Hop Lust

My first keg of belgian oatmeal stout kicked last week and I decided to swap in a fresh keg of the same brew right before I left for class last Saturday morning.   I wanted to get it cold so I could bring a growler of it to a super bowl party on Sunday.  As soon as I hooked up the gas I knew there was a problem: foam started shooting up into the gas line even though the gas was turned on.  I quickly discovered that my manifold does not have check valves like I thought it did and the stout almost made it into my keg of IPA.  Without thinking, I disconnected the gas from both kegs and pulled on the pressure relief valve of the stout.  Big mistake.  Belgian oatmeal stout went everywhere!  My clothes were soaked and I was now close to being late for class so I just closed the fridge to deal with it later.  

The last time I had touched the keg was a little over a month earlier when it had been pressurized to about 30psi at room temperature.  Not enough to cause the kind of reaction I got when I hooked it up.  As best I can figure the yeast must have kept working on the already very dry (2°P) beer and overcarbonated the beer in the keg.  I’ve been venting pressure for a few days and I can finally pour a glass that’s about 30% beer and 70% foam – at least good enough that I can drink it.

A quick update on the Mo Betta Lite, I took a gravity reading last weekend and it was at 1.5°P (1.006) which is pretty good.  With any luck it will drop just a little more.  I’m keeping it nice and cool and I’ll probably keg it this weekend.  The hops in the sample weren’t quite as noticeable as I’d like, but the grainy sweetness was very nice and it had a slight but noticeable bitterness to it.  Pretty good, but it should be better once it’s cold and carbonated.

February 4th, 2009 | Tags: Brewing | Category: Brewing | Subscribe to comments | Both comments and pings are currently closed