect it has to do with the number of #IPADay hash tags you could see on twitter that day (http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23ipaday).

Bottling Stouticus

You may remember that a few weeks ago, I told you that I was brewing Stouticus American Stout.  Today, I bottled it. 

The beer did ok on its attenuation.  It started at about 1.052 and fermented out to 1.015.  That is about a 71% apparent attenuation, which is lower than most of my beers.  That lower attenuation is fine, though, because I like a bit of body to a stout.  In fact, I decided to add some lactose at bottling time to bring the FG up to around 1.019 and maybe add some sweetness to the batch.  The black barley really adds a dry, roasted flavor that comes across a little bit bitter, and the extra sweetness should balance that out just a touch.

Since this was the first batch for which I used a 5-gallon carboy, it was also the first time I really needed to use the auto-siphon that I got for Christmas (thanks to my brother-in-law Shean).  It worked wonderfully, filling up the bucket in about 5 minutes.  I've used the bottling bucket a few times.  It seems more appropriate now that I have the carboy and auto-siphon, though.

I was really pleased with the flavor.  I think I ended up with just the right amount of that dry roast flavor that should be in a stout.  It has hints of chocolate and a nice rich malt background.  I'm not sure I could taste the hops at all.  The black malts definitely dominate the flavor profile of the beer.

Today, I got 43 12 oz bottles; 4 22oz bottles; and 2 1 liter bottles.  That comes to around 40 cents per 12 oz bottle or less than $5 a 12-pack.  A similar local beer would cost probably 3 times as much, and I like it better because I was able to craft it to my own tastes.  My wife and kids should be thanking me for all the money I'm saving, don't you think?

I'll let these carbonate a couple of weeks and then bring most of these into work to share with my co-workers.   I'm guessing I'll bring in about 40 of the 12oz bottles, which doesn't really leave a lot for me, but I probably have too much beer already.  There are about 20 people in our office, so that means each person can bring home 2.  I'm assuming not everyone likes stouts, so that means there might be a few more of those that do.

It will be interesting to see what everyone thinks of Stouticus.

---

Anyone else hear about this guy who decided to fast for lent and has vowed to drink only beer during that time (much like certain orders of monks are famous for).  He is writing a blog:  Diary of a Part Time Monk.  I think it will be interesting to follow along.

Stouticus

So, I am making an American stout.  See Stouticus American Stout on the SheppyBrew web site for the recipe and the story behind why I am making a stout.  I don't make a lot of stouts.  The main reason this one is a stout is because I had a request that included the name "Stouticus".  I didn't think it would be proper to brew anything but a stout for a beer named Stouticus, so I brewed a stout.

I developed the recipe making sure to use ingredients from McMenamins Terminator Stout (which is part of the story you can read about on the web site).  When I went to the LHBS, though, I tasted black barely and thought it's roasty dryness was too intense to use as much as I had originally planned.  I guess you can say I wimped out, but at the time I thought it was a good decision.  I still do think the decision was sound, but sort of think I should have just "gone for it".  After tasting the wort, I just didn't get a bunch of the dry roast flavors that stout lovers like.  It will be a good stout, for my taste it will be a great stout (most likely).  It just won't have as much "roasty" flavors as a true American stout lover would expect.  Luckily, I know the brewer, so if I decide it needs something, I'll just have it brewed again.

This was my second time using my wort chiller.  Awesome.  This was also my first time using my new 6 gallon better bottle carboy.  Awesome as well.

The brew day started early today.  I got my mash started at 6:30 today and let it do its thing through church.  I started sparging when I got home.  This is something I've been doing quite a bit lately.  I don't think there is a disadvantage (or advantage for that matter) in the long mash.  It is a very convenient way to multi-task.  Enzymes do all that work and don't need me to them how to do their job.  I might as well be off doing something else.

I got a "stuck-mash" this time.  It wasn't a big deal because I had planned 3 sparges and it was the last one that got stuck.  By that time, there were enough sugars in the collected wort that I simply added water to the boil and my specific gravity into the boiler was fine.  I do want to figure out what is going on, though.  My sparge last weekend was slow at the end too.  I wonder if the long mash might be doing something that gums up the works.  Don't know, but at least it turned out today.

The boil went as planned.  I ran out of propane in the middle of the boil, but I had anticipated that and had another propane tank ready to go.  The wort didn't even stop boiling.

The wort chiller did its magic wonderfully again.  The pitch temperature was right at 62 after less than 20 minutes of cooling.  It also gave me an excuse to water our front yard tree.  I'm so glad that my wife got me the wort chiller for my birthday.

I ended up diluting the wort at the end because of a high OG.  My volume was right on originally.  I added about .5 gallons and ended up with 5.5 gallons in the ferementor.  I pitched the starter that I had made this past week.  I never really ever noticed the starter fermenting, but this morning, I took an FG reading and it had indeed fermented quite low.  It also tasted really good.  I like the nutty, almond flavor that the WY1272 imparts to beer.  I don't know how much of that nutty flavor will come through in the final beer this time, since it is such a dark beer.  I guess I'll find out.

One thing I don't know about is how to go about keeping fermentation temperatures low in the bigger fermentor.  Right now, I'm simply keeping the carboy in our spare bedroom in a bin with a couple of ice bottles covered with a towel.  This probably won't work well in the summer.  It should be fine for Stouticus this time, though.

Anyway, it was another great brew day.  Hope I have enough bottles to handle all this beer.  But, that is another story.