Batch 29 Oatmeal Stout

Batch #29, February 11, 2006

Malt extract:
13.5 lbs Pils ME (bulk)

Malted grain:
3 lbs crystal 80L
1/2 lb black patent
3/4 lb chocolate malt
3/4 lb oatmeal (Quaker)
Steeped all at 155 for 30 minutes.

Hops:

2 oz Cascade	60 min
2 tsp Irish Moss	10 min

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056, American ale yeast, harvested from batch 26 and 27.

OG: forgot to measure
FG: 1.011

Kegged: sometime, drank it, it was good!


Comments:
22 Jan 2006, minor panic (!) this 10 gallons will be ready for kegging this week, and I've only got 1 empty keg. Fortunately, I was able to polish off the last of batch 26 during the football playoffs. No Packers, but Seahawks (the local team) and Steelers (always a house favorite) are both in the Superbowl.

26 Jan 2006, Kegged, but I don't have enough CO2 hoses to do all the kegs at once, so I primed the kegs with 1/3 C white sugar. I found numerous references on-line that said white sugar would work fine since I don't have an corn sugar on hand.

Kegs

Batch 5 was my last batch in bottles. I got some kegs and a refrigerator in the garage. Larry's ran a sale on 5 gallon kegs at Christmas time, 4 kegs for the price of 2, plus hoses, regulator, and CO2 bottle. I found a refrigerator on the internet for free, just had to haul it home. Kegs are so much easier than bottles, no more washing or capping or boxes of empties sitting around. Well worth the expense.

Here is the refrigerator that I found for free on the internet, I found it on www.abcfree.com. It took a couple of weeks to find one, both that worked and close enough that I felt like driving over to pick it up. It had been sitting outside for a while, so it needed a bit of cleanup, but with a powerwasher (just visible on the right), some elbow grease, and some Mr. Clean, it looks pretty good. And the Packer sticker is a nice touch, too! (Go, Pack, Go!)


















I pulled out all the shelves so the kegs would fit, and put a piece of hardboard on the plastic shelf above the veggie bins for reinforcement. I'm not sure that is enough if I ever happen to get all 4 kegs full at the same time. Each keg weighs about 50 lbs full, so that would be 200 lbs, plus the CO₂ and plumbing, I'm not sure if the plastic will be strong enough to hold it all.



















A few things to point out --
1. 4 kegs and the CO₂ bottle fit nicely.
2. A temperature gauge (just in front of the CO₂ helps make sure the temperature is cool enough. I've got the reefer set at 40? F.
3. The door makes a good storage place for left-over hops and other brewing ingredients.
4. Not shown, but the freezer section stores glasses (a set of 6, shamelessly swiped from the Hotel Abrams in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany) for a frosty mug, long term storage of hops, and provides the frozen jugs for my fermentation ice box.