Perhaps this is what I get for naming the Black Heart Stout after such a volatile organ. Have you ever seen an arterial spray of beer? I have. After a rather Withnail and I style afternoon, I find myself covered in the stout I brewed three weeks ago. I taste and smell awesome! If it survives my bottling antics, I have high hopes for the 43 bottles. (I blame a dodgy stick filler for the mess.)
Luckily this time I took an OG reading. (Every time I say OG I want to throw down my I M hand signs I’ve been working on.) This baby is 5.08% ABV, which is right on. I’m also happy to report that it tastes pretty darn good and has a nice full body, unlike the first beer I brewed solo which is tasty but kind of thin. It still has that mineral tang. I’m just guessing that’s from the hard London water as well as perhaps being from the DME (according to my friend Bob that’s a common issue). There is a faint hop character showing up here which makes me excited about perhaps brewing a hoppier stout. The lovely, generous dudes at Brew Dog have sent me some hops– (Warrior, Chinook and some out-of-sight Nelson Sauvin which I will probably save for a single hop lighter ale maybe?) so the choice will be which one to add to the next stout.
The end-all is a have a f*ckton of beer. Come on over.
(in about three weeks.)
Impy Malting 
Sounds very promising indeed – I’d be right in thinking it’s bottle conditioned, right?
The sun is shining, the weather is sweet…and yet all I can think about is a treacly pint of stout. The perils of beer devotion!
Hey Jesus John– yeah, why am I brewing a stout when the blue bells are out? I heard it’s more “forgiving”!
It’s bottle conditioned but I confess to drinking some of it from a bottle that refused to cap. If it tastes this good now…well, hopefully it can only improve?
DME does, indeed, impart a certain tang to beer. LME also has a bit of a tang, but it’s not so pronounced as with the dried stuff. I’m not sure what the reason behind it is?
Hi Jack– it’s strange, but I don’t mind the flavor. I’ve never tried using liquid. Is it added to the wort in the same way as spray malt?
Yeah, just pour it in.
Awesome. Congrats.
Jack,
Extract twang is caused by oxidation of the extract during the canning process. It tastes different between different people – some say its like a slight metallic taste, I find it’s like licking the end of a ball point pen.
If you search the archives at craftbrew radio, Greame Sanders and John Palmer do some analysis work to arrive at the oxidation conclusion.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for that information. Oddly, the beer had that tangy taste even before bottling, both in the stout and the mild. It’s not exactly the ball point pen flavor though so maybe this is something else?
Thanks Tim, I guessed it was something like that but I’d never looked into it. I shall have to chase that down.
Sounds like a cool beer. A single hop Nelson Sauvin would be cool, like a toned down Chaos Theory I’d guess. It’s a great hop! I’ve had a couple of single hoppers and I love to see what each hop actually brings to the beer, I find it fascinating (this is why I should home brew because then I’d learn it all by doing it myself!).
I’m so new to the brewing thing, I’m just happy to have something drinkable! But it does really make you appreciate beer more– it makes the process more magical rather than less. I think the biggest thrill from this stout was that it actually made me *tipsy* with that happy beer feeling!
you got sent hops from BrewDog? Man, I need to quit my day job and get blogging more – what a freebie! Nelson Sauvin are good stuff, under-used in my opinion.
Haha…seriously, I need a day job, Leigh!
When I met James at the Zeitgeist launch I mentioned it was hard for me to find American hops– I didn’t know where to look. He said he would send me some, and he did.