New beginnings?

[listening to City and Colour (Dallas Green of Alexisonfire): "Comin' Home" on repeat]

This blog has offered me many idiotic ends.  I've spewed more hatred on here than I care to remember.  Those few of you that read this know what I'm talking about, and might have had the pleasure of reading some of the blog posts I've deleted.  Those same people know that they were deserved, but I'm trying something else this year.  I'm not going to delete my old posts, but I am going to try to drive this blog in a new direction.  I've been brewing beer since October of '11, and I've been receiving excellent reviews on my recipes from my friends.  I can't go further without mentioning Jason Snodderly, the guy I drug into it on my first brew, the guy who has been my mostly-faithful helper for brews (and drinking said brews!).  I won't go into history just yet, but I've been wanting to speak on this evening's brew, and Facebook and Twitter are not an appropriate outlet at this time of night.  I'm not good at Facebooking this time of night, because if I say something sarcastic, I'm asked a million questions.  Here, you know to take me as I am.  I've always been a semi-asshole but I haz gud intenshuns (lol).

Tonight I attempted to make an all-grain version of my (originally partial-mash) Oatmeal Espresso Chocolate Porter.  Partial-mash means (for the layman, quickly) making a sort of tea out of specialty grains and adding a liquid malt extract that is made by another company.  This partial-mash recipe that we have been drinking and giving out has received such good reviews by our friends that we're going to submit a few bottles of that brew into a local homebrew competition.  It is honestly the best porter I've ever had, and probably ranks in the top 5 best beers I've ever drank.

Tonight's brew was a little more than a "bitch and a half."  I expected Jason to join me, but after my visit to the beer supply store (Larry's Brew Supply in Kent, off 212th), he "called out" with a valid reason.  Two coworkers of ours were rumored to join as well, but they also dogged out.  Here I am, driving home with 14 pounds of just-milled grain and a 4 year old in the back seat, and I have to convert this into beer tonight or the grain will lose its freshness.  It's already close to 7:00.

To cut things short, I spent from 8:15 pm to 2:30 am brewing this.  That was never my intention, but with or without helpers it would have taken that long.  The "mash" (making 'tea' out of the grain) took the expected 90 minutes with rinsing the grain (sparging), but that made more liquid than my brew pot could hold.  I added the proper ingredients whilst boiling what "liquor" I could ("liquor" being the 'tea'), but I ended up with more than my pot could hold.  That was a first.  I had a couple boil-overs because I added the remainder when some liquid evaporated.  The boil lasted over 2 hours.  Most boils are 60-90 minutes.  The boil finally started at 11:20...I didn't add the yeast to an appropriately cooled "wort" (finished boiled product) until about 2:45.  Hello, clean-up!  I've heard people say "If you want to brew beer, I hope you enjoy washing dishes" and it's true.

The finished product ended up at an original gravity (OG) of 1.08, which unfortunately means that it will probably end up around 9%, which I do not want this beer to be at.  I will be tweaking this "new" recipe to what I want.  I've only been doing this for less than three months, after all.  I don't want people to be fucked up after one pint!  I will delve further into my exploits (past and present) in further posts.  If you're interested in trying my delicious beer, just hit a brother up.  Thanks as always for reading, and keep posted for more.

Chris