Brewing – Phishin’ For Cookies Stout

I realized that I am a but delayed in this post. I don’t know how I missed doing one for this. Well, my first outdoor brewing on my new burner was a blast! Here is the scenario: December 30, 2016… 9:30 PM…. 27 degrees….Felt like 15. I was streaming the Phish 12/30/16 show from MSG live. What a great way to start a brewing night!

The recipe that I am working with will turn out like an oatmeal raisin cookie stout, hopefully.

This brew includes some spiced rum, raisins, cinnamon, vanilla beans, and a decent oatmeal stout base. To get ready for this recipe, on the 28th, I started making a WLP004 starter. This is the first time I am using this particular yeast, so I will be adding some into my bank!

The mash in went pretty well. I had to get used to finding the correct settings on my new Bayou Classics SP10 propane burner.  With a decent wind that night, I worked through finding the best spot where most of the wind was blocked out.  It only blew out twice while I was getting the strike water up to temp.  After that, I was rollin’ along! 

No night of brewing is complete without sipping on some tasty brews, so I was drinking and Avery Out of Bounds Stout and a homebrew or two.  This brew, even in the cold weather made it to a great boil along the way.  I was worried that it may not make it to holding a rolling boil with the temp.  This new burner went like a champ!  Into the brew in the last few minutes was some soaked raisins.  The rest of the liquid, the spiced rum, cinnamon, and vanilla beans were tossed in during the later end of the fermentation.

The yeast was pitched, and apparently, the newly brewed beer partied like it was 1999 on New Years Eve…..I ended up adding in a blow off tube the morning of January 1st.  Here are the stats for this beer:

Brewed 12/30/16
Bottled 2/23/17
OG 1.057
FG 1.015

Some things to consider for this brew:

• The burner definitely helped me stay warm!
• Next time I may split the addition raisins into during the whirlpool and during the fermentation.  This may allow for more of the flavoring to shine.
• I will remember a blow off tube first thing with this one next time!
• I love listening to a live stream of Phish.
• People driving by must have been wondering about the floodlight showing a column of steam and the crazy guy dancing behind it.