Screwy's Recipe #38 - Barley Stout

 The last stout I brewed back in September was the first stout recipe I had made using DME and steeping grains. In this first recipe I included 6 different types of steeping grains added to a dark DME base. The yeast I picked for that brew was Safale S-04 dry ale yeast and after sampling before bottling it tasted good.

 The recipe I'm about to describe is a bit different than the first recipe in that it uses only 3 different types of grains added to a light DME base this time. Both recipes use Kent Golden UK hops but the new recipes doubles the boil time to a total of 60 minutes to add more bitterness.

Kent Golden UK Hops Boiled For 60 Minutes

I used qBrew's default 'Dry Stout' style guidelines to crunch the recipe's numbers. You can download the latest qBrew database below and use it to upgrade your current ingredient database. This latest ingredient database includes more yeast, fruits, extracts and other helpful entries then ever before.

 Click to download Screwy's latest qBrew database   

Recipe:
Click to download this recipe file for qBrew 
Size 2.13 gallons: Estimated IBU=37, SRM=31, OG=1.049, FG=1.012, ABV=4.7%

1/8 pound Carapils 
1/8 pound Crystal 10L
3/8 pound Roasted Barley
2 pounds Muntons DME - Light

1 ounce Kent Goldings (UK) pellet hops boiled for 60 minutes

11 grams Danstar Windsor British Ale yeast
Pitched at 65F and fermented at 65F

Directions:
Heat 10.5 quarts of filtered water to 160F
Add grains and steep for 30 minutes between 152-157F

Remove grain bag and add hops then boil wort for 60 minutes
Rehydrate yeast in 90F sterile water with 30 minutes left to boil
Add DME to wort with 15 minutes remaining in the boil
Add 1/8 tab of Whirlfloc with 10 minutes remaining in the boil
Remove from heat and remove hop sack

Use Screwy's Cooler until wort temperature cools to 65F
Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg and pitch yeast  
Ferment at constant 65F temperature for 21 days

The primary fermentation took off really fast and it produced a lot of trub. I am determined this time to pour a beer as clear and clean as I can without resorting to filtering of any kind. I figured it was time to rack the Barley Stout over to a secondary fermenter where it will finish out the rest of the fermentation. 

 Router Table Used As The Racking Platform

 I found an old discarded metal router table that was just perfect for the job, it was sturdy and just the right height for moving beer from the primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter. I put the primary fermentation keg on the top of the racking stand and inserted a length of rigid plastic tubing inside the locking spigot of the primary.

 The rigid tubing was cut from an extra bottle filling want I had ordered when I ordered the locking spigots from the Mr. Beer website a while back. The tubing is cut long enough so that the bottom of the tube is about 1/2 inch up from the bottom of the secondary fermenter to eliminate splashing when the beer flows into the secondary. Excessive splashing can cause oxidation of your beer and introduce unwanted 'wet cardboard' flavors, you want to reduce or eliminate splashing whenever possible.

Racking Fermented Beer To A Clean Sanitized Secondary

I rack my bigger beers that tend to have a lot of malt, hop debris and fallen out yeast to secondary fermenters to keep them clear and free of trub. The idea is to leave all the debris behind in the primary fermenter so very little of it ends up in the bottled or kegged beer.