To hell with NC, I'm brewing anyway!

While the rest of the locations I associate with seem to be full swing into fall time, the North Carolina summer refuses to give up. The leaves are turning, the humidity is nil, but the temps keep hovering near 90. I say the hell with it! I'll just keep the air on, pretend its truly fall, and get a batch of beer bubblin'.

And so begins Moan Porter V4 (AKA Quaternary Porter). The all-grain Trifecta porter was recently reworked into a partial mash recipe to accommodate my brewing setup and the specialty grains adjusted slightly, resulting in the Quaternary Porter.

Brew day was last Monday, September 13th. After many weeks of far too many hours devoted to my job, I took Monday off for a little R & R. It seems I had been away from brewing too long. The brewing process was filled with catastrophe...The brewpot boiled over multiple times, the boiling wort bubbling out of the brewpot burned my wrist, and then the stainless steel spoon I was using to stir with fell into the brewpot and promptly sank.

Here it is near the end of the 75 minute boil.


After the boil, I cooled it in the sink and within a handful of hours I added the newly released Wyeast Northern Brewer Neobrittania yeast . The thing was bubblin' like mad by the next morning and weighed in at an OG of 1.075.

Here's my plan for the secondary...

Split the batch in two. Half (2.5 gallons) is aged properly and then bottled. The other half becomes an epic, kick-your-ass bourbon barrel porter. I started the oak chips soaking in 3/4 cup Eagle Rare bourbon (Thanks Brad) today and the whole lot goes into the secondary next weekend. Not sure it's a good idea to add bourbon to a beer that's already near 8% ABV, but I'm gonna do it anyhow!