Scottish 80/ bew day

I was looking for something that I could make 10 gallons of and split into 2 different 5 gallon batches. It is a little more work and a tight squeeze on my equipment, but gives twice the beer! For this round, I was looking for something easy drinking with a balance towards malt. Almost went with German, but in the end decided a Scottish beer. I was looking for something in the 5% abv, so scotch 80/ it is. 1/2 of the beer will age on oak. Being able to taste both side by side will let me really see what oak does to a beer.

The grain bill is mostly base malt, with some English caramel malt and a bit of roast barley. The first gallon was boiled down and added back in later in the boil. This helps to caramelize the wort and bring out some toffee like flavors.

Full recipe here.

It was tight, but I was able to mash at almost 1.5 qt/# in my 10 gallon mash tun. I was aiming for mash temp of around 152, but it dropped quite a bit before mash was over. Ended somewhere around 145. I hope the beer doesn't suffer too much. It may end up a little thin or might just take a hit in efficiency.

Since it have a 10 gallon pot, I don't have enough room for a full boil on a 10 gallon batch. Aside from the gallon I split off to boil down, I started the mail boil with almost 9 gallons. I had trouble keeping a rolling boil. This time of year, you really need to have two propane tanks. Mine kept freezing up. In the end, I barely got 7.5 gals into the fermetors. This added with the 2.5 gallons of bottled water brought me to exactly 10 gallons. I was hoping for a bit more since you always lose some to trub when transferring.

Chocolate stout - tasting

Yay! My first chocolate stout is finally ready. This is the little brother of the end of the world stout.

Pours almost pitch black with a nice tan head. A bit of a relief. I was worried it would be too light as it was more brown before the yeast dropped out.

Nice chocolate aroma with a hint of fruitiness. Not much else there. No roast, hops, malt, etc. Lauren says chocolate covered cherries. Uh oh now she is craving them!

Taste is of chocolate, but light and not overpowering. Again a slight fruitiness, but no roastiness. Will have to add more roast barley next time. The balance is nice as it is not bitter or too sweet. Leaves you with a slightly bitter chocolaty finish.

Mouthfeel is nice and light with some creaminess. Will push a little more carbonation, but it is good where it is. It goes down easy and with 6% alcohol, one could have a few and not fall over.

Overall I like how this turned out. It could have had a little more complexity from something like more roast barley. Sometimes people just want a nice easy drinking chocolate beer.

End of the world stout - update (1/19/12)



EWS - Secondary







After three weeks of slowly feeding this monster, it is a relief to have it in secondary.

As planned, I split the stout in two. 1/2 will become the end of the world stout, the other a chocolate stout to be ready soon.

End of the world:

I started with 5 gallons of 1.10og wort. Pitched two re hydrated packs of Nottingham. Fermented this for a few days down to around 1.03 before I started the feedings. I ended up giving it 9# of sugar and 3 different strains of yeast.  It also sat on Cocoa nubs and




Cocoa nubs and vodka soaked vanilla bean

a vanilla bean for the last week.  There was a gallon of sludge at the

bottom, so I only got around 4.5 gals into secondary. 





It now sits at 1.029 sg with a virtual starting gravity of ~1.182 for approximately 20% alcohol.  That is if the estimates and calculations scale that high.  Either way this beer is big!





Fermentation is not pretty



This beer will age for a few months on 1 oz of French oak cubes before I bottle. 

The sample I took was full of crud floating aroung (Yeast still trying to do their job)  This will all fall out during aging, but I wanted a sample now!  I was able to strain a few ounces through a paper towel.  What came out the other side was quite nice.  I saved this and a few ounces of 1997 Sam Adams Triple Bock that I will sneak into work for a tasting ;)





Chocolate stout:

Its little brother started life as 2.75 gallons of 1.1sg wort. I topped this off with another two gallons of bottled water, pitched a re hydrated pack of yeast and sealed it off for the two weeks. I added some cocoa nubs and a vanilla bean, let it sit for another week.  Kegged it today, so expect a tasting in a week or so!

This one ended up at 1.01fg for almost 6% alcohol.



Belgian strong Dark - Tasting

Belgian Strong Dark - I brewed this back in May 2011 - ABV 10%
The goal with this beer was something like Chimay Blue or KoningsHoeven Quad.
 Pours with very little head that dissipates quickly, but leaves some lacing.
 Reddish brown. clarity was pretty good until the yeast poured in.
 Sweet aroma.  Decent carbonation, but not as good as some of the better belgians.
 Dark malts with some alcohol.  I think the dominant flavor here is from the dark candi sugar.
 A little spiciness from the yeast, but does not have that band-aid I sense in many other belgians.
 It could use some more complexity, but I do like it as it is.
 Fairly easy drinking 10% abv beer.   The body is nice and light.
 Its too bad I don't have many of these left.

Recipe (5 Gallons):
Belgian strong dark 2011:  OG=1.092
Fermentables:
 12 lbs belgian pils
 .75 lbs Belgian aromatic
 .25 lbs Belgian Special B
 1 lbs corn suar
 1 lbs dark candi
 1 lbs Sugar (In primary)
Hops:
    1 oz tradition (60)
  .5 oz hersbrucker (30)
  .5 oz hersbrucker (5)
 Mash 60 min @149
Yeast:
 WYeast 3739 Flanders golden - 2 liter starter

Note When brewed:   OG=1.085.  FG=1.004. 
Did not add sugar to primary (Already 10% abv)

Barleywine - Bottling and First tasting

I is finally time to bottle my barleywine! 3 months ago, I used almost 1/2 bag of maris otter to brew up almost 5 gallons of barleywine and 5 gallons of English bitter.
For that brew day, I used the partigyle technique. After mashing the grain, the first runoff has most of the sugars. This becomes your stronger beer. You can then rinse the grains with more water to get a second weaker beer. In a normal batch, these two runnings would be combined for one average beer.
This is when bath sparging - some people use fly sparging, which is more of a continuous rinse. The same can be done with the first half going to one beer and the second to the other beer. Some people go as far as making a third smaller beer.
Anyway, back to the barleywine. Since the brew day back in October I have been waiting patiently as it fermented and aged.  It has spent the last few days kegged so I could force carbonate and chill it for easier bottling. Yes it is possible to bottle condition a beer this strong, but I did not want to take the chance of flat beer. It is now time for bottling and tasting!
At 3 months, it is still quite young - especially for a 12-13% barleywine, but I thought it would be a good time for the first tasting.

Appearance:  Clarity is poor.  Forms a small wisp of a head.
Aroma:  Aroma of malt and alcohol.  Similar to Belgian dubble. Slight dark fruits - maybe prunes?
Taste:  Dark fruit-malt type flavors with some alcohol.  No hops, but sweet/bitter is balanced.
Mouth feel:  Medium body with low-medium carbonation - Perfect for a strong sipping ale.
Overall:  Definitely a sipper, but surprisingly smooth for such a young almost 13%abv beer.
 Amazing how much this reminds me of Belgian dubble/quad considering English malt, hops and yeast.  And no sugar.

This beer is meant to age.  I will be slowly eating into this stockpile over the next few years - mmmm.

The pipeline

To end 2011 with 6 beers fermenting

Left to right:  Chocolate Stout, End of the World Stout, Barleywine, Apfelwien III, Brett Pale, Lambic 1a