Stout: Iteration 11

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: R. Goyenko

Brew Day

As a recap from the previous time I brewed my iteration of this stout, I do BIAB, so the setup is simple: a brewing bag, a big pot, some blankets, a burner, and a fermenter. At this point the procedure is established. I put the recipe in Beersmith with my changes to the recipe and adjustments for the water chemistry.

I measured out the grains and milled them.

Then the water – I used about 8 gallons for this batch. I mashed at the same temperature as last time: 154⁰F, which I came pretty close to.

I added the minerals for water—with this much dark grain and my soft water I needed chalk (4g) and I also added 2.4g gypsum. Chalk normally doesn’t dissolve in water well, so the trick I use is to carbonate the water and shake it until it dissolves.

I mashed in, and after about 10 minutes I measured the pH of water. It was close to what Bru’n’Water predicted: 5.31 and in a good range for the mash.

After one hour of mashing, I got the bag out and drained the wort. The pre-boil gravity came in at 1.060. This was a bit higher than needed, so I added 0.5 gallons of water before the boil.

I boiled the wort for 60 minutes.

I measured and added the hops at the times stated in the recipe. After the boil, I chilled the wort quickly. I measured the OG, and it came in as expected at 1.064.

I transferred the wort to the fermenter and pitched the yeast.

After 6 days, signs of fermentation stopped and the krausen dropped. The gravity was at 1.021. I measured 3 days after that and the gravity was the same.

I decided to bottle this beer like I did the in my previous iteration, even though I usually keg—just so I would not have to bottle from the keg before sending the beers out. This time I didn’t have a mixing bucket available, so I added dextrose directly into the bottles.

 Recipe

Tasting notes for Iteration 10:

Aroma: Deep chocolate, medium-low amount of roastiness, dark candied cherry.

Head is somewhat low, tan in color, after it subsided it lingered for a while, bubbles are mix of small and big ones. Beer is dark, almost black and opaque.

Flavor: Roasted flavor forward with medium bitterness from roasted grains and hops. Dark cherry esters. The bitterness is rounded by malty and chocolate flavors and doesn’t feel excessive. There is a slight roasty/bitter aftertaste. Finish is medium on the palate.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-high body, carbonation is medium-low. No alcohol warmth, no astringency, creamy mouthfeel.

This beer turned out very nicely and hits the notes on what stout should be: it is roasty and with a lot of chocolate aroma and flavors. Last time I brewed this beer, I made a side experiment with an additional gallon of beer using Danny’s Favorite 50 yeast, and it imparted a similar taste to the beer—smooth and clean taste, maybe even a bit too clean. I felt like adding a bit more complexity and more layers would improve it. The recipe is very good as is, so I didn’t want to change too much. I decided to change the base malt to Maris Otter to possibly add more layers to the flavor of the beer to see how that worked out. That left me with the following recipe:

• Mashed at 154° for 60 minutes
  • 60.8% Maris Otter
  • 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 13.0% (43 IBUs) 60 min
  • 1 oz. Centennial 9.9% (6.7 IBUs) 5 min
• Pitched Wyeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50
• OG: 1.064
• FG: 1.021
• ABV: 5.8%

Tasting

Iteration 11 Tasting:

Appearance: Dark, almost black and opaque. Head is a tan color and about 2 inches, persistent, and leaves lacing on the glass walls.

Aroma: Roasted grains, chocolate, dark coffee, resiny hops. As it warms up the aroma adds a moderate amount of dark cherry and hops become less prominent on the nose.

Flavor: Hop bitterness, chocolate and espresso coffee flavors. Hops are resiny, grapefruit pith. My version feels much hoppier than the previous one – it’s both more bitter from hops and has more flavor and aroma from them, I am not sure why since this variable didn’t change. Maybe variation in water chemistry or brewing techniques.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-high body, carbonation is medium. No alcohol warmth, no astringency, creamy mouthfeel.

Overall it’s a very good beer with a lot of character. I think Maris Otter added a layer of complexity as desired. One thing that is pretty different for these two beers is the hoppiness level, with Iteration 11 being much hoppier, as I mentioned above. As I said it could be that it’s due to water chemistry (even though I tried to adjust it to be similar to the previous version) , my setup, or a fluke in the hops themselves. I think hops in this beer could be dialed down so the nice chocolate/coffee/roastiness is more balanced.

I am not sure it was an improvement on the previous iteration to be honest, but I don’t think it’s because of Maris Otter.

Aside from adjusting hops, the other thing I might consider adjusting would be simplifying the recipe—maybe removing 1.8% Chocolate Malt. Another thing I might do is to introduce some kind of caramel malt for added layers of complexity (or substitute/split Victory with caramel).

Recipe Progression