Otto's Baltic (Barktic?) Porter

Though it's not quite ready yet, My first attempt at a Baltic Porter taste pretty good. It will be the first of many batches.

When I racked the beer into the secondary fermenter, it tasted pretty alcoholic (it's about 8% ABV) and I was worried the roasted character wouldn't be strong enough. So...I threw in more hops. I'm pretty sure your not supposed to dry hop a Baltic Porter, so I only added a half once of Glacier and a half once of Cascade (homegrown!) hops. I think it was a good call. This beer has a unique spiciness, almost like liquorice that I've never had in any of the other brews. I'm not sure where this came from (Saaz hops?), but I like it.

Prost, Otto dog!

Trike Strike Irish Red Ale

Here is my latest beer label:

Tragically, I have the ingredients but no time as of yet to actually make the beer. My need for creative Christmas presents got the label underway ( It makes a good T-shirt ). So hopefully, the beer will be good enough to deserve the label. It will be a mix of Maris Otter Malt, some caramel malt, flaked oats, golden naked oats, and well, I haven't quite decided on the hops. I have some home grown Willamette, so they will probably be tossed in there.

I originally was excited to call this Fixed Gear Version 1 Irish Ale as I thought the tricycle - well, it truly is the original fixed gear cycle. But then I saw that there already is a fixed gear red ale. Really? And a pretty uninspired design concept. Theirs had a chainring. wow. Mine says ride. POW!

Of course, putting a trike on a beer probably wouldn't fly in the commercial world. It would be like putting a cartoon camel on cigarettes or something (oh wait, that's been done).

Trike Strike Irish Red Juice anyone?

Soulslinger Black Ale

So the recently bottled, but then unnamed black ale, is now named. This tasted pretty good going into the bottle when it was still flat and warm, so I think it should taste good enough to get it's own label (when it's cold and carbonated). So, over Christmas break beers at Taco Mac with my brother-in-law, we discussed some possibilities. The then working title was First Name Smith Black Ale, as I wanted to get this one named after Smith (Yes, it really is his first name) and this is what he goes by - at least on PS3.

Anyway, I thought it should have something more dramatic, and since Smith is a climber, I thought we should brainstorm in that direction. Not being a very good rock-climber myself (I struggle to do 5.9s), but knowing how cool some of the rock route names are, I asked Smith if perhaps there were some epic routes he had climbed and if they should be immortalized on beer bottles. Turns out there were a few with names suitable for a dark black ale.


Soulslinger.

That's what we decided on. It's a current favorite climb of Smith's in Bishop, CA where he boulders a lot. It's also a V9, which is a pretty frigin hard route up the boulder.

Yep. That's Smith on Soulslinger. Errr, thanks to ? for the shot of Smith (I'll get that credit in there). And yes, of course I did some work in Photoshop. I thought of slinging one's soul, which could be considered a bit dark, though I suppose it depends where your slinging it. So, I gave the label a bit a mystical quality, added the idea of duality (the two sides of Smith) and kept the basic slice of rock and climber.

Note to self: Change the lower landscape drawing to a more dramatic charcoal drawing of a distant mountain range.

Note to self:  Tweek the recipe a bit the next batch to get the ABV up to 9% (matching the V9 climb).

How I love thee...

Oatmeal Stout.

One of my goals in life, besides doing a Fulbright and raising a good boy, is to craft the perfect Oatmeal Stout. My mind has shifted to this goal last night when I bottled the latest brew - the Barley DoppelBark.

So up next is The Mighty Quinn's Oatmeal Stout (version 2). I was just working on a rough of the label:


I'm digging the boots and the gesture. There is some mighty in there. Quinn stepped into these not on my urge, but on his own. And it was frigin cute. Now I need to get him to do the same thing while holding a shovel above his head while I shoot from a lower angle.

Yeah...best of luck with this.

Quinn will never do the same thing twice. So, I'm sure this will be a battle of wills. And I doubt that me repeating "but Quinn, you'll have your own beer named after you" will help.

I should be working on The Mighty Quinn's Oatmeal Cookie.