Midnight Stout
After a fine meal of Spaghetti, Craig and JB joined me in brewing a batch of Oatmeal Stout on Saturday. I’m hoping to redeem myself after my last stout was a major disaster. I made two major alterations to my modus operandi for this batch. First, to try and weed out a “house” flavor of bitterness that I noticed in both the Pumpkin Ale and the Copper Ale, I decided to use bottled Spring Water instead of tap water. Besides being neutral and avoiding Chlorine and Fluoride, it also helps avoid any issues with water volume. If you buy 5 gallons of water, its kinda hard to use to much or too little and end up with a wicked powerful batch or a watery batch. Secondly, I made it a point to strain out the hop particles from the boil before the wort went in to the fermenter. I think that’s the major cause of noticeable bitter finish to the Pumpkin Ale and the Copper Ale. I don’t think the Spring Water was a major necessity as the water here in Sioux Falls is pretty decent. However, I strive to control the variables I have direct control over so it makes sense.
This Oatmeal Stout kit from Midwest is really simple. There are no Aroma Hop additions so its a straight forward boil. The Specialty Grains in this kit smell fantastic when they steep. The picture attached to this post is of the Stout in the fermenter. (the fermenter in the background is the Cider Test Batch.) It started bubblin’ inside of 24 hours. I love it when a batch starts fermenting that fast. First of all, if the yeast I add take control right away, the possibility of contamination is minimized. Secondly, its reassuring because it means the yeast were healthy and went to town right away.
