Dedalus Old Stout.

Ulysses is a book that I first tried to read once about seven or eight years ago. I had read that it was widely considered the best book every written in the English language, and I decided I therefore had to read it.
My first attempt didn't go so well. I took it on our family vacation to North Cackalacka and even with making a fair amount of notes in the book (for me), I didn't make it much past page 40. If that even. It is a very intricate, complicated, and almost strenuous book to read.
Now I have gotten back on the horse. I decided that now was the time. Today I passed my previous high mark, the third chapter, where Stephen walks on the beach and nearly all of the book is his inner thoughts and memories. I am now about to start chapter four and I feel pretty confident in my ability to finish the book this time around. Two tries on Ulysses is not too bad from my understanding.
The beer is an experiment as many of my brews are these days. An attempt at perhaps a modern day historical stout. The beer is fermented on oak, solely with Brettanomyces. A portion of the beer was boiled separately, without hops, and is being fermented a bit by Lactobacillus. This will be pasteurized and added back to the main wort in the future.
It is well know that Guinness adds a portion of soured beer to their blend to give it the unique 'tang'. I have read that is around 3%. Mine will be around 10%. We'll see how it goes.
Dedalus Old Stout.
9.5 lb pale British malt
1 lb black patent
1 lb dark crystal
1.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 90 min
1 oz Styrian Goldings pellet @ 15 min
Wyeast 5112 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis
2/1/11- Mash at 156 for 90 min. At sparging, kept first two quarts separate and boiled for ten minutes before cooling in some snow outside. Once this got down to around 80 degrees, I added a handful of reserved crushed grain to introduce Lactobacillus. This all went into a 2 qt mason jar with plastic wrap on the surface of the wort to prevent it from reacting with oxygen. This has my heating pad on low wrapped around it, as Lacto likes to ferment warm.
The remainder of the beer was boiled for 90 min with noted hop additions. Once chilled, racked to primary fermentor with .5 oz washed med toast Hungarian oak cubes and .5 oz new Hungarian oak cubes. Added the brett from a starter originating on Saturday.

Exciting things!

I have some very exciting things in the works here at the 'brewery'!
First of all, I have purchased 5 gallons or so of frozen grape must for an attempt at making wine. I found some 2008 Chardonnay from Sangiacomo family vineyards in California at a very reasonable price. I have purchased yeast and I am just waiting for the must to arrive so I can get it started!
The only homemade wine I have ever tasted was fairly disgusting, but I am hoping with my experience and knowledge I can make something palatable and maybe even good. Pricing it out, it'll cost me something like 5 dollars a bottle to make, so if it tastes at least as good as a 5 dollar bottle of wine, I'll be happy.
I will start fermentation in the bucket the must arrives in, and rack to secondary (better bottle) when the gravity is around 1.045. It'll go on 1 oz of new med toast Hungarian oak cubes and .5 oz of once used Hungarian oak. I will introduce the malolactic cultures in the late spring or early summer, and bottle sometime next winter.
Also on my radar- old stout. I will probably get this started towards the end of the month. I'll brew a basic stout, but remove two quarts and ferment that with lactobacillus before pasteurizing and adding back to the main fermentor. Guinness most notably, adds a portion of soured beer to their stout to produce that unique tang. I will also ferment solely with Brettanomyces and add some oak as well.
Also also on my radar- my historical Saison will be bottled in March and I'll need something to take it's place. I love Petrus' Aged Pale, and I'll be brewing something in that vein. In the past it seemed like 2 years of fermentation was more than I wanted to handle, but my opinion on that has changed.
Some labels...

Peat Smoked Stout.

I like scotch and some of my favorite scotches come from Islay, which is on the west coast of the UK, north of Ireland. The thing that gives these scotches their distinctive 'peaty' flavor is malted barley that has been dried over a peat fire and allowed to be exposed to the smoke. The peaty flavor can be described variably as smoky, phenolic, medicinal, seaweed, iodine, salt. Just try a glass of Lagavulin and you'll see what those descriptors mean!
Those strong flavors mean that most people who don't drink scotch or those scotches in particular may very well not like this beer or even find it disgusting. But I am ok with that! More for me.
7.5 lb British pale
2 lb peat smoked malt
1 lb black patent
1 lb dark crystal
1.5 oz styrian goldings pellet @ 90 min
.5 oz styrian goldings pellet @ 15 min
1056
1 oz of med toast hungarian oak cubes soaked in Ardbeg 10 to secondary.
10/6/10- Mash at 156 for 90 min. Had quite a brew day. The yeast I was going to use is dead. The regulator on my burner ceased functioning. The new one I bought didn't connect to the hose correctly and when I connected it directly to the burner, it is not burning with the same intensity. Oh well.
10/22/10- Moved to secondary along with 1 oz of m toast hungarian oak cubes soaked for awhile in Argbeg 10, along with 2 fl oz of Ardbeg 10. Tastes pretty medicinal and strongly flavored.
11/23/10- Bottled with 1/2 c corn sugar. Aiming for an over all lower carbonation. This one seems pretty wacky, as my attenuation is lower than expected, though it must have fermented out completely in the almost two months it was doing so. Hopefully I don't get bottle bombs.

De Dolle Brouwers - Extra Export Stout.

I had this on St. Patricks day. I figured it would be a good way to try something new, while still being able to drink a stout on the day that everyone is Irish.
Brewed in Esen, Belgium by De Dolle Brouwers (the mad brewers) this is an export stout, so it should have a higher level of alcohol and hop rate to ensure its safe passage to where ever it ends up. And looking at the bottle, you can see that it is indeed 9% abv. Quite a bit stronger than Guinness.
Huge mocha colored head when poured that settles down eventually. Very dark beer. Abundant carbonation, seemingly so much at first that it turned into bubbles as soon as it hit my mouth, making it hard to taste. Very complex flavors. Brewed with wild yeast and bacteria, but these are not very present by themselves, but rather add to a whole.
Lots of roasted malt, coffee, chocolate, licorice, spices. Very dry and bitter but highly drinkable on a colder night. The alcohol content does not come through and can catch up to you. Definitely a good alternative to Guinness on St. Pats day, though it is not Irish. Then again, most of the people celebrating St. Pats day aren't Irish either.
My rating: If you like stouts and darker beers and want to try something a little different than everything else, buy this.
Abv: 9%.
Volume: 33cL/11.2 fl oz.
Website: www.dedollebrouwers.be
Price paid: 6.99 at Liquor Mart (a bit more expensive than Guinness).
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 11.
(My Bud Light estimation numbers are off I realize. From here on I will use the figure of 14.95 for a 24 pack of 12 oz cans or 62 cents a can.)