Seasonal Brews - Milk Stout

Planning on some seasonal beers, we just recently bottled a milk stout. We used one for one the recipe provided by Widmer for their Snowplow Milk Stout as seen in the BYO clone issue. Popped one open yesterday and even after just a week the beer is really coming together nicely. Head is a nice frothy off-white, lingering sweetness comes through on both the lactose and grain, full mouth-feel... I'll get better at these descriptions some day. All I can say is, I'd never had Widmer's Snowplow until I brewed their recipe, and I'm impressed. Now I'll have to try one to see how far off I was haha...

Snowplow Milk Stout

5gal, all grain

OG = 1.068

FG = 1.028

IBU = 27 SRM =49

ABV 5.2%

4.5lbs 2-row pale

2.0lbs wheat malt

1.0lbs flaked oats

2.1lbs Carapils

2.1lbs Crystal 60

13oz Roasted barley

7oz Black Patent

1.0lbs lactose

7.25 AAU Magnum (60min) 0.5oz at 14% alpha

2.5 AAU Willamette (15min) 0.5oz at 5% alpha

Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale

Mash in at 156F. Boil for 90min with lactose in last 15 minutes. My OG was 1.065 and I seem to be a little shy on my efficiency. This problem is fairly consistent so I'll try to work this out.  Ferment at 70F (I dropped mine to 68F). The Ringwood Ale was a little slow, but eventually did hit the FG mark we were shooting for (noting the OG was a bit low). Racked once for a week in secondary.

Here's the only pic of the milk stout! An action shot of the transfer into the bottling bucket. I'll take one with a nice head in the glass and post later.

Quick post. A few pics of some work completed and just beginning.

Grey Knights are about as done as I care to get them at this point. I think they look pretty decent all together for my first painting after an extended hiatus.

You can see the influence internet blog reading had on my methods if you look closely. The thing that stands out to me is the 'commander's' sword on the left compared to the 'medic's' sword. Maybe one day I'll get them all to look the same?

Next up, bringing me truly back to my youth, a Death Company squad! Here they are posed on some WIP bases. The sticky tack was good to pose them with. It can be a pain to remove... not sure I'll do that again. I've begun painting their armor. Painting black without just highlighting edges is kind of kicking my ass. Lots of good info out there. Just need more practice!

Here are the same bases after painting. My intent is to have snow on these as well, and I've left the sandy areas unfinished to be covered with some snow. Maybe they're in water? Not sure what I'll do.

Painting of my first miniatures in about ten years is coming to an end. It's like this part of me has been in a time capsule and is now awoken in this era of blogs, webs, and internets. I've read a lot, learned a lot, and given back to the nineteen year old me who threw his minis away.

For a WIP of my first minis see below. A Grey Knights term squad:

The bannerman:

And the bases seen in the foreground really are a tribute to those minis I threw away so long ago. More progress shots to come.

Like most blogs, I'm not sure how I'll use this. But if I have a thought, feeling, or whimsy I feel like sharing, I will do it here. If anything, this may serve as a journal of sorts on those hobbies I am interested in most. Currently (2014) those are miniature painting and beer/wine making. Plenty could have been said about those endeavors prior to starting a blog, but I will only post about my activity in those realms from this point forward.

For friends and family "cheers!" For anyone else who stumbles here, "Hello my friend. Stay awhile and listen"