Coffee Porter & Oatmeal Stout

Northern Brewer Beer Kits, ah the selection! While home I managed to convince my dad that brewing was a good idea. Convinced him so much so that he took up the hobby within the first week of my arrival. His first batch, which I played assistant brewer for, was a Northern Brewer Peace Coffee Porter. His setup is much easier to get engaged in the hobby as he has ample light and counter space. We also were helping each other remember to follow steps (and drink beer) during the process which I have not yet had any regular help with. The brewing went off without a hitch. We followed his kit instructions to a near T, and utilized the equipment he had. One hangup we found in the process was the application of ground Peace Coffee to the secondary fermenter about 2 weeks in. Our wort level was way too high to include the entire bag of coffee. Yet, we kept pushing it down and letting the beer sop up as much grounds as possible. As usual, LISTEN TO THE BEER! We should have stopped with what we could comfortably apply as the porter (I've heard) still tastes like watered down coffee. As you can see (right), the coffee was as close to the overflow line as you can get. We finally had to thief some out in order to make the levels adequate. Despite this, it was a first batch, I had never applied anything to the secondary fermenter at that point so I was also learning from the process. For a first batch, he was pleased with the resulting head at about 3 months of bottle conditioning.


Upon my return from Minnesota, I began a tear into the homebrewing hobby. For the next 2 months I would brew a new batch every weekend. Currently I am sitting at 150 Grolsch (450ml) bottles, 5 Fischer (650ml) bottles and 3 growlers deep in beer. (This is my new Avinator in action, its...the best)
Back to the Norther Brewer Kits. I hauled across the border an Oatmeal Stout kit (among other brewing paraphernalia). I was keen to get into it, as Norther Brewer effectively kicks the supply-shelves-ass of my local brew shop, Grape and Grain (or so I thought). But this is merely an economy of scale. The kit itself required a partial mash technique, my first foray into mashing. As you can see at left, it required a lot of grain - thus it needs to be mashed on a higher scale than simply steeping a small sack in the brew pot. Solution without a mash-tun? Wrapping the brew pot, full of near boiling water and those three full-grain sacks, in two raggedy ass blankets and leaving on the kitchen floor for a half hour. It wont always look glamorously proletarian or masculine, folks.

The brewing process was standard otherwise. However, what was not standard to me thus far, is the pitch black color that the malts created! Love that midnight plunge. The stout has very poor head retention at the 2week bottle condition mark (and thats after a month and change from brew day). The initial flavor (the nose?) is not developed, it seems watery...AS my dads porter is. Now, im not saying its the kits, as we may have chinced out on the body by using grain sacks, or hop socks, not enough yeast activity in the primary, but I am making the statement about the uncanny'ness of two kits having the same imperfection. However, having said that, the finish is amazingly oaty, almost a roasted oatmeal flavor! Keeping the lot in storage for now.