Thoughts and notes on my beer brewing experiences.
“Beer is proof that God loves us and want us to be happy.” – Ben Franklin
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I first became interested in brewing beer in the early 1970’s. I stumbled across a 200 year old book in the library at The College of New Jersey in the historic book section. It was filled with recipes and instructions for making mead and beer. It even had a recipe for a milk stout which I had never heard of.When I first started brewing in 1981 there was not a lot of information to be found. The document to the right I a copy of the only information I had at the time. I followed the recipe to a T the first time and made 4 1/2 gallons of very bad beer.
My next attempt involved a little more reading and talking to some wine makers. I knew there were a few home brewers around, but I did not know any of them. My first change was to replace the lager yeast with ale yeast and the white sugar with dextrose. The results were much better. Then I remembered reading about the Milk Stout. I asked the wine making shop about lactose and was surprised to find some in stock. The shop owner also suggested a small piece of pharmaceutical licorice to improve the head. I eliminated the sugar completely (except for priming) and used two 4 lb. cans of Irish Stout LME. Success! The stout was unlike anything I had tasted before. I was hooked and brewed often enough to keep myself and my friends supplied with Milk Stout. I even won some awards at the Connecticut State Fair. Alas… a move to Georgia in 1985 and raising 3 children put my brewing on hold. Today I am an empty nester. After nearly a 30 year break from the hobby, I am brewing again and digging into every book and internet link I can find to educate myself in the art of beer and ale making. One more tidbit about me is that I love to work with tools and am cheap so I build much of my equipment. I will go into some of that on other pages in the future. |
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