Lets Talk Brewing

[alexander]

Just bottled it (and no i didnt drink that glass, honestly its a bit discusting drinking flat 70 degree beer, but this gave me a chance to check on how the final product will taste)


its a dry english brown ale, or maybe a dry porter

you decide, its malty, its a touch sweet, it's only a little hoppy, and has pronounced alcohol taste which leads me to believe its in 6-7% mark... it does have some fruity overtones which are nice in this particular beer, so i cant wait to test the final final result...

And i just started on a stout (details later)

[alexander]

New batch (a double chocolate coffee stout)

~2.7-3 Gal

Pre-Boil:

8oz American Crystal Malt
8oz British Chocolate Malt

put in cheese cloth bag or a pre-boil sock and keep at 150F (usually +- 5 to 7 degrees) for 20 min

bring to 170 degrees, take off heat and add 3.3lb of dark malt extract

Boil:

bring to a boil, first add a few pellets of hops (like 4-5) (this will prevent the run when you add the majority of hops

0.75oz of Fuggles (hop)
0.25oz of Willamette (hop)
~3oz of Ghirardelli all natural cocoa powder
~3oz of Ghirardelli sweetened powdered baking chocolate with cocoa

set timer (60 min)

15min to end
1 cup of dark brown sugar
0.5oz of Willamette

2 min to end
0.25oz of Willamette

Gravity at start is 1.057 at 70F

tomorrow i am starting a cold press of about 4-5 cups of coffee (extra strong) about 5 tbsp of ground bean per cup (normally you'd use two) (put coffee and water into the press, cover the press with some cling wrap and throw in the fridge. In 2 days take it out of the fridge, and press the coffee down, put the cold press into a stainless pot and boil for at least 5 minutes to sterilize. Also i will add some Lyle's Golden Syrup, probably 3/4 of the small tin i have (whatever is left in there) then.

also i will add some more coco at racking, probably failry little, about , probably with corn sugar syrup i am going to use for primer. But very little, about 0.25-0.3oz, to give some more fresh chocolate scent.

[alexander]

Oh i'm using Safale S-04 yeast here

[alexander]

my first experience with liquid yeast

new alex's variation on Belgian Wit:

preboil tea:
1/2 lb crystal malt
1/2 lb wheat malt

boil:
3.3 lb northerner witbier malt
2 cups of powdered wheat malt
1 oz of Amarillo .75 at start of boil .25 2 minutes before the end
1tbsp of dried sour orange peel
1 lime peel (this and orange peel were split into about 3/4 1/4; 3/4 were added at 10 minutes before the end of the boil, and 1/4 was added about 2 minutes before the end with hops)

after the boil wait for temperature to drop under 200F and i added
juice of one lime
the inners of 1 passion fruit per gallon of wart (i used 3)

let it sit uncovered until the temperature gets to about 165, cover it for 20 minutes to keep it in 165-155 range for 20 minutes, then continue the cooling process

also i had to add almost 6 cups of water to dillute the wart to 1.050

I used wyeast belgian wit yeast slap pack for this one

anyhow, it took off inanely, i have over 3 inches of foam on top right now, fermentation is expected to end by this weekend


that first porter is ready to drink, and its good

[alexander]

So where to next?

i am working on creating a rather crazyfying beer, here's what i'm thinking towards

preboil grain bag

12-13lb of extra light extract for 4 gallons of water
light brown sugar
Lyle's syrup
perhaps some grape juice or grape juice concentrate
thinking i'll want some nutrient here too
dunno how much or of what hops yet, there will have to be a lot of them though, in the process of thinking about that right now, thinking i would have to push it to a pretty high IBU though i'm thinking somewhere up in 65-80 range, i'll have to think about that...

starting gravity around 1.10

pale ale yeast

hour of aeration with an aquarium pump and a fine aerating stone

in 3-4 days after start, start adding an oz of sugar a day for 5 days, in this order demerara, cane, demerara, cane, demerara.

thinking of letting it go for another week to 8 days until it stops actively bubbling, racking it, adding some muscovado sugar, an oz more of demerara, adding some more hops, pitching in some distiller's yeast and aerating this for another hour, then for the next 4 days adding 1oz of belgian candy, demerara, belgian candy and demerara. At which point i shall leave it to ferment out for 2 weeks or so, racking it, waiting another week, and finally bottling it with some champagne yeast....

expected alcohol content is around 14-16%abv

So, anyone make anything quite like this? and/or does anyone have any suggestions or direction they would nudge me in (mind you this is still about 2-3 weeks out from starting, i'm churning over the recipe in my head, trying to figure out how to preserve the body, and add complexity)

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by alexander

does anyone have any suggestions

Yes! Save some for me!

I wish I had some advice for you, but it seems you've advanced way past the level I reached when I was brewing. It's nice to experience it vicariously though.

[alexander]

If you lived around here i'd invite you over for some double chocolate coffee stout, as it stands, perhaps we can hang out sometime at some conference or a museum trip or something, in which case i'll bring some home made stuff

Where do you live, freezy? (you can pm me)

Seriously, i find this to be an excellent experiment, because i an a flavorologist, or a flavorographer, or maybe a flavicist, whatever, i really enjoy playing with flavor to achieve something that someone hasn't tried and that would seem interesting to someone. With beer its simple flavors put together for complexity, and the drive to preserve the body and perhaps hide a surprise and above all be creative and not stick with beer stereotypes...

With food its complexity through simplicity and putting flavors together that make people scratch their heads and go "you did what and mixed it with what... and that tastes, oh really.. oh this is good"... like a sweet onion and rasin garnish i've created

Besides making beer is the closest i get to doing actual chemistry, that elusive subject that i cant quite grasp

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by alexander

If you lived around here i'd invite you over for some double chocolate coffee stout, as it stands, perhaps we can hang out sometime at some conference or a museum trip or something, in which case i'll bring some home made stuff

Where do you live, freezy? (you can pm me)

I live just outside of Atlanta. If you ever make it down here, please look me up. I will do the same if I ever head to New England.

What is the caffeine level of your stouts?

[alexander]

4 table spoons of kona for every gallon of beer, i really had to compete with 2 oz of cocoa/gal here though, generally you would use probably a cup of grounds for 5 galons for a regular coffee stout, remember most of the time, less is more

I have figured out the recipe this morning, and i'm planning to make it on the 25th, here's the final content for the next recipe:

4 galons of water to start

Preboil tea (from cold water to 155-160F for 20 min to steep and then take out around 170F):
1/2lb Cara Aroma or Cara Munich II malt
1/2lb Special B malt

Boil:
13.2lb of light liquid malt extract
2oz Tomahawk hops @ 60 min
1oz Chinook hops @ 20 min
1oz Chinook hops @ 10 min
1/2 lb Lyle's golden syrup (probably the whole small tin) @ 20 min
1/2 lb demerara sugar @ 10 min
2tsp of Irish moss @ 10 min
1/2tsp gypsum after done (lowering this should make the water a bit safer, just in case)
5tsp of yeast nutrient

augment with water to 5 gallon mark

Primary Fermentation (about 2 weeks):
Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale yeast slap pack
1oz of cane sugar @ 9 days
1oz of demerara sugar @ 10 days
1oz of cane sugar @ 11 days
1oz of demerara sugar @ 12 days
1qt of White muscat juice concentrate @ 13 days

Secondary Fermentation (about 2 more weeks):
1oz of Amarillo hops @ racking
1/2 oz of Semicoe hops @ racking
1oz of Belgian candy @ racking
distillers yeast @ racking (subject to change)
1oz of demerara sugar @ 1 day after
1oz of Belgian candy @ 2 days
1oz of demerara sugar @ 3 days
1 oz of Belgian Candy @ 4 days

Bottling (3 weeks):
probably 3/4 of a cup of priming sugar
Lavin EC-1118 Champagne yeast

this will age really well, and probably be best after a year...

expected starting gravity ~ 1.1
Final gravity - who knows
alcohol by volume - 14-16%
bitterness ~ 80 IBU

[alexander]

so i bottled that double chocolate coffee stout, i added about .45 cup of corn sugar and a 1/8 cup of unsweetened cocoa, here are some shots:



here's the consistency and color: