The Stout and the Brown had their inaugural tastings over the last week, and the second Pale and the second Wheat each got tossed in bottles.  In addition, I also (finally) got the ingredients for the Porters latest version.  I think the Beer Gods may have wanted it to happen this way, since I did learn some cool stuff.

With the Stout and Brown, the chocolate malt was exposed (thanks to my brewing partner-I knew I kept him around for a reason) as the "sharp" flavor I was referring to in earlier posts, not the black patent malt, as I had assumed.  So in each of these, I'm replacing it with different kinds of chocolate malt.  The Brown, which is delicious except for the sharp aftertaste, will be getting a dose of PALE chocolate malt instead of the chocolate malt.  The roastiness I have been calling "sharp" is supposed to be diminished in the pale variety; The color  seemed a little darker than I expected as well, and the paler malt will fix that, so it just seems like the right thing to do.  The Stout, which I was quite...no DAMN proud of as a first attempt, was pretty good to begin with.  The IBU's are somewhere in the stratosphere, but the intensity of the malt bill keeps the bitterness in check.  So for this one, I am replacing the chocolate malt with an equal amount of chocolate WHEAT malt.  The roasty characters are also diminished in this malt, but not so much color is lost.  The wheat adds some haze to the beer, but its black as night as it is, so who cares?

Watching the Pale and Wheat sit next to each other for a while was really interesting.  I found it odd that the wheat was the clear one.  I've always been under the impression that wheat malt lent a hazy character to the beer, but there it was in its mini fermenter, clear as polished amber, while the Pale held on to haze right through to the bottle.  Also, since/ the Pale had a poop-ton of hops in it, I was expecting a thick trub at the bottom, but the wheat had the thicker, more separated trub when the two were compared.  That whole thing about yeast loving wheat must be true...since they were happier, they produced more babies (don't we all), and flocculated better, clumpimg up and settling to the bottom faster.

The Porter brew went very well, and it looks like I'm finally getting a handle on my processes, shoring up efficiencies, and enjoying smoother brewdays.  The recipe was almost identical to the last one, except for just a touch more Crystal 40, to lend some extra body and sweetness.  I'm happy with the one I have, but I think it might just need a little something...something that's not Chocolate malt.