I’ve been experimenting with shipping homebrew. It’s less questionable with wine than beer and spirits. I shipped 2 bottles of tomato wine to Washington last week, and they’re shipping me 2 meads back. UPS ground seems to work okay on a “don’t ask, don’t tell” basis. USPS is flat out illegal.

I racked the port onto some medium toast oak shavings and added the brandy. It’ll be bottled in about a month.

Mmmm, port…

Bottled 60 bottles of New Mommy Stout. Tastes great. Good roast barley character, aromatics of maple. Finished in the 3’s, ABV. Very sessionable.

I brewed the New Mommy Stout today. All-grain, dry stout, with herbal additions to support lactation, uterine contraction, and post-partum hormonal balance. This was a special request for Kathryn, who selected the herbs.

I used 8 Tbsp Fenugreek Seed, 5 Tbsp Red Raspberry Leaf, and 2 Tbsp Blessed Thistle, all for the last 10 minutes of the boil. I emphasized the Fenugreek some because it has a subtle maple flavor that will complement the roast barley if it comes through.

Brew went fairly well, with some sparging difficulties. I need to rethink my mash/lauter tun. The hose braid trick isn’t cutting it. I also oversparged slightly, ending up with 6.5 gallons of yield at 1.044 instead of 5.5 gallons at 1.051. I could have boiled it another hour to hit my target, but it’s intended to be a session beer for the wife. She’s enough of a lightweight not to care, and the extra gallon is more important to me than the extra gravity for this one. I also chose to underbitter this one some. 27 IBUs from the hops. This was because Kathryn’s not a hophead, and the Blessed Thistle is intensely bitter, so I wanted to leave a little extra “bitterness headroom” to accomodate it.

Recipe follows: Read more »

I submitted three beers to the Peach State Brew-off. The Brown Ale I just bottled, a pumpkin ale, and a barleywine. Looking forward to the feedback.

I bottled the tomato wine today. 3.5 gallons. Mmmmm…

I would have liked to give it another racking and a month or two more in bulk aging, but I had to empty a carboy in preparation for New Mommy Stout, this next week’s brew. It’s a dry stout fortified with an herbal cocktail that supports lactation, uterine contraction and hormonal balance.* It’s Kathryn’s idea, and my first foray into medicinal brewing. It’ll have red raspberry leaf, blessed thistle, and fenugreek. I might go extra on the fenugreek, it’ll give it a maple flavor. I think that would be nice against the roast barley and the dry finish. I’ll post the recipe when I brew it!

* Note: This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and should not be construed as medical advice.

I’m finally back in the brewing swing. I bottled the Brown Ale for the Peach State brewoff. That’s the batch on the right.

On the left is Kathryn steaming a stamp off of an unused envelope. I couldn’t resist snapping a shot of her involved in a forty-three cent federal offense.

Brown ale is happily fermenting away.
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I forgot to post about last week’s brewing adventure. I must be slipping!

Brewed a Vanilla Cream Ale for my friend Jason. This one was exciting, because it was the maiden run for the new all-grain setup. First time with the cheap-n-easy mash tun (a converted igloo cooler where the grains are steeped before boiling) the new kettle and burner (a turkey fryer rig, over 200,000 glorious beer-boiling BTUs!) and first-wort hopping (a hop addition before the boil, purportedly resulting in a smoother perceived bitterness). Vanilla will be added in secondary this Friday, but the recipe was:

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I racked (siphoned off of the lees, or sediment) and degassed the blueberry port and the tomato wines tonight. Both are way too young to know where they’ll end up, but the fermentation was complete and there were no off smells or flavors, so signs are good.

FG tomato: 0.997

FG blueberry: 0.998

Those are both good.