re: Homebrewing: In-Process Thread

Just saw that LA Homebrew is open this week. I think i may stop by after work.

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BFE

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ETA: Nevermind, i'm stupid. It's really close to me. Not that that solves anyone else's problems. I can literally walk to it in about 10 minutes.

Hours and distance are what killed it for me at that last homebrew store out on Jones Creek. Maybe LAHB's hours are just their soft opening hours?

I had a pomegranate saison and a pomegranate porter at the white labs facility last week. The saison was great. The porter, not so much.

Looks like I might finally brew again this Sunday. Still looking for time to make a breakfast stout

I love breakfast stouts, but my wife wants a vanilla porter(she loves the brekenrige version)

It's not a place to go and sit and drink. The beers they have, for the most part, aren't jaw-dropping. For a brewer, it's really cool. I had a taster flight of three different beers, each fermented with three different yeasts. Same wort, but in the end a very different product. The three different pumpkin beers were cool, one used a Hefe yeast and it was fantastic. Then had three oatmeal stouts with different yeast.

Very interesting for me.

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I really like the idea of kettle souring with lacto to get that traditional tart character.

I would guess the historical tartness in porters was from another bug, probably aceto, but I dont care for that vinegar tartness in my beer.

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Yeah, I was thinking it was probably a quicker souring from aceto, since they probably were not actually stored for that long.

One of the interesting things about brett is that it will metabolize the latic acid and mellow the tartness of over time. So even though souring the wort will initially have a bit of harsh tartness to it, the brett will smooth that out over time. My sour saison has really evolved in just a couple of months. It went from BW like tartness to a much more smooth and subtle tartness. I’m almost worried that it will eventually lose that tart edge.

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If you're going for more of a traditional 'old world' style porter I would probably use black patent instead of Carafa.

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Brett really amplifies the astringency that you get from some malts. It will also enhance darkness of a brew and the chocolate & dark cherry flavors. So, based on my research, you want to try and minimize astringency of the grain bill and add stuff that will work with the brett to highlight creaminess, chocolates, dark fruit, etc. I could try debittered black but I think the carafa will add some more complex flavors that you might not pick up from the debittered black.

Opened my bourbon stout tonight, and pretty disappointed with it. Way too much carbonation (though my cousin opened a bottle I have him and said he didn't have that issue). Metallic tastes. The bourbon almost seems to clash with it rather than blending in with it. Better as it warmed, but not a lot. Some estery off flavors too. Cousin said it almost had more of a Doppelbock flavor than a stout. Not nearly enough roasted malt flavor.
I hope this isn't going to end up a 2-case dump.