Grainfather Brew #8 - American Stout

DoctorMick · Aug 30, 2015

Wasn't expecting to brew today but our dinner plans have just been cancelled so I'm going to take the opportunity to help replenish my rapidly depleting stocks!

Recipe pretty much taken straight out of Greg Hughes' book so I won't post it here. I've swapped the hops, using galena for bittering (it was very cheap!) instead of chinook and using mostly cascade along with 19g of mosaic for the later additions as I don't have enough cascade. I'm not a huge fan of masses of cascade (begs the question why I used it in my 60 minute IPA!) but I'm looking forward to see how it works in a stout, I've got a hunch it'll work well. I'm also using chocolate malt in place of black malt as I don't have black. Looking at all those changes it isn't that similar to the recipe in the book! :lol:

The weather is rubbish so at least I'm not going to melt when I brew in the conservatory.

DoctorMick · Aug 30, 2015

Disaster #1 - only weighed out 2kg of marris rather than 3kg! Thought the mash consistency felt loose! 20 minutes left, should I chuck in another kg?

DoctorMick · Aug 30, 2015

Decision made, 1kg added and going to leave mash for another half hour, hopefully most of the conversion will be done in that time.

Slid · Aug 30, 2015

DoctorMick said:
Decision made, 1kg added and going to leave mash for another half hour, hopefully most of the conversion will be done in that time.

In that position, I would have got the can opener out and added a random kit, right at the end, and maybe brewed slightly longer.

This partial mash lark really does make jolly good beer : cheers:

MyQul · Aug 30, 2015

Reckon you should be ok with the extra 1kg in the mash. Before I started overnight mashing I only used to mash for 40mins. Most of the conversion is done in about 10 mins anyway

Toffee · Aug 30, 2015

DoctorMick said:
Looking at all those changes it isn't that similar to the recipe in the book! :lol:

for some reason this cracked me up! :rofl:

DoctorMick · Aug 30, 2015

MyQul said:
Reckon you should be ok with the extra 1kg in the mash. Before I started overnight mashing I only used to mash for 40mins. Most of the conversion is done in about 10 mins anyway

Hit 3 points off target, very pleased all things considered.

MyQul · Aug 30, 2015

DoctorMick said:
Looking at all those changes it isn't that similar to the recipe in the book! :lol:
.

My last brew was an ESB from the GH book but I didn't have enough challenger for the bittering hop so I just used a combo of target and admiral that I had bits of in the freezer. I'm still experimenting with ovenightmashing/sparging combinations so only ended up with 15L instead of 23L so I diluted it down to 17.5L to give me a best bitter rather than an ESB. So like you I ended up not with the same beer I started out trying to make

Slid · Aug 30, 2015

DoctorMick said:
Hit 3 points off target, very pleased all things considered.

Sounds like a result, then, and very principled.

DoctorMick · Aug 30, 2015

MyQul said:
My last brew was an ESB from the GH book but I didn't have enough challenger for the bittering hop so I just used a combo of target and admiral that I had bits of in the freezer. I'm still experimenting with ovenightmashing/sparging combinations so only ended up with 15L instead of 23L so I diluted it down to 17.5L to give me a best bitter rather than an ESB. So like you I ended up not with the same beer I started out trying to make

And that's half the fun right?

DoctorMick · Aug 31, 2015

Almost 24 hours and still absolutely no signs of fermentation. :cry: Will see what it's like tomorrow when I get back from work and if it's not starred I'll have to pitch an English ale yeast which isn't ideal.

DoctorMick · Sep 1, 2015

Still no signs this morning so will be pitching more yeast tonight.

rodabod · Sep 1, 2015

What yeast did you use, and did you give it a really good bit of aeration?

DoctorMick · Sep 1, 2015

rodabod said:
What yeast did you use, and did you give it a really good bit of aeration?

Danstar BRY-97 American West Coast Yeast. I aerated as well as I usually do although probably not enough. Temp is steady 18c. I'm beginning to think the difference between the temp of the rehydrated yeast and the wort was too much and killed the yeast, it's the first time I didn't check the temp of the yeast before chucking it in although given I rehydrated at 35c and it wasn't pitched for about 45 mins I'd be surprised if it hadn't dropped to at least 27c.

DoctorMick · Sep 1, 2015

Got back from work and amazingly something is happening, thin layer of foam on the top so expecting good things by the morning. Knowing my look it's probably the start of a wild yeast infection. :lol:

Slid · Sep 1, 2015

DoctorMick said:
Got back from work and amazingly something is happening, thin layer of foam on the top so expecting good things by the morning. Knowing my look it's probably the start of a wild yeast infection. :lol:

Seems a bit of a quick reaction from a few stray wild yeast spores, that are presumably fairly common.

DoctorMick · Sep 2, 2015

Slid said:
Seems a bit of a quick reaction from a few stray wild yeast spores, that are presumably fairly common.

I was maybe being a bit over dramatic! :lol:

Nice krausen this morning, no idea what all the fuss was about.

DoctorMick · Sep 8, 2015

Just taken a sample and it's down to 1.014 so it's looking good. Sample was unusual (not bad unusual) but I've only ever tried one American stout and never a beer with so much Munich so it's no surprise, I think it'll need a long condition but will turn out well. I really need to accept I don't really like cascade and not use them, the flavour isn't pronounced in this one but I'd rather use something else.

If this has stopped fermenting I'll get it bottled over the weekend and get a mild on. I'm down to about 30 drinkable bottles and 40 conditioning so I need to brew more regularly.

Lesinge · May 2, 2016

Did this recipe as per GH. Great beer and very popular with the crowd. Makes me proud to be a brewer!

Grainfather Brew #8 - American Stout

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