Look out! She's going to blow!

I won a gold medal at a major homebrew competition in Texas this year. The style of beer stout and the name of the beer was...well, maybe I should start from the beginning.

Before the year of beer I was making mostly extract beers. Think of extract beers as a "Mr. Beer" kit taken to the next level. That week I was making my first stout. I was really looking forward to it. I've been a big old stout fan for quite some time and I really didn't want to screw this beer up. I carefully measured all my ingredients, was disciplined in keeping the temperature to within one degree on my mini-mash, and carefully grew my yeast for pitching into the wort.

I went to bed that night thinking everything went great and that I should have a good beer within a few weeks.

I woke up the next morning to find my stout wasn't fermenting! Yikes! What did I do wrong? I think I called my wife from work about five time that day to ask if the brew started fermenting yet. Later that afternoon I finally saw my first fermentation bubbles. Whew! I went to bed that night relieved that the beer was fermenting away with dreams of chocolate and coffee beer in my head.

My wife woke up first the next day. She came in to wake me and said,"Honey, you beer is hissing and foaming over."

Panic.

Fear.

Oh the humanity, I'm losing beer to the foam.

I knew that first thing I had to do was to change out the bubbler since the current one was encrusted with beer gunk. I took off the bubbler and was head toward the sink...oh crap...there's stout on the ceiling.

As soon as I took off the bubbler the stout shot out of the carboy like Texas crude and made a distinctive pattern on the ceiling. The pattern was like what you would see in a CSI episode when they check out a cheap motel room. Just think blacklight and you will get the picture. I cleaned up the mess and headed to work

6 weeks later I had a yummy and chewy stout. All that work (and cleaning) was so worth it.

My buddy Bob came over for a pint and I told him the story. He said,"Dude! You should call it the Load Blower!"

The beer has lived up to it's name. The second time it was proud enough to shootout the bubbler on its own. The same thing happened on the third. (That time I was smart enough to put the brew in a bathtub. Tile is so much easier to clean than carpet.)

Load Blower 3 won a Gold Medal at the Lunar Rendezbrew in the Stout category. Thank you, Bob for naming the beer.

Oh yeah, back to what I brewing. Load Blower 4 is in the carboy. May it forever blow its load.