Friday, November 25, 2011

Coffee Stout

25-Nov-2011

Today I start brewing my Coffee Stout. This is an extract with grain brew that produces a pretty good stout. The ingredients are:

2 lbs Dark Dray Extract (Munton's today)
6.6 lbs Dark LME (Bries today)
0.5 lb Black Malt (0.485 lb)
0.5 lb Crystal 40 L (0.505 lb)
0.5 lb Roasted Barley (0.51 lb)
1.0 oz Golding East Kent (alpha 5.8%, beta 3.2%) for 60 min
1.0 oz Fuggles (alpha 4.2%, beta 2.5%) for 15 min
WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

Start by crushing the grains with marble rolling pin on marble rolling board, placing in a sparge bag and putting this in 1 gallon of cold water. I'll heat this to 170 degrees, hold for 1/2 hour and then sparge the grains with a bit more water at 170 degrees.

15:10 Grains have been processed and wort is in the brew pot.

15:21 Fill brew pot to 24 qts (6 gallons) and start flame.

15:58 Brew pot boiling, add ME.

16:12 Boil restarts, add Kent Goldings hops.

16:57 Add Fuggles hops.

17:12 End boil.

19:15 Wort is down to near room temperature. Get the gravity
Temp = 76 F
SG = 1.064 ASG = 1.066

This is in range for what the recipe estimates, although high for the Stout style.

19:30 Pitch yeast.

26-Nov-2011

10:00 Yeast is doing well, fermentation is under way.

2-Dec-2011

I've been storing the fermentor where it is, unfortunately, too cold. What I have now for the gravity is

T = 51 f
SG = 1.042
ASG = 1.041.

I'm moving it to a warming location to see if further fermentation will take place. The gravity ought to be down below 1.011.

10-Dec-2011

I warmed up the fermentor and got the fermentation started again for the past week. Now it looks like fermentation is done, the yeast have all settled to the bottom. So again with the SG.

T = 59 F
SG = 1.025
ASG = 1.025

The gravity is still a bit high, but I'm going to rack it anyway. I just don't think I can get much better. We'll see how it goes.

16-Dec-2011

Now I put 8 oz of coffee into 1/2 of water in a sealed container and let it sit for about 36-48 hours. I'll strain this, boil it and add it at bottling time. This can go in with the priming sugar.

17-Dec-2011

Check the gravity again.

Temp = 51 F
SG = 1.030
ASG = 1.029

Now this is higher than before. Perhaps I misread the hydrometer. Don't know, but in any case there has been no improvement in the gravity. I'll bottle tomorrow in any case.

18-Dec-2011 Bottling day

Strain the steeping coffee and heat to about 200 F.  Also boil some water and dissolve the priming sugar.

All bottled, two cases and a six pack.  Put it away for about two weeks.