First of all, it's bad ass that the beer is named in Madalorian (of Star Wars fame). Two, it looks like BA now has a "black IPA/Cascadian dark ale" category.
Lager-y body, hoppy but more pilsener-like than IPA. Interesting. More honest tasting than other black IPAs I've had and more like a black lager.
Mixed some recipes from here and here. Had a bag of lentils that I got tired of looking at. Got some lamb on sale. Of red meats, lamb is probably the best for rich, spicy dishes. I think I'd still prefer a good cut of beef to lamb if it were a steak though, as lamb on its own may be too gamey.
Browned the lamb in a pan before tossing it into the crockpot with a can of tomatoes, some beef broth for the lentils, and everything else. Pretty good.
From Elise. I picked up some ground veal on the cheap the other day so I was looking for some veal recipes. I was surprised that this one called for only veal and not a mixture of veal, beef and pork, which is typical for a meatball recipe and a meatloaf is basically a giant meatball, in my opinion. I didn't have the red bell pepper, roasted or otherwise, so I just have defrosted spinach in the trough.
OG: Supposed to be 1.044. Mine read very low but I think my wort and chilled water were not mixed properly when I took the reading.
Initial tastings were pretty malty and sticky, heavy enough that I didn't want to drink too many pints in a night. I tapped my last draft bottle tonight and it's gotten much smoother. Very on par for a brown ale, though the nuttiness is nowhere near what I'm looking for. At tapping, I lost a lot of CO2, and the first pint couldn't even pour itself. After pressurizing, it came out with a fine, fluffy head.
Addendum 110415: I am about to polish off the last draft bottle of this soon. The extra months of conditioning really smoothed out and lightened up the body and had a sweeter, nuttier taste. Bottom line, this was pretty good but needs a couple months of conditioning to hit its prime.
OG: 1.071.
Made a yeast starter in my 1L Erlenmeyer. Should really invest in a 2L.
Addendum 110407: After a longer than planned secondary, I bottled tonight into a draft bottle, a case of bombers, and about 2/3 of a case of regular bottles. I used 3/4 cup of dextrose to boost the carbonation a little, hopefully. The recommended 2/3 cup seems to give me low carb levels, but I wonder how much difference 1/12 of a cup will produce. A little concerned about bottle bombs.
