Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Beer for BabyTooth...

Hi all.

Mrs. Tooth has been trying to get me to post for a while now, so I guess I'll give it a go. As you can see from the previous post, we're expecting a new addition to the family. BabyTooth should be arriving in July and we're trying to get as much done in advance as we can. To that end, I figured I'd think WAY in advance and make her a beer for when she's old enough to drink.

The picture below is said beer in fermenters. I ferment in 5 gallon kegs. The two kegs are each holding 2.5 gallons of fermenting beer with plenty of head space for the foaming kraussen that this big beer should produce. There was an extra 2/3 gallon left over that I poured into the gallon jug you see in the center. I pitched a packet of wine yeast in with it as a control to make sure the English Ale yeast in the full batch reaches it's terminal gravity. You can see why I needed the extra head space in the fermentation kegs given how the kraussen is overflowing the gallon jug.


The beer itself is an Imperial Oaked Bourbon Stout that should come in around 12-13% abv, after the infusion of Bourbon. The high alcohol level and tannins from the oak will hopefully help it last until BabyTooth is ready to drink it. I'll just "lose" the keg with an oak spiral in the back of the cellar for a decade. Then I'll start considering bottling options.

If this brewing stuff is interesting to you or if you have any questions, please add a comment to let me know. I'll try to post more often if people are interested.

3 comments:

OakMonster said...

Perhaps your friends *ahem* should sample a cask before you make a batch for BabyTooth. ;-)

TheTooth said...

LOL... You wouldn't want to sample this for a good long time. There are a lot of hops, alcohol, and oak that will need to integrate and mellow over time.

There will be plenty of other beers on tap for visiting friends, though, as usual. ;-)

MrsTooth said...

Glad to see one of us can manage a post babe! The wort smelled great, at least until you killed it with all those nasty evil hops. I know they'll mellow over time, but I'm not sure 21 years will be enough to kill off that madness. ;)

So, will my milk stout be ready when I need to be the food source for Baby Tooth? (hehehe)