Secret Santa Stout: The ingredients

Deciding to brew Secret Santa Stout was the result of a not-terribly-scientific survey of dark, high-gravity beers. After brewing an amber ale for my inaugural batch, I knew I wanted to go darker for the second. I've always been a fan of maltier beers, so it made sense to try a porter or a stout. I also wanted to add fresh ingredients this time, whether in the boil or in the fermenter, so I thought about flavors like coffee, chocolate, and vanilla -- or maybe even something daring like cinammon or hot pepper. Ultimately, caution won out, and I stuck with a kit, but one that includes most of what I'm looking for.

Secret Santa Stout is made from the "bourbon vanilla oak stout" kit from Beer and Wine Hobby. The kit includes:

• 2 lb flaked oats 
• 1 lb chocolate malt 
• 1 lb roasted barley 
• 2 lb Munich malt 
• 3 lb light dry malt extract 
• 3 lb dark dry malt extract 
• 2 lb amber dry malt extract 
• 2 oz Galena hop pellets 
• 1 oz Golding hop pellets 
• 4 oz French oak chips 
• English ale yeast

Despite being an extract kit, the shipment includes 6 pounds of grains for steeping, which is important. I'm not philosophically opposed to the ease of extracts. I can't see myself ever going to all-grain brewing, or even a partial mash that would require a lauter-tun. That all sounds too much like work to me. But I do want to introduce quality ingredients wherever I can. Two of the key ingredients in the kit's name, the bourbon and the vanilla, are not included, and that's part of what attracted me to the recipe. Anything fresh that I can add will make a big difference.

The recipe required a little prep work prior to the boil. The first thing I had to do was soak the wood chips in bourbon. I put them in a small, airtight container, and poured Knob Creek bourbon to cover (about 300 ml). The wood is to soak for a week. Even after a few days, it's already absorbed a decent amount of liquid. At first the chips were completely submerged, and now the top layer is visibly above the bourbon's surface. This pleases me.

The wood will be used later in the fermenting process to approximate aging the beer in a bourbon casket. First, though, comes the boil.

I'll have a brew Christmas

It is time. After ten months of not brewing, I am once again heeding the call. Homebrew batch 2 has begun.

Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long. For all that I bitched and moaned during the brewing of my first beer, it came out pretty well in the end. In fact, just last week I drank the remaining two bottles, which had been aging for over six months. It's true what they say: good things do come to those who wait. The extra time in the cellar had rounded out the ale's flavors, and taken a bit of the sour bite off the finish. For a first effort, it was damn good.

Now I want to do even better. With the holidays coming up, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to brew something bigger and more complex. After considering a few different recipes, I've settled on a bourbon vanilla oak stout, with the ingredients from Beer and Wine Hobby. Not to spoil the surprise, but if you're a relative of mine and not a recovering alcoholic, you'll have a little something special in your stocking this year. I've even selected a Christmas-themed name for my brew: Secret Santa Stout.

I haven't gone overboard: Secret Santa Stout is still an extract brew, just with a few additional steps. I'm steeping a lot more grains this time, going to a two-stage fermentation, and adding some additional flavoring during the fermentation. It's a moderate step up from my first recipe, which feels appropriate given my experience. Just like last time, I'll be chronicling the process in this blog. Expect more dizzying highs and abyssal lows, more self-doubt and misguided confidence, and, above all, more temper tantrums.