I brewed this batch of beer two weeks ago today, and last night had a first taste of this stout.
The main ingredient that makes this beer so dark is a chocolate or deep brown roasted malt. It’s very smooth, low alcohol, and it starts out with a nice head.
There’s a backstory to this stout. I brewed this batch alone — without Ryan’s usual help. I was getting somewhat frustrated by the end of the process and more than a little tired after seven or eight hours of intermittent work. It was getting cold and late in the day. I had promised my wife and daughter that we would go to the movies. I was running up against a deadline, and needed to finish it up and do the requisite clean-up. I felt that all day I made a bunch of mistakes, which I had to pay for in time. For example, siphoning was hard, with a lot of starts and stops as the hop-flakes kept clogging the siphoning tube. Instead of the brew flowing into the carboy easily, and quickly, I was getting transfering the brew in smaller and smaller batches. I was sure I was messing up this batch, putting at risk the entire day’s work and ultimately, the beer wouldn’t turn out right.
So, the unexpected joy of this chocolate stout is that it beat my falling expectations — it turned out just fine, despite my fumblings. And we did make the movie that night, which we very much enjoyed: Milk.
Dale Dougherty 