Stout

 

 

 

63 oF

Adj

Orig

Alcohol

SPGR

1.018

1.018

1.049

~ 4.06%

 

Ingredients

·         1 lb. Black Roasted

·         8 oz. Munich

·         8 lbs. Ultralight Liquid Malt Extract

·         4 oz. Maltodextrin

·         1 oz. Northern Brewer Hops (Bettering Hops)

·         1 Whirfloc tablet

·         1 oz. Kent Golding Hops (Aroma Hops)

·         Wyeast 1028 “London “Ale”

 

Brewers Log

 

Beer Date 01062008:   <Day 1>

Bought the kit from morebeer.com http://morebeer.com/view_product/18343/102144.

 

Washed out brew pot and threw filled with 2.5 gallons of  bottled spring water.

Poured grains into a muslin socks.

·         1 lb. Black Roasted

·         8 oz. Munich

Accidentally got the water a little too hot while steeping the grains. Put the sock in the water and heated on high until it got to ~ 160oF and then I turned the heat down, but not far enough, when I checked a bit later it was at 175oF. I was supposed to keep it below 170oF, I hope this doesn’t cause a problem. I turned the heat off and let it sit for a while.

After the grains sat for a good ½ hour I took the sock out of the pot. I held it above and let it drip until the sock got heavy and I set it in a bowl and let it leak. Once again Dave enjoyed taking this thick dark brown, motor oil looking substance and mixed with his ice tea.

As the temperature approached boiling we added the malt extract and the Maltodextrin powder. Not much eventful happening here. It didn’t even bubble up as it reached boiling like several other batches have. It just suddenly hit a rolling boil.

·         8 lbs. Ultralight Liquid Malt Extract

·         4 oz. Maltodextrin

Once the rolling boil was well established I tossed in the bittering hops.

  • 1 oz. Northern Brewer Hops (Bettering Hops)

As it boiled we continued to stir every 3-5 minutes to sufficiently mix in the hops.

After 40 minutes of the boil I added the clarifier.

  • 1 Whirfloc tablet

At 59 minutes I added the aroma hops (as specified by the directions).

  • 1 oz. Kent Golding Hops (Aroma Hops)

After the boil was complete I moved the cooking pot to the sink and backed 2 bags of cubed ice around the pot. I stirred every few minutes spread the cooling liquid through out and in 20-25 minutes I had the wort to < 80 oF.

Boy oh boy was that big strainer a nice investment. Those hops pellets really expand to a big mess of goo and this strainer was infinitely quicker and simpler then the previous dip and swirl method I used with a smaller strainer. When the strainer filled up I just let it sit for a few minutes and then dumped the goo in the sink and repeated. After a few minutes we were good to go and ready to transport to the carboy. 

The siphoning went quick and easy with no issues or spillage. I got my technique down using the bar stool to hold the carboy at a taller height, this way the hose doesn’t come out of the carboy when I start pumping the siphon. Then while it is draining I move from a bar stool to a folding chair to get the whole carboy below the height of the bucket.

I tried something different with the water this time, it didn’t work out very well and I do not recommend it. I tried getting two 2.5 gallon jugs instead of five 1 gallon jug. It worked fine for the boil, but the big awkward jug didn’t dispense very well into the carboy.

 

 

I vigorously shook the carboy to mix in a bunch of air and then I poured a slight bit out to take a temp and specific gravity reading.

 

73 oF

Adj

SPGR

1.048

1.049

My normal brew supply shop was closed because they are moving to a new location, so I had to go elsewhere to buy my yeast. This other place doesn’t carry the White Labs products that I am used to so I bough another Wyeast smack packet. Once again I had a hard time determining that I smacked it properly, but after a couple hours of sitting at room temp it was very obvious because it swelled up nicely (as expected).

 

Wyeast didn’t seem to have an “English Ale Yeast” so I picked the closest thing I could find.

  • Wyeast 1028 “London “Ale”

Capped the carboy with a hose going into a bucket of water. This will keep air from coming up the hose into the carboy, but will allow gas to easily escape without clogging the air lock if there is a great deal of activity.

 

 

Beer Date 01122008:   <Day 7>

I have a second carboy doing nothing, might as well rack into a secondary fermenter and get rid of all that dead yeast.

 

I used my same technique with the siphon and the bar stool and then chair, but I added another twist. Re-racking has typically been a 2 person job using one person to hold the racking cane out of the sediment and one to adjust the height of the carboy as needed. Jim and Dave were playing video games so I figured a way to do it myself. I used a piece of the hosing I bottle with and wedged it down the carboy so the cane didn’t sink to the bottom. Then I just had to stay close watch the level so I didn’t lose the siphon.

 

It worked very well.

 

 

Beer Date 01172008:   <Day 12>

 

 

63 oF

Adj

Orig

Alcohol

SPGR

1.018

1.018

1.049

~ 4.06%

 

Beer Date 01192008:   <Day 14>

Yay, specific gravity was the same for 3 days. That means it is bottling day. I was hoping for stronger then 4.06% but oh well.

 

 

 

63 oF

Adj

Orig

Alcohol

SPGR

1.018

1.018

1.049

~ 4.06%

 

 

Washing the bottles was a HUGE pain this time, several of the bottles had mold form in the bottom that I couldn’t get out. I guess it is time to invest in a new bottle brush, or perhaps one of those high pressure nozzles for washing bottles. Either probably would have helped, but as it was I couldn’t get it clean and scrapped ~10 bottles in my recycling bin.

 

Today I was the siphon master, in fact I contemplated calling this the Siphonmaster Stout but that would conflict with my policy. I do not feel I have the right to name a beer I didn’t create, so until I start making my own recipes my brews will have simple and descriptive names.

 

Back to the siphon. I might have wasted an ounce of usable liquid from the carboy, but no more. It went so smoothly sucking the beer just above the dead yeast cell, it was like I was creating a text book or something.

 

The same thing happened with bottling, we didn’t waste anything. Dave bottled and I capped, and when we got to the last couple of beers I held, tilted and event twisted and swirled the bucket to get as much of the last drops of goodness as possible. Once again there wasn’t much more then a few drops left and the best part was that we had enough in the bottle to go ahead and cap. It was a little short, but only by an ounce or so, we marked the bottle just in case it matters that it wasn’t filled all the way.

 

It was a great bottling experience, nothing was wasted. With the usable liquid left in the carboy, that left in the bottling bucket and the tiny bit we spilled in the hosing you couldn’t have filled 2 shot glasses. Very nice. Partial credit goes to Jim finding the combination of gaskets to use on the spigot on the bucket. I would say we usually waste a good ounce or two from leakage.