I don't quite know what it is about the darkening days but it makes me think of a warming fire and a strong dark beer full of chocolate malt and roasted barley. I've got two such beers fermenting away; a dark porter called Dogbolter made from a recipe from Ramsgate Brewery and an Imperial Stout called St Petersburg which is brewed by Thornbridge.
The Dogbolter, on the right of the picture, needs to be racked today or tomorrow and has fermented down to 1009 giving me a 6% abv. I've got 20g of Kentish Fuggles sitting in a sterilised stocking. It will add a resinous grassiness to the beer.
On the left of the picture is the St Petersburg. Although it fell four points short of the OG at 1068, it has fermented out to 1010 so far, giving an ABV of 7.6, just under the commercial version.
The next brew on the horizon is another stout, this time an oatmeal variety. I'm not entirely sure why I've got all these dark beers on the go at once, it must be the impending wintertime but I'm sure looking forward to drinking them.
Dark beer on a cold day is awesome, the bigger the ABV the better. Hope these turn out as well as their commercial versions. :)
ReplyDeleteBeerBirraBier.
I racked the St Petersburg off tonight, you should see the crud that welded itself to the fermenter.
ReplyDeleteThat Dogbolter recipe is fantastic. What a beer!! It's one I'll be brewing again and again - just to catch up with the number of times you've brewed it recently :) ;)
ReplyDeleteMuch more pleased with Mark 2. Hit target OG (1055) and tasted pretty good when I bottled it. One thing I didn't mention is that I was short of Fuggles so I saved them for the dry hopping and used Willamette for the late hops.
ReplyDeleteThe St Pete's was fantastic straight from the fermenter. I've got a feeling I'm really going to enjoy that one.