Ingredients
So this is our second stout (not in total, but in terms of our one-style-at-a-time regime). For this we're using a tweaked version of our last stout, and then we'll add coffee in the secondary. Here's our recipe:
| 15.5 lbs. Pale Malt |
| 1 lbs. Crystal 60°L |
| .75 lbs. Roasted Barley |
| .75 lbs. Black Patent |
| 1.5 lbs. Chocolate Malt |
| 6oz Fuggles (assorted %AA) |
| 2 x WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast |
Mash Method
August 2, 2008
So we pre-heated our brandy new mash tun (love it) with hot water and left it there while our strike water got up to a desired temp of 175°F. Once that happened, we dumped the hot water out of the mash tun, assembled the false bottom (minus the spigot screen - more on that later) and added our grain.
Struck with 8 gallons of 175°F water, and our initial mash temp was 142°F. Not quite where we want it... but oh well. Stirred really well. This seemed to be a very thick mash. Even though the recipe spreadsheet was adjusted for 1.5 qts/pound. We added our sparge water to the HLT and got that up to around 170°F before recirculating the wort.
After an hour of raising the temp gradually from 142 to 153°F, we vorlaufed for twenty minutes and then lautered into the boil pot. Then we added our sparge water (another 8 gallons), mixed up, and vorlaufed again. Then we lautered that to the boil pot as well.
Now here is the problem. Because of my silly suggestion that we could probably do without the spigot screen, we ended up not being able to get as much wort as we would have liked. Enough grain got by the false bottom to clog the spigot on the mash tun, and after blowing back about twenty times, we finally only wound up with about 9 gallons in our boil. So we lost at least two gallons of wort which remained in the mash tun. Dammit!!
But that's ok, because now we know for certain that the spigot screen is necessary. Now, on to the boil...
Brew Method
August 2, 2008
After winding up with about two gallons less in our boil than hoped, we proceeded to really heat the sucker up. Got a nice hot break on it, and Eric managed to give himself a little burn by stirring too vigorously, but I'm sure he's ok because he's a dork.
Time for hop additions.
T=60min
Added 2oz whole Fuggles (5.5%AA)
T=45min
Added 2oz plug Fuggles (5.0%AA)
T=30min
Added 1oz plug Fuggles (5.0%AA)
Added 1oz pellet Fuggles (4.0%AA)
T=15min
Added 2 tspn Irish Moss
Following our boil, we hooked up the wort chiller and let 'er rip. And *heavenly choir singing in the background* it worked better than ever. Our OG was 1.050, exactly as planned. Which means we got our 75% efficiency. Kick ASS.
Unfortunately, due to previously discussed blunder with the spigot screen, we wound up with merely 7-8 gallons of wort. Still enough to enjoy, though, so that's all that matters. And we learned our lesson for next time.
Fermentation
August 2, 2008
Pitched our yeast (one vial to each carboy) and put in the basement to begin fermenting.
August 3, 2008
Both bubbling away happily :)
August 17, 2008
Racked to secondary. In one fermenter, we added a pot of cooled brewed coffee. In the other, we added the equivalent amount of coffee beans. And hopefully we'll notice a good difference!
Bottling
August 30, 2008
Well today was bottling day. We used a full pound of light DME for priming. That's because we originally took no runnings due to a desire to keg. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough available kegs. Oh well, bottling is fine.
Our FG was 1.014, giving us a 4.6% abv. That works for me.
We got 19 bottles of the beaned brew and 27 of the dripped brew. And in a couple weeks, we'll crack a couple and imbibe. Yum, can't wait!
Tasting
September 15, 2008
Well at this point I've had a couple of each the dripped brew and the beaned brew. The dripped is more acrid, acidic. Almost an astringent taste on the back of the tongue. It's good otherwise, it's just not great.
The beaned brew, however, is delicious. That acidity is not there, it has a beautiful coffee aroma, smooth mouthfeel and warm yummy finish. Notes of chocolate and toffee as well. This turned out truly spectacular.
Notes
- Secure both mash filtering methods properly to ensure no stuck sparges.
No comments:
Post a Comment