A stout darker than your worst nightmares...

I wrote my first beer recipe yesterday. I went with the dogma of "go big, or go home".

Big is somewhat of an understatement.

After some prompting from Phil, we decided that an Imperial Stout was the way to go for our first all grain recipe. Ok, well, what's my biggest problem with stouts? Often, at least to me, they're boring. I mean, there are exceptions, but let's face it, most stouts stick to the basic architecture of not much of a malt profile, little or boring hop schedules, and greatly lacking in complexity. Well, that just would not do for me. I was going big, remember.

So here's the basic stats, and I'll include a link to the recipe if anyone has the stones to take the time for this one.

Original gravity: 1.133
Planned terminal gravity: 1.033
IBU's: 74
ABV: 13.3% (+)
SRM: 101° (!!!!!!)

The whole story here

314 days from striking water to popping the top on one of these beasts. I included a tertiary fermentation that includes 7 days of dryhopping. Champagne yeast in the secondary, spices and misc semi-fermentables in the primary and secondary. 180 days in the secondary, 30 in the tertiary, and 60 in the bottle.

So needless to say, this isn't a quick brew. Think Xmas 2010. Or 2011.

The problem I've run into though is the high price of whole leaf hops. Again, with the going big idea, whole leaf hops were the only way to go. Well, that drives the price of a 22oz bottle up towards the $10 cost mark. That's a lot. We need investors/people to buy these bottles, or we could just end up with a nice private reserve of some ridiculous stout.

I'm kind of hoping for the last option.

Cheers!

This blog is a failure.

Seriously.

Actually I hope not. This bear has had a rough week so far and updating a new blog is at the bottom of the priority pile.

However there are some semi nice spots to hilight. Grinders hosted a pairing of Goose Island beers with small dishes such as onion soup, an almond smoked drummie, and a pork choplette with apple compote and ccranberry sauce. So, free beer and food, but I have some beef with this event. First, with names like "choplette". (Really a pork medalion) and "drummie" (the small part of a chicken wing) I knew I wasn't going to walk away full. But come on. Second, I already have some issues with Goose Island (gripe #1: it's terrible). So I looked at this as a chance for redemption. Needless to say, despite the coked out presenter's constant Boulevard-dick-sucking diotribes that seemed somewhat misinformed, they failed.

So we move on. Get some irish ale and a long strange trippel and put GI to bed.

And tonight, late for the party, I finally gave Bigfoot a try. So far, not terrible. I'd assumed that some effort would go into a barleywine style, but I'm mixed on Sierra Nevada. This one seems a winner.

So I'm closing the store alone tonight. Just got complimented on my suggestion for one of my customers, have 45 minutes to kill and am ready for bed.

Beer of the day: Fraoch heather ale. Light, sweet and something very different from what you've had. Worth the 11 bucks for a 4 pack.

An Introduction

The first post.

What an intimidating prospect. Somehow I'm supposed to introduce myself, give some sort of purpose to this little plot of internet realestate, and get folks to read my "professional" opinions.

Lets get right down to it then. My name is Larry, and I make, sell, drink, enjoy, recommend, talk shit and appreciate beer, wine, and to a lesser extent, spirits. I do so from a location that when I tell people where I'm at they ask things like "Do you ever get scared?" "Do you sell anything other than colt 45 and MD 20/20". I see through these questions to see the real question that is being asked. If you don't, well, that's probably a good thing. Just to be clear, yes, I've been nervous at my job, but those times are few and VERY far between, and no, we don't sell 20/20. Mostly, I see normal people, drinking normal BWS. The guys from the auto shops on Troost, classy Brookside moms buying bottles of Tisdale Chardonay, my buddy from 61st and park coming in for his Ruskova and Bacardi shots, and of course UMKC and Rockhurst students coming in for *shudder* "30 stones brah".

But the customers that I relish in are of a very specific type. No, it's not just "they buy expensive/good items" (though, I do appreciate those customers). It's customers with an exploratory spirit. They come in with a general outline of what they might like, but are still open to having something jump out at them. For example: I have a customer that comes in for Bud light 30 packs, fifths of Captain, and Parliment lights. He's in 1-2 times a week. He knows what he wants, and usually gets just that. But earlier this week he was looking for Boulevard Wheat. Unfortunately, we only had 12 packs and 20 packs because, well, we sold all of our 6 packs. So he asked what he should get instead. This is crucial. He was willing to get out of his comfort zone for a night. He took home a 6er of Boulevard Irish Ale (ok, so, not that far out of his comfort zone....) and came back the next day and asked what he should try next. This dude is not a beer snob, but he took home a 6 pack of Bell's Two hearted. Loved it (duh). Now he buys craft beer more often than his case/fifth usual. Still gets the P-funks, though. Some things are tougher to change...

But I digress...

The whole point of this thing is to give a glimpse into the world of my life from 4pm-11pm daily. Could be kind of boring, could be hilarious, and in some cases downright sad. I mean, I plan on putting a rating and hopefully a taste profile of 1 beer or wine a couple of days a week, give updates on the brews I have cooking in my son's bedroom, and of course all the glitz and glamor associated with the retail liquor business. Wait for it.

So the first post. Somewhat rambling, not terribly long, and not informative at all.

Success.

Oh, Beer of the day: Founder's Breakfast Stout. If you like coffee, you'll love this stout. If you like stouts, you'll LOVE this guy. It's HUGE. It's BLACK. It's BREAKFAST.