Another random update

Every so often I get the urge to try and cellar something. It hasn't really worked out for me too well so far since I generally like to drink whatever new beers I have in my house. It's difficult to keep them around when I'm running low on new or interesting beers to drink. Now that I'm brewing pretty regularly I haven't run out of beer in a while, so I figured it might be easier. Last night I picked up a few things I'm hoping to keep for a while. To start, I got a bottle of Brewdog's Paradox Islay Batch 009. This beer is already aged a bit, from 2008 or so I believe. I found it collecting dust in State Line. I also picked up a few bottles of 08/09 Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout from Caps & Corks, since they had 2 bottles hidden in the back. Dan and I have decided to check around whatever liquor stores we can find to see if we stumble on anything rare or interesting. So far it hasn't been too intense, these 2 beers aren't particularly old or rare. Of course, they also weren't too expensive. At some point we'll have to check some other good shops so I can build up my collection.

Brewing seems to be going well still. I'm sipping an interesting brew I came up with, an attempt at a marshmallow stout. There's no actual marshmallow in it, just lactose and vanilla with a smoky stout base. It's not quite what I was hoping since there's not a lot of sweetness to it, but it does have a nice smooth & easy to drink quality. I could see myself making this again with a few tweaks. It didn't have much head, so upping the carbonation level and adding some carafoam would be a good start. I think it could probably use some more vanilla as well. I'm not even sure how much I ended up using, it was something in the realm of 1 tsp at 10 minutes in the boil and another 2/3 tbsp at bottling. Adding it earlier on was definitely a good idea since it was extremely strong tasting after bottling until it blended in a bit, then it practically disappeared. I'm not sure if more lactose would be a good idea or not. It may also be a bit too bitter on the back end. I could probably stand to take out the chocolate malt, but if I did I think some more special roast or smoked malt would need to take it's place. Well.. we'll see.

- Adam