Stout for Christmas

[Doive]

Followed my favourite Guinness clone recipe gleaned on here, been requested to make a stout for Christmas holidays. Brewed it two weeks ago, bit late putting the thread up, so should be bottled this weekend, and in vaguely drinkable condition for Christmas-ish. Nothing special to make it a festive stout, other than the time of year.

3800g Maris Otter
1000g Flaked Oats
500g Roasted Barley

40g Target @ 90 mins

Heating the water.

Grain still in bags.

Mashing at 65C, only just started but already nice and dark.

Target hops waiting to go in.

Post boil run-off.

Beautiful dark wort cooling off.

Turned out 23 litres at 1.050, which I was happy with. Fermented out now, and tastes fantastic. Looking forward to bottling up!

 

[dennisking]

What yeast are you using.

 

[Doive]

Off the top of my head it was WLP005 British Ale yeast. Think I used that last time out and it didn't interfere too much with the base flavour.

 

[Doive]

Bottled this little baby up last weekend, primed more carefully than the Lia Fail... cracked one of my test bottles tonight, and despite only six days since bottling it's really good, no head to speak of obviously, but a lovely roasted malt flavour. Have another six test bottles to try, two a week between now and Christmas, just to keep an eye on progress you understand :drink:

Shameless infringement of copyright here... I'm happy with it. Let's hope friends and family feel the same!

 

[Maysie]

That looks lovely! Just my sort of tipple.

I have just received my very first brew-kit a few moments ago, which has a St Peters Stout kit with it. Looking forward to getting it going and then possibly moving on to more complex brews (like this) if/when I get the hang of things.

Thanks for posting the pics.

 

[Doive]

Trying another bottle tonight - just to be sure of course... :

This is a simple recipe Maysie - chuck all the grain in, mash it, take it out, chuck some hops in and boil it. Leave to cool. Takes time, but really straight forward.

 

[Doive]

I have a small problem.

My weekly test bottles are all gone after one week. Packing the car for work this week, 10 bottles made their way into my bag. Next week may well be the same. Off to see friends this weekend, and stout has been promised - there goes another half dozen! At this rate I'm struggling to stretch it out to Christmas... an excuse to brew some more then :

 

[Pew]

What type of Roasted Barley did you use? This is my motivation to build a mash tun.

 

[brewtim]

I have a small problem.

My weekly test bottles are all gone after one week. Packing the car for work this week, 10 bottles made their way into my bag. Next week may well be the same. Off to see friends this weekend, and stout has been promised - there goes another half dozen! At this rate I'm struggling to stretch it out to Christmas... an excuse to brew some more then :

That's the trouble when you've brewed a good ale, that is in condition early, tasting it is addictive and sharing is a balance between keeping it for yourself and obtaining some adoration from fellow humans. The only answer is to brew more and never run out.

:

 

[Doive]

What type of Roasted Barley did you use? This is my motivation to build a mash tun.

It's a roasted barley from The Home Brew Shop, so whatever they stock as standard. Gives a really pleasant slightly burnt toast flavour to the beer.