Oatmeal Stout taste

The oatmeal stout is quite delicious.  It has an interesting maltiness, probably from the munich extract, and a delicious coffeeish/chocolately roasted taste.  The body is fairly thick for a small beer also, I dig it.

Bottling Notes, Oatmeal Stout (Thurs 17 jul)

Plan to bottle my partial-mash oatmeal stout tonight. Going to use 9/16 ths cup corn sugar to achieve approximately 2 volumes C02...

Bottled tonight. Since I didn't want to open a 2 lb. bag of corn sugar just before moving, I substituted 1/2 cup cane (table) sugar for the 9/16th cup corn sugar. There seemed to be some kind of film on the top of the beer in the fermentor, but it was very thin and oily looking, unlike the previous membrane I had on my infected beer. I'm thinking it was some of the oils natural present in the 1lb. of oats used in the grist. Smelled nice.

I ended up with 49 twelve oz. bottles.

OG ~ 1.044

FG ~ 1.015

% attenuation ~ 65%

% abv ~ 3.8% (3.9 counting priming sugar)

calories/12 oz bottle ~ 150

Fermentation Notes, Oatmeal Stout

Update 30jun (Mon): Evidence of a good active fermentation (bubbling in airlock despite my loose lid) were noticeable @ 23 hours, so active fermentation must have begun some time between 14 and 23 hours.

Update 01jul (Tues): Fermentation is really goin now, room temp is around 68F, fermentor is around 73 F (best I can do in summer). It is pumping out that delicious fruity smell that the Irish Ale seems to give off. The irish ale yeast really give off a fantastic fruit smell during fermentation.

Update 02jul (Wed): Fermentation seems to have simmered down today and the temperature of the wort is back at ambient room temperature of about 69F. I plan to let it condition for another 2+ weeks.

Update 13jul (Sun): Gravity is down to 1.018, probably as low as this is going to get with all the unfermentables from the oatmeal and my bootleg mashing process. Probably going to bottled sometime this week.

Brewing Notes, Oatmeal Stout (Sun 29 jun)

I plan to brew an oatmeal stout tomorrow. I am going to make an ~ 1 liter starter of Wyeast Irish Ale 1084 using 1/2 cup pilsen DME tonight to be ready for tomorrow evening when I brew.

Starter made Sat 28jun: Package was slow to swell, but had swoll some within 5 hours before pitched to starter. It was coming up on 5 months from born on date. I forgot (i think, came back from a cookout a bit buzzed) to aerate the starter wort very vigorously, but I know I did shake it up a little bit once the yeast were in, swirled it a few times later on, and it probably got aerated some while being poured into the growler.

The partial mash process I plan to use is listed in the previous post titled "partial mash ideas for oatmeal stout". Basically going to mash for an hour and then do 1 batch sparge of ~ equal volume to reach my boil volume of ~ 3 gallons. Then just add the extract and boil as normal.

The recipe is as follows:

PM:
1.5 lbs. Maris Otter
1.0 lbs. Flaked Oats
0.5 lbs. Simpson's Roasted Barley
0.5 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal Malt

Additional Fermentables:
3.15 lbs. Munich LME
1.0 lbs. Golden Light DME

Hops:
1.0 oz Glacier (60 min)

So, the process went fairly smoothly, mashed in at 169-170, temp was read at 154 1 hour later.  I used a down comforter, and some wool blankets to insulate my "mash tun".  A couple of things to note for the future learned during this process:

1. During the mash, the cephalon pot with false bottom was able to hold the 4 lbs. of grain plus 1.5 gallons of water almost exactly.  However, when sparging, because the grains had absorbed so much water, I had to actually do two seperate batch sparges of approximately .75 gallons each because that it all there was room for in the pot due to grain expansion.

2. Estimating based on how much the grains absorbed, I probably lost approximately .75 gallons that was stuck within the grain, leaving my boil volume at approximately 2.5 gallons, a little smaller than normal (3 gallons for mash / sparge + 1/4 gallons volume of extract - 3/4 gallons absorbed in the grain).

3. Don't skim the hop or oat oils to maximize hop flavor/aroma and body given by oats.

OG was measured at ~ 1.044

1 liter starter pitched at 9:30 PM into 68F wort.

Bottling Notes, Honey Blonde Ale (Wed 25jun)

Bottled at final gravity of 1.009 (adjusted for temp and hydrometer calibration)

% attenuation ~ 80%

% abv ~ 4.8 to 5.0 (including priming sugar)

cal / 12 oz. ~ 150

Ended up with equivalent of 47 12 oz. beers

Fermentation Notes, Honey Blonde Ale

Fermentation was rolling when I checked it 17 hours after pitching, so it probably started much sooner than that. This has been my experience with dry yeast, they take off strong.

UPDATE (Mon 09jun): Fermentation still going strong @ 8:00 AM. Ambient temp 67F, fermentor 71F.

UPDATE (Mon 16jun): Visible yeast layer still on top of beer. The beer also remains very cloudy at this point. Gravity was measured at 1.009, quite good attenuation, to be expected with the use of adjuncts (honey). I will let this condition another week or so in the fermentor before bottling.

UPDATE: (Sun 22jun): Gravity check again at 1.009. Has cleared up somewhat. This beer has an interesting subtle peach flavor to it, I'm guessing this is from the yeast rather than the honey. I have seen where some people have reported a peach/apricot flavor from the s-05 yeast. I think it will work out deliciously in this beer. I plan to bottle this week.

Brewing Notes, Honey Blonde Ale (Sun 08jun2008)

Brewed another summer time easy drinkin beer yesterday. The recipe was:

6.0 lbs Gold LME
1 oz. Mt. Hood hops, 5.2 % AA (63 min)
1.0 lbs. N.C. Raw Tupelo Honey (3 min)

Pitched 1 packet of rehydrated Safale S-05 dry yeast (clean american ale) into 69F wort at 2:00 PM.

I added the honey late to maximize its flavor, but wanted to at least approximate a boil before taking it off the heat for sanitation reasons (took 3 minutes). I used the hot wort to liquidize the honey so it would pour out.

I'm expecting this one to ferment out fairly dry due to the lack of steeping grains and the addition of honey. Hopefully will be good to drink in the 100 + degree weather we've had lately.

Bottling Notes, American Wheat (Wed 28may2008)

Bottled my american wheat yesterday. This was earlier than I normally bottle as I generally like to give the beer a full 2 weeks in the primary to condition. However, I've got a really busy week and will be out of town for 10 days at the end of the week so I didn't really have another good time to do it.

I checked the gravity and it was 1.013 two days in a row, so hopefully it has reached the approximate terminal gravity. If i come back from vacation to exploded bottles, I'll know otherwise (condition in covered plastic tub just in case :) ).

Anyhow:

I got almost exactly 5 gallons of bottled beer (54 x 12 oz. equivalent). I bottled with 5/8 cup corn sugar for an estimated 2.2-2.3 vol CO2. This was on the low end of the range for this style, but my original gravity was also on the low end so I don't want to thin it out the malt flavor too much by overcarbonating. Also, since I did bottle earlier than usually, I didn't rule out that it may have another point of so to go down which would further carbonate the beer.

Final Gravity ~ 1.013

OG ~ 1.038 (1.040 if you count priming sugar)

% attenuation ~ 65 %

% abv ~ 3.2 % (3.4 % factoring bottling sugar)

Calories per 12 oz. ~ 126

A few notes on this beer:

1. This is the first truly top flocc'ing yeast I've used, the yeast were all floating on top of/within the beer when I bottled. Maybe they would settle after another week in the fermentor, but it didn't look like they were going to sink like all the other yeast I've used.

2. This beer tasted delicious right out of the fermentor. The flavor was very remeniscent of Bell's Oberon Ale. Has that orange/citrus tang to it. Apparently Wyeast 1010 is the yeast they use for that brew, so it makes since. This beer would make it a good candidate for a bootleg straight-outta-the-fermentor cask ale that I have contemplated doing for a party or something. I'll keep that in mind.

Fermentation Notes, American Wheat

Thurs-Friday 22-23may: Temps were held around 67-68F. Visual signs of fermentation were noticed at 20 hours (but could have been there as early as 12 hours as I was asleep from 12-20 hours). I'm going to run this one around 70 F so it will ready to bottle next week, and because I'm going out of town for a week after that and don't want it to sit forever.

UPDATE Fri 23may: Fermentation is now kickin. Room temp is 68F, fermentor temp is 70-71F. The yeast is putting off a slightly fruity and sulfury smell.

UPDATE Sat 24may: Fermentation still going, not quite as fierce seeming as last night. Decided to go ahead and cling wrap the fermentor lid as normal to make sure any nasties are out (a little paranoid as my infected last batch).

UPDATE Tues 28may: Gravity is measured @ 1.013 and the beer tasted delicious! I am planning to bottle tomorrow afternoon as long as the the hydrometer reading is the same. If it has gone down any further I will wait and check again on thursday.

Partial mash ideas for Oatmeal Stout

I was thinking about how to best do a partial mash Oatmeal Stout recipe I've got planned in the future. Here's my idea (mainly for me to remember..):

The grain bill (excluding extract) includes:

1.5 lbs Maris Otter
1.0 lbs. Flaked Oats
.5 lbs. Roasted Barley
.5 lbs. Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs. Dark Crystal Malt
---------------------------
4.0 lbs. Total to be mashed

I would normally just mash the Maris Otter and oats, but it is already combined, so I will mash it all together.

I am planning to using 1.25-1.5 quarts H20/lb. grain for a total of 5 - 6 quarts of water for the mash. I will sparge with an equal amount of water.

My plan for the partial mash:

1 - In the cephalon pot with strainer/false bottom heat up 1.25-1.5 gallons H20 (assuming the grain wont occupy more than the remaining 1/2 gallon capacity, adjust if necessary) to approximately 160-165 F. This is to account for the loss of heat when the cooler grains are added in. Then add all grains while stirring to prevent clumping and ensure all grains get moistened adequately.

2 - Cover with blankets/towels, put in cooler for 60 minutes.

3 - Pull strainer/false bottom up to allow grains to fully drain. Pour the drained wort into boil kettle.

4 - Put strainer/false bottom back in cephalon pot with grain still in it. Gently fill up with 1.25-1.5 gal of 170F water to sparge. Let sit for 10 minutes.

5 - Pull strainer/false bottom up to allow grains to fully drain again. Pour the drained wort into boil kettle.

6 - Top up to at least 2.5 gallons in boil kettle (depending upon how much the grain soaked up during mash).

7 - Proceed to add DME and LME and bring to boil as normal.

So hopefully that procedure will serve as an adequate partial mash to convert the oats and barley and make a tasty oatmeal stout. I made a very similar recipe to this with my previous one and it was one of my better beers.

Brewing Notes, American Wheat (Thurs 22may)

Brewed an American Wheat from extract today.
The recipe was:

6.0 lbs Wheat LME (60 % wheat, 40% barley)
1 oz. Williamette hops (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade hops (15 min)

Boiled for 10 minutes prior to first hop addition. The wheat LME really produces a ton of hot and cold break, probably because of the high protein content of wheat. I skimmed off some of the hot break once it formed a large layer of foam.

***Note on boil: With an initial boil volume of ~ 3 gallons (including 1/2 gallon LME), ~ 3/4 gallon boiled off during the 70 minute boil. This was slightly less than the intended gallon to boil off. Maybe due to no 30 minutes of steeping grains with this one***

Pitched a 1 quart starter that was made 18 hours ago with wort at 66F.
***Note on starter !don't directly put hot jar of wort in ice bath, or it will crack and spill out! I had to repeat my starter process because I did this, was quite annoying and dumb on my part. I need to get a nice Pyrex piece for my starters. Time to break into a chem lab.***

Original gravity came out at ~1.038, likely due to the extra quart or so of liquid that I didn't get boiled off like intended. Oh well, pretty close.

Hopefully my intensive cleaning and attention to sanitization with this batch will prevent a reoccurence of the infection in my last batch.

Cooled for 25 minutes using two ice additions. No

Infection!

So, I've had my first beer infection....

My most recent brew, has continued to develop a filmy layer over the top of the beer in the bottles, much like was present in the fermentor prior to bottling. The taste isn't horrible, just kind of off, a strange bitterness to it. Anyhow, the game plan is going to be to just drink this beer up as quick as possible before the taste is more affected by the infection.

As far as my sanitation, a couple of things I have thought about:

1 - Be more diligent in monitoring my Star-San concentration and also of reusing the solution after too long or after it has been tainted with wort/etc...

2 - Take apart and clean my drum taps and spigots after each brew, or after the last of a repitched series of brews. I got lazy and just cleaned the last time without removing the drum tap on my fermentor.

3 - Continue to focus carefully on sanitation of everything during brew day.

4 - Will be making starters every time with liquid yeast to reduce lag times and potential for the wrong organism taking hold in the wort.

Anyhow, I have learned a valuable lesson, that laziness in any phase of sanitation is asking for trouble. Hopefully this will be the last of any issues since I really scrubbed down everything after my last brew was finished.

Bottling Notes, Southern English Brown (Wed 14may)

Notes on amount of priming sugar (dextrose): Going to use 3.5 TBSP (7/32 cup) for an estimated 1.3-1.4 volumes CO2 in ~ 5 bottled gallons. Shooting for a low carbonation appropriate for this style.

Notes after bottling:

***Strange skin with air bubble underneath it on top of beer. Looks like the color of yeast. I have never noticed this before, but I haven't always checked each batch before transferring to my bottled bucket. I'm hoping that this was just a thin layer of yeast that floc'd to the top instead of the bottom of the beer and not some kind of infection. I attempted to skin most of it off with a sanitized spoon. There looked to be what could have been the starting of some grey mold/fuzz on the trub that had caked to the walls of the fermentor where the krausen was, but again, I'm not sure and am hoping it is just colored yeast.***

Anyhow:

Bottled ~ 52 x 12 oz. of beer.

Final Gravity ~ 1.018

% Attenuation ~ 64%

% ABV ~ 4.4%

Calories/12 oz. ~ 175

So I'm going to hope that that the skin-like membrane is not a sign that I'll end up with a tainted tasting final product in a few weeks. This was at least a good motivation that got me to really scrub every since inch and groove of my equipment down, so it will be ready for the next brew with no infection worries. I may have to reconsider repitching and am going to be more precise with my concentration of Star-San to ensure I'm not overdiluting. Next up, wheat beer!

Fermentation Notes, Southern English Brown (Mon 28apr)

UPDATE (28 apr): Noticeable fermentation began sometimes within the first 11 hours, I would imagine close to 4-6 as it was already going pretty strong when I checked at 11 hours. Ambient temp was 66F, fermentor temp was 69F. I turned the air down a degree or two to try and keep it below 70F if possible. Very fruity smell coming from fermentor.

UPDATE (28 apr): Fermentor was up to 71F (ambient 65F) when I got home from work so I drape a wet t-shirt around it, after an hour or so, the temp was down to 69F.

UPDATE (29 apr): Temp was down to 67F (ambient 64F), t-shirt was removed.

UPDATE (29apr): Gravity was measured at 1.020. Yeast still very much in suspension. I'm hoping to get it attenuated down to 1.015-1.016 (~ 70%).

UPDATE (01may): Gravity is at 1.018. Yeast are still in suspension, taste was quite roasty, almost slightly bitter. I think this will decrease as the yeast settle out (hopefully).

UPDATE (04may): 1.017

Brewing Notes, Southern English Brown (Sun 27apr)

Brewed a southern english style brown ale today.

Recipe used was:

6.0 lbs. Gold LME
.75 lbs. Dark Crystal 80 (Simpson's)
.25 lbs. Caramel 60
.50 lbs. Caramel 120
.50 lbs. Pale Chocolate (Fawcett)
.50 lbs. Briess Special Roast
.25 oz. East Kent Goldings hops (4.5 AA)
.25 oz. Galena hops (13.1 AA)

Pitched it onto ~1/4 to 1/2 of the yeast cake (safale s-04) from the dark mild that I also bottled today.

Original Gravity clocked in at ~1.052, right about where expected (I never measure exactly how much I boil off, because I'm not brewing to absolute specifications at this point, just tasty beer) considering the amount of grains used.

Bottling Notes, Dark Mild (Sun 27apr)

Bottled the dark mild today after 9 days in fermentor:

Final Gravity ~ 1.011

% attenuation ~ 63%

% ABV ~ 2.5%

Calories per 12 oz. ~ 101

Obtained equivalent of about 47 twelve oz. beers. Being such a small beer, these should be tasty pretty much whenever they finish carbonating. I'll wait a week and try one.

Fermentation Notes, Dark Mild

(UPDATE 18apr, day 1): Signs of fermentation (foam forming on top of beer, foam formed in drum tap) sometime within 5-12 hours.

Fermenting at 67F with ambient temp of 65. I'm going to try to keep this on around 68F as best as possible.

(UPDATE 21apr, day 3): Glancing through the airlock hole, the yeast have seems to already have dropped out (as expected with this strain).
Gravity was taken, down to 1.014. I'm hoping to drop it another point or two by this weekend when I bottle.

Still fermenting around 67F.

Brewing Notes, Dark Mild (Fri 18apr)

Brewed Jamil's dark mild recipe today:

3.5 lb can of John Bull Maris Otter extract
.75 lbs. Caramel 60
.50 lbs. Caramel 120
.50 lbs. Pale Chocolate
22 g (~.7 oz) East Kent Golding pellets

fermentis Safale S-04

Used 2 3/4 Gallons of water to brew and proof yeast
Boiled down to around 2 gallons (volume of extract was ~ 1/4-1/2 gallon)

Gravity turned out at ~1.030
Yeast was pitched into 62 F wort

Bottling Notes, Steam Schwarzbier (Tues 08apr)

Bottled the steam schwarzbier last night after 24 days in fermentor. Obtained ~ 49 x 12 oz. bottles.

Beer was bottled with ~ 3/4 cup of dextrose (corn sugar) to obtain ~ 2.5 volumes CO2

Final notes on beer:


Final Gravity ~ 1.013

% attenuation ~ 70%


% ABV ~ 4.2%

Estimated Calories / 12 oz. ~ 148

Fermentation Notes, Steam Schwarzbier

Fermentor was left @ 66-67F until signs of fermentation occurr. Positive pressure was noted within 8 hours.

UPDATE (17mar2008):
Woke up and at 18 hours post pitch, the yeast was foaming up through the airlock. This airlock was removed for 10 hours until the foam stopped coming through the gasket hole. the muck was cleaned up and airlock clean and re-attached. Despite my best efforts to cool with a wet t-shirt, it is fermenting around 66F, with ambient temp @ 62. A little higher, but I can't run it any cooler without racking up a monster power bill. I figured 66F is close enough, and I will let it condition for a good 4 weeks to clean up any funkiness left over.

UPDATE (18mar2008):
Beer is now fermenting @ 62F, ambient room temp is around 60F. I will try to keep it in this range, but that maybe be impossible if it warms up. Which will probably happen in a few days. I would like primary fermentation to be almost done before I let it warm up more to minimize off flavors. Hopefully conditioning will be accelerated at the warmer temperature in my house after primary is done. There are definately some sulfury odors being thrown off right now. The same kind of odors the Nottingham yeast through off when I fermented wine with them. Hopefully the yeast will clean up any sulfuryness they produce.

UPDATE (19mar2008):
Beer is fermenting @ ~64F with ambient temperature of 62F. This yeast is different than those I have used before as it seems to have slowed down but to a constant rate and is going for longer than the ale yeast I normally use. The ale yeast tend to ferment harder but then abruptly stop. This yeast is still chugging away with a bubble every 5 seconds or so.

UPDATE (24mar2008):
Gravity is down to 1.016. Fermenter is around 60 degrees as it randomly got cold again. There is still pressure in the airlock and it bubbles every few minutes. I'm going to let this sit probably another week to condition. The CO2 coming out is still carrying a sulphur smell.

Brewing Notes, Steam Schwarzbier (Sat 15mar)

I decided to try and brew a Schwarzbier because it is one of my favorite kinds of beer. Since real lagering is out of the question given my location and lack of extra fridge/freezer, I decided to try it with the Cali/San-Fran type lager yeast that should still make a clean malty lager at the temps that are closer to what I can maintain in my house. So while it won't be exactly authentic, hopefully it will be delicious:

The recipes as followed, from a NB kit:


6.0 lbs. Munich LME (2 lbs. after steeping grains, 4 lbs. @ 20 minutes)
1.0 lbs. Muntons Dark DME (~ .25 for starter,~ .75 after steeping grains)
0.5 lbs. Durst Dark Crystal Malt
0.5 lbs. Dingemans Debittered Black Malt
1.0 oz. Argentina Cascade, 3.2% AA (60 minutes)
1.0 oz. Argentina Cascade, 3.2% AA (30 minutes)
Wyeast California Lager yeast, .75 liter starter made 20 hours in advance

Couple of notes:

1 - I tried the extract late method to try and increase my hop utilization. It took about 15 minutes to bring it back to boil (after remainder of LME added) so I don't know how that affects things, my electric stove just can't crank much heat even near high. I didn't count this time as part of my boil time.

2 - I made a starter for the first time by boiling 1/2 cup dark DME and ~.75 liters of water (jar couldn't hold much more). This got going for about 18-20 hours before pitching, I would've pitched sooner, but I wasn't done till then.

3 - I only boiled for 5 minutes prior to adding hops. I came out low on gravity, maybe from not boiling off as much water as usual.

OG turned out @ ~1.045. It said it was supposed to come out around 1.052, but I guess I didn't boil as much water off as normal.

I pitched a .75L starter @ 65F into 68F wort. This is supposedly better than pitching a warmer starter into a cooler wort as it supposedly stimulates yeast activity, according to Mr. Malty (although such a small change as in this case probably doesn't make too much difference).

Bottling Notes, Sweet Stout (Tues 04mar)

Bottled the sweet stout yesterday after 16 days in fermentor.

The gravity at time of bottling was approximately 1.023.

This corresponds to an approximate 54% attentuation and ~3.5% abv.

1/2 cup of corn sugar was used to obtain ~ 2 volumes CO2.

Final yield was 4 x 24 oz. bottles + 39 x 12 oz. bottles.

Welch's Wino Winale, (Fri 22feb)

I decided to do a little experiment because I was curious and discovered other's experiments while bored at work:

I made a gallon batch of ghetto hooch using welch's concord grape concentrate, sugar, lemon juice, and Nottingham ale yeast (purported to handle high gravities).

The recipe consisted of:

1 gal spring water
2 cans of 100% Concord grape concentrate (Welch's)
2 cups of sugar
1 packet rehydrated Nottingham yeast

1. Rehydrated yeast at 95F for 15, then added splash of cooled must (see below) and let sit for 15 more minutes

2. Boiled sugar with 1/4 gal water and juice of two lemons (sub for acid blend; for balance)

3. Added frozen juice concentrate and 1/2 gallon water

4. Pour back into empty jug

5. Cooled with ice bath

6. Added rehydrated/primed yeast

7. covered with paper towel and rubber band

Update: shit is fermenting along. I'm gonna let it go until the foam subsides, and then secondary it in two half gallon glass growlers for a couple months. And then hopefully drink it without puking.

UPDATE (Fri 29feb): The gravity after a week is at 1.022, yielding what is now a sweet carbonated wine-cooler like beverage. I have put it in two half gallong growler to secondary for alot of months, we'll see how that goes.

UPDATE (Mon 10mar): The wine has now cleared to a ruby red color. The gravity is ~ 1.0 and it tastes very dry, carbonated, and yeasty.

UPDATE (Mon 17mar): Gently transferred the wine in both jugs off of the yeast, attempted to minimized splashing and pouring of yeast. Then I cleaned and sanitized the jugs and poured the wine gently back into them. I didn't use any racking equipment because I don't have any, because I don't really use carboys when brewing beer. I will probably do this maybe once more in another month to continue to get yeast to drop out.

UPDATE (Mon 21apr): Transferred of lees again to further clear wine. Probably the last time before I drink it in a month or so.

I told you I would change my mind

So I decided today due to even more increases in hop and malt prices that I am going to go ahead and start brewing springs beers after the next brown ale and mild that I plan to do.

So I now plan to brew another brown ale (southern english), a mild (from Jamil's show), then I'm going to do both an American Wheat and then a Honey Kolsch beer. I will post recipes soon. I will probably do the southern english first because I have older extract for that and it will take more aging time than the mild. I'm just going to use a fresh yeast packet for each one as well to try and get the best beer I can get, screw the 1.60 for the yeast.

Recipes for American Wheat and Honey Kolsch (northern brewer kits):

American Wheat:

6 lbs. Wheat LME (1/2 @ 65 min; 1/2 @ 15 min)
1 oz. Williamette Hops (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade Hops (15 min)
Wyeast American Wheat 1010

Honey Kolsch:

6 lbs. Gold LME (65 min)
1 lb. Local Raw Honey (1 min)
1 oz. Mt. Hood Hops (60 min)
Pitch onto yeast cake (or slurry since this yeast probably doesn't floc into a cake really) from above

Fermentation Notes, Sweet Stout

Mon 18feb2008: @ 13 hours, no sign of fermentation yet. I'm wondering if this is common for this yeast (I know I should make a starter, but I'm lazy). There was a lag the first time I used this as well. If there are no signs by the time I get home today, I will rehydrate and pitch a packet of Safale S-04 which will probably explode off. I guess I just need to start making starters for everything above 1.040 OG. I have just been considering my yeast cake as a lazy man's starter for my consecutive brews.

UPDATE (Mon 18feb2008): Signs of fermentation have shown sometime between 13 and 21 hours while I was at work. There is a thick white krausen on top of the beer and the airlock was bubbling by 23 hours.

UPDATE (Tues 19feb2008): This morning fermentation is really going. Ambient room temp was 62F, but the fermentor was at 68F. I'm leaving it in the cool part of the condo until fermentation slows down and its not generating so much heat.

UPDATE (Fri 22feb2008): Fermentation has slowed down quite a bit, the gravity right now is at 1.027. I'm expecting it to get down to 1.022-1024, which would be normal considering the pound of unfermentable lactose involved.

UPDATE (Wed 27feb2008): SG reading of 1.024, probably the terminal gravity and is in the range I expected given the unfermentables present.

Brewing Notes, Sweet Stout (Sun 17feb2008)

Brewed a sweet/milk stout yesterday:

see previous posts for recipe.

Started with ~ 3.5 gallon boil, ended around 2.5 gallons. I boiled this brew a little hotter (9 for 30 minutes, then 8 for 30 minutes to try and increase hop utilization). I think I am going to start trying the extract late method to increase hop utilization.

Pitched one fully inflated smack pack of Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast into 68F wort.

Initial gravity was measured at ~ 1.050

Current brewing plans, ideas, and recipes

Ok, so, until my mind changes, which happens alot, here are my brewing plans for the near future. Alot of my brewing decisions are based on what sounds good, if I find/make a recipe a want to brew alot, what ingredients I can get, the cost of ingredients (I'm not going to make any double IPAs anytime soon), the ability to use all of my ingredients before they go stale, and yeast reusle.

Next Brew:

Sweet Stout:

6.0 lbs. Amber LME (Briess) (70 min)
1.0 lbs. Lactose
.75 lbs. Simpson's Black Malt
.50 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt
.25 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal Malt
1.0 oz. Cluster Hops (7% AA; 60 min)
Wyeast 1028 London Ale, no starter
1/2 cup dextrose (priming)

Dark Mild (Jamil's recipe)

3.5 lbs. John Bull 100% Maris Otter LME (65 min)
.75 lbs. Caramel 60L (Briess)
.50 lbs. Caramel 120L (Briess)
.50 lbs. Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt
.75 oz. East Kent Goldings (~5% AA; 60 min)
Safale S-04 dry yeast, 1 packet
3/8 cup dextrose (priming)

Southern English Brown

6.0 lbs. Gold LME (Briess) (65 min)
.25 lbs. Caramel 60L Malt (Briess)
.75 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal Malt
.50 lbs. Caramel 120L Malt (Briess)
.50 lbs. Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt
.50 lbs. Special Roast Malt (Briess)
***Yes, that is 2 1/2 lbs. of steeping grains, yummmm***
.25 oz. Galena Hops (~ 13% AA, 60 min)
.25 oz. Kent Goldings Hops (~ 5% AA, 60 min)
Partial amount of Safale S-04 dry yeast cake from above Mild (or maybe just a fresh pack, depending upon how motivated I am to clean/sanitize an extra time or if I get a carboy/siphon)
3/8 cup dextrose (priming)

You can tell I like brown ales.

So, I will basically be doing another run of brew-then-repitch on an old yeast cake. I like to do this for 3 reasons. It saves time by not having to clean the fermentor every single time and consolidating brew/bottle days. It could also be a good starter for a higher gravity second ale (not so much in this case). It also saves money by cutting the cost of yeast in half for each batch.

The end result. More tasty beers.

Bottling Notes, Dry Irish Stout #1 (tues 12feb)

Used ~ 3/8 cup of corn sugar for a lower carbonation level (~ 1.75 volumes)

Final gravity: 1.011

Initial gravity: 1.041

% attenuation: ~73 %

Approximate ABV: 3.9% Obtained ~47 12oz. bottles worth

more schemin

pale ale ------> american stout

always planning new brews

Anyhow, base recipes which I'll probably continue to monkey with as time goes on:

Sweet stout:

6 lbs. Amber LME
1 lb. Lactose
.75 lbs. Black Patent Malt
.5 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt
.25 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal
1 oz. Cluster Hops, 7 % AA (60 min)
Wyeast 1028 London Ale

Porter:

6 lbs. Munich LME
1 lb. Pilsen DME OR 1lb. raw honey (haven't decided yet)
.5 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal
.25 lbs. Black Patent Malt
Bittering Hops (~10-13%, Columbus, Chinook, Galena, etc..)
Possible aroma hop addition @ end, still deciding on this.
British Ale Yeast

hydrometer calibration

So, out of curiousity, when checking the gravity on the current beer fermenting, I decided to check my hydrometer with some tap water. Turns out my hydrometer is about .002 off. I am going back through my previous posts and adjusting all of my readings in my notes effective now.

Fermentation Notes, Dry Stout #1 (mon 28jan)

Fermentation has begun sometime between 9-16 hours while I was asleep. I had sealed the fermentor with cling wrap (my lid is definately not airtight) so I could get an easy visual via the airlock, which is bubbling fine.

I will try and keep fermentation temps in the 66-68F range, supposed to be the optimum for this yeast. Emphasis on try.

UPDATE Day 1, 2: Bubbling away every couple seconds. This one is generating quit a bit of heat. It is fermenting around 68-69F even though the room is around 62F. Probably due to the large amount of yeast it started on.

UPDATE (thurs 31jan): bubbling has slowed/stopped, but still positive pressure in airlock. Gravity is at 1.015. Temps 65-68ish. Hopefully over the next week or two, it will get nice and dry around 1.011 or 1.012. Tasted pretty good for being completely unfinished.

UPDATE (mon 04feb): Gravity clocked in at 1.012, probably about as low as it will get. I'm going to let it sit in the ferm until probably next monday for a total of 2 weeks, then I will bottle up.

Noticed that there seems to be some white/cream colored clumps of something floating on top of the beer, I'm assuming and hoping it is just unfloculated yeasts and not anything funky. I'm not too worried because I already noticed that this yeast is the least floculative I have used so far, and I also pitched onto the entire cake from previous, which would include both and the most and least floculative yeast spawn from the last batch.

Brewing Notes, Dry Stout #1 (mon 28jan)

6 lbs. Northern Brewer Gold LME
1 lb. Roasted Barley
.9 oz. Columbus Hops (12.3% AA)


Same process as normal. Plus water salt and irish moss.

Steeped 1 # of roasted barley in 1 gallon of ~ 150F water with ~ 1tsp of calcium carbonate added to balance the acidity of the grains.

Boiled 75 minutes total, additions:

(60 min) : .9 oz Columbus hops (a little higher IBU when using calculator, but I figure since I'm doing a partial boil and adding my extract at the beginning, I will be getting less than ideal extraction, so this combined with whatever hops oils/acids that are left in the cake from the previous batch will get me around target IBU of 42)

(15 min): rehydrated Irish Moss, 2-2.5 dry tsp. worth. Decided to try this as a clarifier for first time.

Repitched directly onto Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast cake from Oatmeal Stout after wiping most of the crud ring off with a Star-san soaked napkin.

Aerated with a heavy hard pour of water and stirring vigorously for about 3 minutes with a slotted spoon.

Original Gravity ~ 1.041

With 3 gallons of cold water and approximately 2.5 gallons of hot wort (cooled in ice bath for 30 minutes), combined temp after mixing was right at 65 F which was great. Hopefully the cold then warm water didn't shock the little yeasties too bad.

Bottling Notes, Oatmeal Stout (mon 28jan)

Bottled the oatmeal stout today.

Final grav ~ 1.018

% attentuation ~ 62% (see fermentation notes for theories as to why this finished so high)

ABV ~ 3.8 %

Used between 1/2 and 9/16 cups of corn sugar to bottle. Got equivalent of 50 12 oz. beers. Had to drink one that was unbottleable thanks to the Bohemia bottle not having a notch on the neck, thereby being incompatible with my bottler.

The Irish ale yeast is definately less floculative than either of the previous 2 yeasts I've used. It was much less dense of a cake. I didn't end up harvesting any yeast because there was alot less floculated out than I had expected, and more was probably sucked into the bottling bucket during transfer. I decided just to direct pitch onto all that was left.

reschedule

going to bottle and brew monday now, since I forgot to run the bottles, buy some jugs of water, and was nasty hungover friday ..... what're'ya gonna do ?

Plan to brew and bottle

I'm planning to bottle the oatmeal stout on friday (13 days in fermentor) and brew and pitch dry stout #1 onto 1/4-1/2 of the remaining yeast cake immediately after.

Corn sugar bottling guidelines

Amount of corn sugar for brews:

Oatmeal Stout: ~ 9/16 cup

Dry Stout (#1 and #2): ~ 3/8 cup

Sweet Stout: ~ 7/16 cup

Simple sweet stout recipe

6 lbs. Amber LME
.75 lb. Black Patent
.25 lb. Simpson's Dark Crystal
.5 lb. Chocolate Malt
1 lb. Lactose
1 oz. Cluster hops (60)
Wyeast 1028 London

I think I will do this and pitch Dry Stout #2 onto half of the yeast cake.

Fermentation Notes, Oatmeal Stout

Fermenting in the 66-68F range.

After three days, gravity is down to 1.022.

Note: lamp works well at maintaining warm enough temps when it is freezing outside like now.

UPDATE (tues 22jan2008):

Checked gravity: It was at 1.019. This is pretty high, but kind of expected because of the use of dark LME as the base and because there are probably a bit of unconverted starches because I am doing a bootleg version of partial mashing that probably yields no greater than 50-60% at the very best of the oats and 6-row. This is good though, because this should leave the final beer with a nice thick body and a low abv, two things I don't mind in an oatmeal stout. Chewy texture, drink lots of them. Sunday breakfast anyone?

It has a nice coffee/choco flavor goin on.

Notes for Dry Stout #2

In order to compensate for not having a large enough mash pot to really handle 3.5 pounds of grain (1.5 lbs. 2-row, 1 lb. flaked barley, 1 lb roasted barley), I've come up with the idea to just mash the 2-row and flaked barley by themselves so they will fit easily in my mashpot. I will steep the roasted barley by itself while they are mashing and then sparge the other grains into my brew pot after an hour.

Brewing Notes, Oatmeal Stout (Sat 14jan)

The recipe for the oatmeal stout I made was:

6.6lbs. dark liquid malt extract
0.5lbs. flaked oats
0.5lbs. 6-row barley
0.5lbs. black roast barley
0.5lbs. Simpson's chocolate malt (added in extra)
0.25lbs. Crystal 120L malt
1.0 oz. East Kent Goldings (60)
0.5 oz. Fuggles (30)
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast

I used dark malt extract because that is what came with the kit I ordered a while ago. For recipes from now on I'll mostly be using pale/light/gold extract and getting all the colors and flavors from steeping/mashing grains. Unless I'm trying to make a batch on the cheap and trying get some flavors from the extract instead of buying extra grain.

This was my first try at a partial mash, here's the procedure I used:

1 - Heated a little less than 3 quarts of water to 168F (limited by pot size, would have done at least 3). I figured that the temp would be brought down to around 150-155F when the grains were added. Added 1/2 tsp of calcium carbonate to balance the acidity of the roasted grains that I used.

2 - Steeped in bag of grains. Mashed down into the water and put the pot in a cooler and stuff it with towels.

3 - After 50 minutes dumped the juice plus the bag into the colander over my brew pot. Sparged with about 1.5 gallons of 170F water. I tried to pour as slowly as possible.

4 - Topped up to about 3.5 gallons for boil.

I ended up with a larger boil volume than normal because I smartly added the extra water before the extract. Luckily I had enough room in the pot. It probably actually helped the hop utilization anyhow.

It also helped me get closer to optimum pitching temp of 68F because I had to add less cold water at the end and there was more warm wort. I ended up pitching at about 75 degrees which wasn't perfect, but was close enough.

Initial specific gravity was ~1.047

Fermenting at 66-68F. Showed signs of fermentation between 5-12 hours, foam in drum tap when I got up.

Tasty and easy idea

Note: Belgian Pale Ale from Jamil radio show

Bottling Notes, Brown Ale ( Wed 09jan2008)

Going to bottle up the brown ale today, I actually remembered to load the bottles and dishwash them this morning, so its on. Steps:

1 - Assemble bottling bucket.

2 - Fill with water, add Star-san

3 - Attach hoses, bottle filler

4 - Run solution through hoses and filler filling up mop bucket with sanitizing solution.

5 - Wrap filler in foil/plastic wrap

6 - Put large transfer hose in sanitizing solutions

7 - Boiled 3/4 cup corn sugar for 10 min in a pint of water

8 - Transfer from fermentor to bottling bucket using large transfer hose.

9 - Put lid on bottling bucket, remove airlock.

10 - Fill and cap bottles.

11 - Clean up that mess.

12 - Bask in the glory of it all.

Bottled Notes:

Final gravity: 1.013 (corrected ~ .001 for 68F temp)

% alcohol/vol based on OG of 1.041 = ~3.6 percent (drink up :))

Total yield: equivalent of 49 x 12 oz. bottles + about 1 beer of spillage and runoff from empty santizer from hose.

Going to carbonate @ 65-70 for 2 weeks and then start drinkin em!

Stout plans

I have plans to do 3 different stouts next, of which I have been tinkling with some of the recipes:

1 - Oatmeal Stout:

6 lbs Dark LME
.5 lb 6-row barley
.5 lb oats
.5 lb black roast barley
.5 lb chocolate malt (added to initial recipe)
.25 lb dark crystal malt
(mash above for 40 min @ 155F in 1 gallon water, sparge with 2 gallons 170F water)
1 oz. Kent Goldings (60)
1/2 oz. Fuggles (30)
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

2 - Dry Stout #1 (steeping grains only)

6 lbs Gold LME
1 lb black roast barley
1 oz Columbus Hops (60)
Repitch on 1/4-1/2 1084 yeast cake from oatmeal stout, save other 1/2-3/4 cake in jar for below

3 - Dry Stout #2 (partial-mash)

6 lbs Gold LME
1.5 lbs 2-row barley
1 lb flaked barley
1 lb black roast barley
(mash above at 150-155F for 60 minutes with 1.25 gallons water, sparge with 1.75 gallons 170F water ghetto-colander style)
1 oz. Galena Hops (60)
Probably repitch saved 1084 yeast from oatmeal stout cake

Ghetto-colander style:

mash into .75-1.25 gallons of 160-165F water
sit it for 60 min in styrefoam cooler (40 for the 6-row oatmeal stout, more enzymes)
raise to 168F
strain through colander
sparge with ~ 2 gallons of 170F water

forgot to run bottles

I was going to bottle yesterday, but I forgot to run the bottles in the dishwasher. I'm thinking wednesday now, because there are still alot of dishes that need washing first.

Notes

Plan to bottle brown ale on monday (assuming the final gravity is about right)

Oatmeal stout notes:

1 - 1/2 tsp baking soda during mash for carbonate balance of acidic malts

Gonna try a very basic dry stout after the oatmeal:

Pale extract, black roasted unmalted barley, bittering hops = as basic as it gets.

I'm just shooting for a low gravity, extremely drinkable, simple dry stout. I will use probably only 1/2 cup corn sugar to bottle to simulate the low carbonation mouthfeel of the draught style of this beer.

I may make another batch of this to pitch right onto the yeast cake, except maybe I'll try some amber malt extract or some chocolate malt to see how that works with the flavor.