The Irish came out nice. I usually get a hint the “Guiness” fermentation profile from 1084, but this time it fermented pretty clean. Maybe it will come through a little once its properly carbed. It might need a touch of acid to sharpen it up a little. I really like the recipe, and while I had some doubt about using Challenger, I don’t anymore. They work perfectly as a single charge 60min hop. Especially if you’re getting bored with using EKG in everything UK.
The American stout is a dandy I think. I’m a big fan of Deschutes Obsidian, and this is like a bolder fresher Obsidian. Might be a keeper as is. Good enough that I might have to ship it to NHC and see how it fairs.
Verified terminal gravity and ph is 4.0 on the irish, 4.3 on the American. I think I’ll leave them alone cuz their tasting pretty good. Kinda crashing them, dropping them to my lagering chest temp, but not going to gel. I’ll keg them tomorrow.
Built a keg pressure gage so these will be my test run beers for that. Hoping to eliminate the over/under carbonation issue. I hate having a keg lagering for a month and when you tap it its a crap shoot. No more of that hopefully