Fall BKB Community Brew?
I would have to agree with the 100% MO base with FPB, I have done it many times in Imperial IPAs, and English IPAs, the result should maintain a strong pale malt backbone, no other additional flavors should be coming from it- if mashed at a normal temp. If it is decocted or mashed at a higher temp (I could not think of a reason to do that) possible maillard flavors could be there. I would stick to traditional methods. Perhaps the flavors you got were from low yeast attenuation, and residual sweetness?
what would you consider high mash temp? It was mashed about 155-156 F. OG was 1.035 FG 1.009, not sure what that makes the attenuation.
Hogarthe wrote:
what would you consider high mash temp? It was mashed about 155-156 F. OG was 1.035 FG 1.009, not sure what that makes the attenuation.
That actually sounds fine, your attenuation was 74%, 35(OG)-9(FG)=26. So 26(actual attenuation)/35 (possibleattenuation)= 74%. For a MO and a probable english style yeast, good attenuation.
156 is IMHO on tyhe high side, but you got good attenuation so that was fine, however 154 and up can start to give you tricky sweetness and huge mouthfeel. Not su8re where your odd flavors came from, possibly an off brand MO, or an odd yeast characteristic?
FirePitBrew wrote:
What do you guys think about the OG? Do we want to keep it this big of a beer?
What about IBUs? I think ~40 is good as I don't want this being too sweet.
Can't help with the lactose, but I agree that we need to keep it all balanced. As to the OG, no way can we risk Thirsty not brewing this (He's like out of beer, man!). So the bigger style just means upping the pressure on my attenuation abilities. Looking for a 152 mash temp, or do we think that may still be a bit high?
---- REVISED RECIPE ----
6 gallons
75% Efficiency
OG: 1.084
IBU: 40
SRM: 25
14 lb Marris Otter
1.50 lb Crystal 40
1.00 lb Brown Malt
0.50 lb Pale Chocolate
0.25 lb Chocolate
0.50 lb Lactose
1.30 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA) - 60 min
Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale yeast or WLP002 English Ale yeast
4-6 oz?? Cold Steeped Coffee added to secondary
1 Vanilla bean added to secondary
I'm finding all sorts of PPG values for lactose so for a 6 gallon batch I'd guess a half pound would add 3 or 4 points to the previously estimated 1.080 OG.
I'm thinking of mashing a little lower due to the 1.5 lbs of Crystal, Lactose and low attenuation of this yeast strain; maybe 150-152. I think I'd like it to finish around 1.020 or so. Thoughts? Comments?
Well I haven'tlooked in on this thread in a while. But I will say I am surprsed at the postings as to the differences between a stout and porter. From the stouts and porters I've had I've found the stouts smoother and the porters harsher in coffee flavors. maybe it's just my palate. LOL.
As far as Lactose, I used it a lot when making a sweet stout and found it really doesn't add a lot of sweetness as I though it would so if I was to choose between a pound or half a pound, I'd go half a pound.
I've used MO quite a few times and when I did I found my OG was highest using it. It is great for getting the most out of the grain. I haven'r brewed a beer since moving from a house into an apartment. the apartment is too small for a fermentation fridge ( according to my wife) so I had to sell it and it's been too warm here to ferment at room temp. it's finally cooling down and I've had the ingredients to make a stout for a while so I will do that real soon and then this community brew is next in line.
DC
Thanks for chiming in DC. I was hoping you'd offer your 2 cents regarding the lactose.
I picked up some of the ingredients I'll need for this beer yesterday. I should have plenty of other ingredients in case there's any more changes made but hopefully I can brew this over the long weekend coming up.
thirsty wrote:
Hogarthe wrote:
what would you consider high mash temp? It was mashed about 155-156 F. OG was 1.035 FG 1.009, not sure what that makes the attenuation.
That actually sounds fine, your attenuation was 74%, 35(OG)-9(FG)=26. So 26(actual attenuation)/35 (possibleattenuation)= 74%. For a MO and a probable english style yeast, good attenuation.
156 is IMHO on tyhe high side, but you got good attenuation so that was fine, however 154 and up can start to give you tricky sweetness and huge mouthfeel. Not su8re where your odd flavors came from, possibly an off brand MO, or an odd yeast characteristic?
ok, the first time I tried this beer it had the weird sweetness too it, so I didn't even want to drink anymore of it. It sat around for a month and I tried one again and most, not all but most, of the sweetness has aged out. So I'm thinking one problem was drinking the beer too young. It was pretty low gravity, so I didn't think it would need much aging, but apparently I was wrong. It still had a touch of the weird sweet taste to it, so next time I'm going to try mashing at 150-152, and upping the bittering hops a bit.
And now a question about the community brew, the recipe shows 6 gallons, is that 6 gallons in the fermenter? or 6 gallon boil? I don't have a fermenter big enough to ferment 6 gallons in, and 6 gallons boiling seems too low to end up at 5 gallons into the fermenter.
I write my recipes to yield 6 gallons at the end of the boil. That way I can whirlpool and leave some break material (and a little wort) in the kettle. Then after racking, especially if I use a secondary as well, I'll still end up with at least 5 gallons going into the keg or bottles. If you'd like to convert this to a 5 gallon batch just multiply the amounts of ingredients by .83.
Is this the final recipe, or does anyone have changes to suggest? I need to brew something soon, since I haven't done a batch in a while, so I might as well make it this one.
also about the coffee addition, will regular old coffee do, or will it be much tastier if I use some kind of special coffee?
On my way home from work today I was thinking about the yeast. I know before I said I want to go with an English yeast but would a more neutral strain be a better choice to let all these flavors come through?
As for the coffee, well ironically I'm not a coffee drinker but I love coffee flavors in beer and coffee in beer when its done right. One of my favorites is Long Trail's Imperial Coffee Stout. They use Vermont Coffee Company's Dark roast which is sold on VC's website. It's description makes it sound perfect for this beer. If I don't use this coffee I'll probably just pick from one of my girlfriend's Green Mountain Coffee variety packs.
for yeast I'll probably go with s-04. cheap and easy english strain.
I won't be brewing this for about a month, as I need to sneak in a replacement batch of M&J before I get to this brew. One advantage I will get is to build up the yeast population in my fermenting carboy. I threw out my existing yeast cake after that "Burnt Mack" experience, not wanting to risk lingering flavors on later beers. But my advantage will be that I have two full ferments on the yeast cake which should do nicely with the SG we are dealing with. It does mean that I better like the yeast I am using. It's the Safeale S-04, so I will have the esters in this brew, and will likely have to work a bit at keeping the temps down where they belong. It also means that I will have a bit higher attenuation, so maybe I'll leave my mash temp at 152. Thoughts?
Just getting ready to buy the ingredients for this beer at brewmasterswharehouse, and the northern brewer hops they have are 12.5 AA, and it shows the IBU as coming in at 33, instead of 40. I know their are several ibu formulas, but if their hops are quite a bit higher aa, wouldn't the ibu's come out higher? I'm just wondering what amount I'm going to have to add to get this recipe right.
Crabnut, I haven't noticed S04 to have very high attenuation rates so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Hogarthe, I use the Rager formula setting in Beersmith. Using this formula you'd need .88oz of 12.5%AA to hit 40 IBUs.
If everyone's good with this recipe I'll make up a partial mash and/or extract recipe and post an official recipe thread. To the extract brewers, I'd suggest doing a small partial mash with this beer because of the brown malt. Its not necessary and I used to steep grains like Munich and Biscuit but they really should be mashed to avoid starch haze in the finished product. The process isn't much different than steeping grains.
Search Home Brewing Knowledge Base
Custom Search
|