Yesterday I brewed a stout that is modeled after the Rogue Shakespeare Stout. This marked the one year anniversary of the beginning of my homebrewing career. What a fun year it was! I would call this stout my Anniversary Stout, but instead it will be dubbed the Wounded Knee Stout.
Well, calling it an injury would be a bit of an exaggeration, but I did bruise my knee yesterday. As I was sanitizing the glass carboy that was going to be my primary fermenter, I was pouring the sanitizing solution out of the glass into a bucket. I lost my grip on the carboy and it first crashed into my knee and then onto the tile floor of the kitchen. The floor won. A five gallon flood of water and glass shards went all over the kitchen floor, creating quite a mess.
The good news is that I walked it off and kept brewing. I’m just glad there were no beer casualties, although it was one heck of a mess to clean up. Broken glass is the worst. So, the lesson to everyone: Stay focused and keep a tight grip when you’re holding onto five gallons of liquid in a glass container. It seems obvious, but you can take it for granted!
Last week, on St. Patrick’s Day, just as you suggested, I opened a bottle of your stout beer that you sent home with me a couple weeks earlier. Brian, it was delicious! Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Emmett will not get his, as I am saving it for special day in April. I am sorry about your injury……..but I want you to know, it was well worth it, to have made that batch of your Anniversary Stout. Keep up the good work.
Gratefully, Dan Powell
Thanks for the kind words, Dan! I’m glad to hear that you liked it. I also think it turned out pretty well. The body wasn’t quite as creamy as I like my stouts to be, but the color was good and the flavor was mild roasty. I think it turned out to be a pretty easy-drinking, versatile stout. I’ll have to send some of my IPA your way when it’s ready in a week or so.