October 14th, 2008 -- The Trip to Midwest Brewing Supply

After working through two lackluster ales that we generated in August -- both of which tasted vaguely like fresh (but cold) bread and gave us headaches -- we decided that a consultation with the experts was in order. On this sunny, warm Saturday, then, we hopped in the car, each of us armed with his pet theory about the underlying cause of our unsuccessful beer, and drove to St. Louis Park, the home of Midwest Brewing Supply.

One of us (and it's hard at this juncture to recall which one) blamed the age of the dry yeast we were using. It was his theory that the yeast quit on its sugar-eating early and went dormant too soon, leaving tons of fermentable sugar in the finished product. The other of us obviously thought something different, though at the moment, as we steep grains for another ESB, we can't remember what the other theory was. Either way, we had a lot riding on the advice of the brewing experts at the supply shop.

At the store, we got the following advice: the yeast is likely to blame, but probably not because it's old. It's more likely that the yeast just lies down a little early for no particular reason. If we shake the brew up after the initial burst of fermentation, get that yeast back in suspension, things might go a little better for us. We bought a basic Porter kit and a "Hop Head Double IPA" kit, and, possessed of our new knowledge and full of hope, returned to start the porter.