Milk Stout Started

This originally started as a Northern Brewer Dry Irish Stout kit and I added 1 pound of Lactose to sweeten it up. I just hope that one pound of sugar will be enough to get that sweet dessert style beer I'm hoping for.
The strong smell of coffee with a small touch of bitterness coming through from the hops filled the room during the whole boil. The wort was pitch black and had a gravity of 1.052 when the Wyeast 1056 American Ale smack pack was pitched. Within hours it was bubbling away.

-Northern Brewer Dry Irish Stout Kit
-Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast
-1 Lb of Lactose Sugar

This brewing session cemented the fact that I need a wort chiller before the next brew session, the old ice bath in the sink is not working well enough. I will probably DIY the wort chiller and save some money hopefully.

Bottled and Kegged the Amber Ale

I tapped one of the mini kegs of American Amber Ale. I split the 5 gallon batch between two mini kegs and bottles. So at this point its been carbonating with priming sugar for a week and then force carbonated over night. It was a Brewers Best brand kit.

It poured a dark amber color and a small tan head that diminished after a couple minutes. The ale has a nice mild aroma with the hops really coming through more than anything else. Mouthfeel is thinner than I'd like and is on the bitter side with no real strong malt taste coming through. But the beer is definitely young at this point and I'm excited to see how it matures. Hopefully the malt will come through as it gets older and the bitterness will diminish.

Previously Fermenting

So this is what I had in carboy previous to this blog.

-A Peach Mead
-Blueberry Wine
-Orange/Tangerine Wine
-Apple Wine

The only one I am actually excited about is the peach mead. The orange and apple wine were the first things I ever brewed and they are thin rocket fuel with a sulfur taste. The blueberry definitely has the potential for greatness. It has a great berry taste but its rocket fuel with some sulfur in there too, so I plan on letting it age and mellow out. The mead was made from clover honey and frozen peaches picked from parents property. The peaches were pureed and still haven't settled out, but its been less than a month.

 

Whole Foods Cider

Having heard good things I ventured out to whole foods and bought a gallon of Apple Cider. It comes in a one gallon glass carboy and is a light muddy brown color. Already pasteurized and with no preservatives it makes it really easy, Just pitch the yeast and put an airlock on it. I used a Windsor Ale Yeast for the the faster turn around time and lower alcohol content versus wine or champagne yeast.

-One Gallon Whole Foods Cider
-Windsor Ale Yeast
-Petic Enzyme
 

Tart Cherry Mead

I put together a one gallon batch of tart cherry mead. Ive found myself more enamored with mead lately and am excited to see what happens with this. More juice came in the frozen cherry bags than I had anticipated, about a quarter of the carboy was filled with juice before the cherries were added, but this should just add to the taste hopefully. I went with the Lalvin D47 yeast as it seems to die out around 14% alcohol content and that should allow for sugar content without having to back sweeten. By the way hydrometer is out of commission so no hydrometer readings until I get a new one. Here is the recipe I put together. 

-2 Pounds 8 Ozs of frozen cherries
-3 Lbs of clover honey
-Lalvin D47 yeast.

I just warmed the honey till it was fluid enough to pour and put it on top of the cherries and juice in the carboy, then filled the rest up with spring water.