First AG brew day!

[Kyle_T]

Brewers and brewessess!

This week I shall take my leap of faith over to the dark side. I have become full of excitement and anticipation, all my ingredients have arrived bar the flaked barley, which the kind home brew man sent today as he accidentally sent me flaked maize, but has let me keep that at no extra cost.

So, I shall ask of your advice on my recipe and what sort of (hopefully) drinkable beer I might achieve with what I bought, without further addue, here it is:

Brew Length: 20 Litres.
Original Gravity: 1.028
Final Gravity: 1.008
ABV: 2%
EBC: 104
EBU: 39

Marris Otter Pale Malt: 1.3kg
Flaked Barley: 430g
Roasted Barley: 370g
Crystal Malt 220g
Black Malt: 200g
Irish Moss: 3g

Target Hops: 11.1% AA 23g. 90 minutes.

Safe ale S-04 Yeast.

I am aiming for a low percent stout on a 20 litre brew as it's going into a Polypin for the Spring Thing.

If I have missed any stout ingredients feel free to suggest or if there is anything I should be aware of.

Thanks all.

 

[lukehgriffiths]

Looks good... my AG5 is going to be a stout this week...

Presume the hops are all on 60mins.

Welcome to AG; I am never doing anything else (except that kit my father-in-law gave me...)

Enjoy it.

 

[Kyle_T]

Yeah the hops are 90 minutes, should give an EBU of 39 and the EBC should be 104. Forgot to add those bits.

 

[dennisking]

Never brewed a stout Luke so I'm not a great help. But hope it goes OK, any problems on the day ask on here there's normally someone around to help.

 

[Baldbrewer]

Hi,
In my humble opinion , the black is too much , try half that amount also add some chocolate malt. Also add some toasted oats to give better mouth feel, 2% is very low for a stout and you don't want it to taste watery. Good luck :thumb:

 

[Good Ed]

Kyle, I don't understand why you are brewing such a low ABV stout. I've just put your figures into Brewmate and at 75% efficiency you will get a beer at OG 1027; FG 1007 (at 75% attenuation); IBU 36.4 which will give you a weak very bitter tasting beer with a lot of harshness of the dark malts.

If you look at the BU:GU ratio (bittering units:gravity units) you are at 1.35, which is quite high for a dry stout. The last one I did was 0.90.

So with the hopping as you are using you would want to increase your pale malt quantity to about 2kg, even so your abv would only be 3.5%. I just don't want you to be disappointed with your first brew, and would suggest going for at least 4.5% abv for your stout.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I personally don't see the point of brewing anything less than 3% ABV and that would be for the ladies.
Mind you, I do come from Yorkshire where our blood is 2% ABV before we start drinking.

 

[andyd]

Kyle, I'd agree with baldbrewer and Good Ed, making a very low alcohol beer is tricky, maybe not a good proving ground for your first venture in AG. Looking at your recipe, I'd double the pale malt (at least) and halve all of the other ingredients - all IMHO of course.

Here's a link to a relatively low alcohol stout recipe:

http://www.hopandgrain.com/recipeSearch ... re%20Stout

I have made something very similar to this but with pale malt around 3Kg to give c 3.2% abv. Any lower and I fear it might not carry the flavour.

Good luck with it however you go!

 

[Kyle_T]

Hello all,

I can happily report that my first AG brew day was a triumph!

Took an hour longer than expected but I got what I was after, the body is a little on the thin side due to over filling with water, but everything else is pretty much as I wanted. Nice and malty but with a good bitterness kick.

The actual recipe was:

Brew Length: 20 litres (ended up with 23).
Original Gravity: 1.022.
Final Gravity: 1.007 (got my 2% bang on if it ferments that low).
SRM: 40+
IBU: 55

1.5kg Marris Otter Pale Malt
430g Flaked Barley
370g Roasted Barley
220g Crystal Malt
100g Black Malt
1 tsp Irish Moss

32g Target 11.1% AA - 90 Minutes.

11.5g Safeale S-04 Yeast.

It came out surprisingly pleasant to drink, I will add wheat or something next time to help improve the body, but for a first time, I didn't do too bad.

Most importantly a big Thank You to everyone for helping down the path to the Dark Side and for helping me to loose my AG virginity. Now time will tell how the brew finishes up. I shall let you know once the first pint goes down.

Cheers :drink:

 

[joe1002]

Well done Kyle :clap: Welcome to the Darkside :lol:

It sure smelt good :thumb:

 

[JohnStone]

The stout is fermenting away very nicely, should be a very nice pint. Well done Kyle on popping your cherry :thumb: