I got it bad and its all over my body. Gross! Anyway I decided to make up another batch this afternoon, but nothing overly complicated. This session would be a Extract with Specialty grains. The recipe as follows:

Bradinator’s Frigid Irish Lass (Stout)

Extract Profile -

• 3.3 lbs of Coopers Real Ale LME
• 500 g of Brewers grade Corn Syrup

Grain Profile -

• 250 g of Chocolate Malt
• 500 g of Crystal Malt (60L/Dark)

Steeped in 80-90C water for 30 minutes

Hops Profile -

• Mount Hood @ 60 minutes
• UK First Gold @ 60 minutes

Misc -

• 1/2 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 minutes
• 1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ Cold Break

The steps

1) Bring 2 gallons of water to boil in your brewpot. During this time steep your grains in 80C water for 20-30 minutes

2) At boil remove from heat and combine the grain tea and extracts. Return to heat.

3) At boil again pitch your hops.

4) Maintain a slow rolling boil for 60 minutes. Add the Irish moss at 10 minutes before finish.

5) Remove from heat and cool

• I used a very poor method for getting my cold break. I tried taking advantage of the frigid -28c weather and placing it into the snow again BUT stupidly I moved the fermentor first added cooled water and then placed outside. I believe keeping it in the steel pot would have worked better, as the plastic fermenter did a very good job retaining its heat. I did not reach cold break for almost an hour. Lesson learned.

6) Pitch yeast at cold break and move into a dark, warm room.

Measure OG was 1.040, very close to the Beersmith perdicted 1.041.

I also took the time to take a gravity reading from my first partial mash attempt and actually moved it to a secondary, something I rarely do. Surprisingly enough the gravity reading was quite good, a solid 1.010. I took a small sample taste and have to admit that it wasn’t bad. You can really taste the oatmeal though which is a good sign I did not achieve a very good mash efficiency. I will probably give it another 2 weeks in the secondary and bottle over the Christmas holidays.

This will be the last brew for a bit. I do have one more extract kit left and lots of grain, but unless I get some amazing recipe I will probably just leave it until mid-February. I just don’t have enough bottles for 4-batches!

Someone once asked me if the juice was worth the squeeze, I told him I don't know but the beer is well worth the effort.