L's Ales: Flanders Red

This is a beer I have been planning for months, even years... unofficially. I have always wanted to do a sour beer and I have always had a reason in mind. Beers such as La Folie greatly influenced the creation of this beer. Actually, La Folie was the only beer that influenced this one but if you have ever had it... You will understand.



So the reason I wanted to brew this is to age it for a number of years and drink a little bit of it on an annual basis. Checking for change over the years and to celebrate the day a little creature came into my life. Now that it is happening, I figured this should be brewed and it will probably be named after her. Yeah, this beer officially has no name at the moment but it is in the carboy and I am going to pitch the bugs to make this thing really sweet, (or sour, actually), very soon.



Since I decided to start using some of my spent grain for stuff, I saved more from this batch of beer. Quite a bit more. I plan to make a ton of flour just to have around and this long brewday got me wanting one of my favorite things! Ok, two. Beer and Breakfast!



The spent grain waffles were pretty easy to make I used the same website I used when I made Pirates Booty Into Dog Buscuits, The Growler. Here are the directions. I cut the recipe in half since I would be the only one eating them and I still got 4 waffles out of it. If you want pancakes, I am sure it works the same way. I mean, I use pancake batter to make waffles, right?

2 cups flour
¾ cup spent grains, compressed
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¾ cup milk
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:
Preheat your waffle iron and whisk together wet ingredients, except the spent grain. Gradually add in dry ingredients and finally the spent grain. Mix until combined. Pour batter into the center of the iron, about a ½ cup per batch and cook according to your machine’s directions.

I didn't measure the vanilla and I threw in some cinnamon. I love those two things in just about everything. I should have put some Sriracha on it... Anyway, I say give it a try. I still want to make those damn pretzels. Another day. I have a little extra spent grain so I can probably do it before I brew my next batch.

Cheers!

Pirates Booty Becomes Doggy Biscuits!

Just a few days ago I brewed one of my favorite homebrews I have ever created. Pirates Booty! This year is my second time making it and I hope that the first time was not just beginners luck. I hope that this years version, same recipe and system, can live up the previous batch being everyone loved it. This will for sure make it's way into my line up every year from here on out. After it is bottled and properly conditioned I will decide if I need to make any changes to it.



Pirates Booty is a Robust, Oaked Rum Porter. I soaked the oak cubes in Bacardi Gold. I figured it was decent enough to sanitize the cubes and being it is extremely easy to find I would not have issues with finding it in the future. Inexpensive too... When the end of the brewday came, I decided that I wanted to do something with some of the spent grain this time. Before I have tried to make some breads. Hated most of them, but really liked one... wish I knew what recipe that was. I haven't done anything else but I would not mind trying a pizza crust. I did a little googling and came across this site.

The layout is pretty crappy but it talked about spent grain flour, dog treats, waffles, and another bread. I may give all of these a shot. I try to use the spend grain from batches that have a variety of grains. Pirates Booty carried a good variety of light and dark roasted malts so this is definitely one that I would want to use. As much as I would have loved to do the bread and waffles, this time I stuck to the spent grain flour and some dog treats. I thought it would be nice to take care of the brew dog.



Making the spent grain flour took forever. It was an annoying process more than anything at the time. Very simple though, Bake for a long time, mix it up to help it dry evenly, throw it in a blender or something. Came out looking like this.



After mixing all the ingredients together it was just as simple as cookies. Take a cutter and cut out the rolled dough. Very Simple. Bake.

Spent grain dog treats

Ingredients:

4 cups spent grain
2 cups flour (can use spent grain flour here, or a blend)
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. olive oil

Method:

You may need to adjust the amount of flour in the recipe based on the amount of liquid left in the grains. Using your hands, mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Then shape using a cookie cutter or cut into rounds using the open end of a drinking glass with a floured rim.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes for softer, cookie-like treats (great for older dogs or puppies), or bake at 225 for 2 hours to achieve a more biscuit-like treat.

They come out looking like this... Ok, fine. They aren't really Bat Mustaches but, I had to do it! You can't tell me you would not have! It did not effect the final product.

Which is here. They look and fancy and stuff. What do they taste like you might ask? Would I taste them? HELL YEAH!!! The ingredient list did not look bad at all. If you wouldn't try at least a bite, you have issues.



They were actually pretty flavorless, I thought. I should have added twice as much peanut butter. Brew Dog didn't seem to mind though. He kept eating them until I stopped giving them to him. The recipe made a ton... Fun stuff though. Gotta love it.

Cheers!