I love that beer is so forgiving

So a few posts ago, I mentioned how I had screwed up my Irish Stout recipe. I ended up brewing the beer short a half pound of Flaked Barley. The great thing about beer is that if you throw malted grain, water, hops and yeast together you are pretty much always going to get beer. The ingredients want to become beer.

Well, I kegged my stout last week and let it carbonate for 6 or 7 days. And now, it's pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. It's not perfect, it could use some more body but it has a nice smooth flavor. I think I did a good job of balancing the hops against the roast barley, so it doesn't have a harsh flavor to it.

It's major failing, really, is intentional. It is a one note beer. It has a roasted flavor, that's it. No complex flavor profile here, it's just nice and roasty. No hop aroma, no malty flavor, no fruity esters. The idea behind this beer was to get a nice basic stout that I can then start playing with. I will probably brew this multiple times in the future, adding different grains, hops, yeast and seeing what the result is.