What’s Brew? January 17, 2015

I’m pretty pleased with myself that I managed to type 2015 and not 2014. I imagine it will be October before I get it right consistently.

But I digress..

I discovered yesterday that in with the current frigid winter temperatures, the only room in the house that’s sufficiently warm for fermentation in my bedroom. So I am currently sharing my sleeping quarters with three carboys of fermenting loveliness.

What’s brewing?

In one corner is Simon’s Misery Yam Ale. I used the recipe I developed for the pumpkin ale and added yams instead. I hope it’s delicious. It’s a week away from racking.

Tucked into a minute corner is the Irish red ale in a one gallon carboy. It still is fermenting slowly. Not sure I’ll bother with racking with such a small batch. I might just bottle it when it’s thoroughly finished with fermenting.

Next to the Irish red is my Baltimore Complex ale. I developed this experimental brew to have a Belgian-esque flair, and used Old Bay for flavoring. I have no idea what I’ll get. I just hope it’s drinkable.

I’m making Baltimorphic Complex in preparation for the Geological Society of America annual meeting, which will be in Baltimore this fall. I’ll experiment with a bunch of one gallon batches, then make a five gallon batch when I’m satisfied that I’ve come up with a recipe that will work.

Thus far, it’s fermenting quite nicely.

And what’s on tap?

I still have a few bottles of the pumpkin ale. I think we finally finished up my Sam Adam’s Summer Ale clone.

Conditioning, I have a bazillion bottles of coffee stout (from a kit), ginger beer (also from a kit) and my Yam-Tastic Oil Change Porter. The stout should be ready to drink but it’s struggling to condition in the chilly conditions of winter. The others are at least a week away from drinking, if not more, for the same reasons. I took a few bottles of each into my room so that maybe they’ll finally carbonate and be as delicious as they ought to be.