Stout: Iteration 10

This post is one in a series following six brewers collaborating to each make a small adjustment to a single recipe in order to improve it, then pass it along to the next brewer. We hope to learn more about the art of recipe creation as we see how other brewers approach the same recipe. The rest of the series can be found here.

Author: M. Willis

Brew Day

My brew day truly starts a few days before when I finalize the recipe in Beersmith, decide on my water adjustments via Bru’n Water, and then acquire the ingredients from the local homebrew store….[Record Scratch] except I no longer have a LHBS. After struggling for years, they recently called it quits and I completely understand.

This brew would be my first with a mail order in many years, and I immediately had to experience the old feelings of trepidation often followed by disappointment. I won’t name names, but due to the time crunch between when I tasted the beers and when I had to brew, I ordered at one of the closer places that claims to ship within 24 hours and would be 1-day transit from my house. Well I soon realized I had missed their cut-off time and so it was over 48 hours to ship. The package, including packets of yeast, then sat in a UPS warehouse all weekend. Luckily, I had ice packs with the order. This then led to a rare (for me) weekday brew to stay on schedule. I prepped everything Sunday, and after reviewing my delivered items after work Monday, I started the burner around 6pm.

As a reminder, my equipment is atypical. I do not use either a 3-vessel system or Brew in a Bag (BIAB). I use the less common Mash in a Bag (MIAB) using a 10-gallon Cooler. Reason being, most of the time I batch sparge because I find it more repeatable and there’s something comforting about stable mash temps. I then boil in a 15-gallon kettle. I’ve been using this equipment and methods for several years, so I had no surprises this brew day. It was entirely without surprise and calming after the mail order snafu.

I collect and treat my local water with Campden the night before I brew. We are lucky to have access to the water company’s current test results via their website, so I believe I have enough info for water salts to help. I then stepped out to the driveway to mill my grains. Owning a mill has also helped with repeatability.

I then proceeded to heat my strike water, add salts, transfer to mash tun, check the temperature, mash in, and check the temp again. I’ve used the same equipment and methods for quite a long time, so I usually hit my temps and volumes; if I don’t I’ve entered something wrong in Beersmith. I missed my target mash temp of 154°F only by a tenth of a degree. Good enough.

60 minutes later, I raised the bag to drain, then transferred to the kettle. I completed a quick sparge and moved that into the kettle too. My pre-boil gravity was one point low, 1.052, after adjusting for the temperature. Close enough—this is within measurement error. After bringing to a boil and starting timers, I added hops at 60 minutes and 5 minutes as planned, then chilled to 79°F. My groundwater temperature is fairly warm in the summer (Midwest climate). In the Spring I can achieve close to 60° fairly quickly, but this brew day required a bunch of water. I took a gravity reading, and I was one point low at 1.064 after temp correction. The wort was transferred to a 6-gallon plastic carboy using a short piece of silicone hose and Siphon Spray Wort Aerator. The fermenter was then moved to my dedicated fermentation fridge and Inkbird temp controller set for 64°F. By this time, it was 11pm and I decided to wait till the next morning to pitch yeast so the wort temp would come down to my preferred pitch temp.

The next morning, I pitched two packs of Wyeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50. Since I received my yeast the day I brewed, I didn’t make a starter. I also didn’t have time for this slow yeast to reach terminal FG if I was going to stay on schedule, so I gave the yeast it’s best chance and pitched two packs. It was less than a month old, so I was confident it would be happy. After it made the airlock bubble for a few days, I turned the cooling off but set a high temp alarm on the controller just in case. This let the beer warm slowly to 68°F over the course of about 7 days. It was held there for 3 more days and gravities were taken two days apart. It was stable, so I cold crashed to 32°F and kegged. Final gravity was 1.018 which, at 70.6%, is under attenuated for the specs on 1450, but matches what I’ve experienced the last few times I’ve used it.

I use low O2 methods after fermentation. My specific process is to fill a keg completely with sanitizer until I overflow the top. Then I replace the lid and push out all the sanitizer with CO2. My CO2 line is moved to the fermenter and used to push the beer from the fermenter to the keg. My standard carbonating process is to a set my regulator to 40+PSI, shake for a while, and then vent 24-48 hours later. I packaged in bottles 3 days later, but it might have been a bit low on carbonation. We’ll see what the recipients say.

Recipe

Iteration 9 Tasting:

Appearance: Inky black in color with a dark brown head that starts fluffy with a normal pour and sticks around. Look at that lacing!

Aroma: Dark molasses, roasted coffee, and more pronounced molasses as the beer warms. From my recollection, this beer is less complex in aroma than the previous iterations I tasted.

Flavor: Follows the nose, as they say. The dark molasses is dominant. I’m wondering if it finished attenuating or stalled. It’s sweet, whereas the other iterations were dry.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. There is little astringency, medium-high carbonation, no alcohol warmth.

Comments: This is a good candy bar style beer. Fits the Halloween season perfectly. If I search for a flaw, the only weakness was the residual sweetness. Molasses overrides the coffee, dark chocolate, and dark cherry notes in the previous iterations I sampled.

The sweet molasses has pushed out that wonderful coffee + chocolate in the previous iterations I was able to sample. Once I saw the attenuation was 65% and FG 1.023 on Iteration 9, I decided to add sugar and reduce the 2-row appropriately. This should reduce the residual sweetness and help the beer attenuate further. Based on a calc and my experience, the FG should drop by 5-8 points with the addition of 12 oz (6%) of Corn Sugar. This was a pretty good beer, and it was my hope that this would make it great! Also, how fun is it to tell people you are adding sugar to lower the sweetness?

• Mashed at 154° for 60 minutes
  • 60.8% 2-row
  • 10.6% Victory
  • 7.8% Flaked Barley
  • 7.8% Roasted Barley
  • 5.3% Pale Chocolate (300°L)
  • 1.8% Chocolate Malt
  • 6% Corn Sugar
• Boiled 60 minutes
  • 1 oz. Nugget (60 min.) at 13.0% AA (42.9 IBUs)
  • 1 oz. Centennial (5 min.) at 9.9% AA (6.7 IBUs)
• Pitched two packs of Wyeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50 at 64°F
• OG: 1.064
• FG: 1.018
• ABV: 6.1%
• Kegged after FG was stable

Tasting

I accomplished my goal of lowering the perceptible sweetness and the FG by 5 points. I even passed a triangle test 3 times just to verify I wasn’t biased. These beers are definitely different to my taste buds. I’m smelling and tasting chocolate, coffee, and a hint of that dark sweet cherry note that was more present in the earlier iterations. With an attenuation of over 70%, this version no longer has the sweetness that made me think candy bar. Some of the complexity is back now that it’s not overshadowed. It’s still a touch dull compared to what I tasted in Iterations 3 and 4. The significant lacing on the glass is still there, which gave off ample aroma each time I brought the glass to my mouth and nose.

In my previous iteration, I pondered how Denny’s Favorite 50 would work in this beer as I’ve never been a big fan of the neutral, workhorse US-05. I’m not sure it’s done this malt bill and

hops favor. If I brewed again, I’d be tempted to find another yeast. Maybe WLP004 in Iterations 6, 7, & 8 was the better yeast for this one? This recipe might also be ready for some more bitterness as a next step. An original goal was earthy and herbal notes from the hops using close to a 1:1 BU:GU ratio, and I would like to explore that more.

Recipe Progression