Hey Guys,
Well, after trying a beer each night starting at about three days out from bottling, it's official. Stouts take much longer to condition and build carbonation that other beers. Some websites have said that it will take maybe 2 months. Bad news... I was hoping to be drinking a good stout by now.
The good news is that the flavor has been getting better each day, so I think I will let this one sit for a month or so. My next beer, I think, will be an Oktoberfest. This will need less time conditioning before its ready to drink.
In other news, I will be going to the November meeting of the Savannah Brewer's League on Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to it. I was hoping by now to have something good enough to take a few beers in for the after meeting tasting. But, unfortunately I think my end products have actually gone down since we brewed that Witbier. I'm not sure what the deal is... whether my tastes have become more discriminating, or I'm not keeping my eqipment clean enough. I'm going to try to get some advice from the guys at the Brewer's League.
I also looked into doing an all-grain brew (basically, soaking and creating my own batch of fermentables from crushed grains instaed of using the extract that I buy from the Brew store). It looks like more equipment and a greater investment of time in the brew, but you have more control and you avoid the cost of the extract which is the vast majority of the cost of ingredients per batch.
Well, I'll be in beer touch. Be well guys... talk to you later
