Late reports

It's been age since I last blogged. There a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, and foremostly, not a great deal has been going on....secondly, and sadly, the dear old moggy, after whom this page is named died in late June. We both miss him dreadfully, and I have been staying away from this site for a bit.

 

My last entry was all about a poorly fermenting porter. Well, it never shifted, after getting down to 3.2%. A bit of a shout out to the really helpful BIAB community convinced me that I had really of exaggerated the speciality roasted grains. No software makes allowance for the fact that such high percentages of roasted stuff (about 40% here....I was told 15% is about right for an Imperial Russian Stout!!) just do not ferment out like a wort stuffed full of pale malts. It sounds as if it is all to do with roasting locking in sugars during the roasting process, making them unfermentable.

Well it's been sitting around in the barrel. Cannot drink lots of it; the strength is fine, the roast is just quite full on...even though summer here has been crap, I still need something a bit more autumnal to get me drinking darker beers. However, the are times when this beer reminds me of old-fashioned Venos cough medicine; a kind of alcoholic black treacle!

 

As you can see, it's got good deep colour, a nice thick porterish head, so looks the part. Certainly headed in the right direction, and I have definitely started to get the battering issues sorted by looking more closely at my water chemistry.

As the season starts to turn then, I'm looking at a new brew, and also looking to adapt my process, but more of that later.

 

And Sockster...thanks, it was a real privilege. I'll keep brewing with your name, and raising a glass to you, old pal. Cheers!

 

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