Brew 3.0 Irish Stout (5-22-10)

We've always been a big Guinness fan, so it was only a matter of time before we took a crack at the Irish Stout. Our little burner was still set up from Brew 2, so we got right to work.

The Irish Stout kit came with two different grains to steep. I regretted not getting a picture of the grain bag from Brew 1 so I made sure to get the picture this time. This bag would puff out black dust at the slightest touch. I held this very carefully until it was ready to steep, as I figured whatever was poofing out would probably be much better in the wort.

After adding the Extracts and hops, it started to TRY to boil over. It started to foam, boiled up to about an inch below the rim, and gave up. It settled back down to a nice rolling boil, and that was the end of it trying to get out of the pot.

That process however, was very interesting to watch. First, a think foamy skin formed on the top, and you could see the occasional bubble come up from underneath and get trapped under the skin. One by one, another bubble poked at the surface, until finally the boiling liquid broke through and started flowing over the skin like a new lava flow over rock.

It was really cool. Before long, there was a completely foam-less rolling boil, that smelled tremendous. It smelled much like molasses.

Pouring from the pan to the fermenter was difficult, as we purchased a strainer, which might be just a little but TOO fine. Getting this into the fermenter took a long time, because the strainer got clogged up rather quickly, and we had to keep rinsing it out.

I DID manage to remember to get a gravity reading on this one...

Brewing Gravity: 1.043 Which is right where the kit said it should be. (right on the low end. It's 1.043 - 1.045)

We also remembered to sample this wort. It was excellent. It was like a sweetened black tea with that slightly bitter aftertaste only hops can give you.