Screwy's Recipe #54 - Chocolate Barley Stout (Steep/Extract)

 The last Barley Stout I brewed back in November was made using DME and steeping grains. In this version of my Chocolate Barley Stout recipe I use Carapils, Crystal 10L, Chocolate and Roasted Barley Malt steeping grains added to a Golden Light DME base. The yeast I picked for this latest brew is Danstar Windsor Dry Ale Yeast and after only 4 or 5 hours both fermenters have very active fermentations going on already.

I know that Carapils and Crystal 10L will both add sweetness to this stout which is then offset by the Kent Golding 60 minute hop boil. I brewed a Chocolate Stout which used only Chocolate malt and it gave a nice full mouthfeel while desperately lacking the smoky goodness of Roasted Barley. This recipe uses all the aforementioned grains and smelled unbelievably awesome while brewing.

Carapils, Crystal 10L, Chocolate and Roasted Barley Malt

I used qBrew's default 'Sweet 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=46, SRM=42, OG=1.071, FG=1.018, ABV=6.8%

1/8 pound Carapils

1/8 pound Crystal 10L

1/4 pound Chocolate Malt (British)

1/2 pound Roasted Barley Malt (British)

3 pounds Muntons DME - Light

1.5 ounces Kent Goldings (UK) pellet hops boiled for 60 minutes

11 grams Danstar Windsor British Ale yeast
Pitched at 70F and fermented at 68F

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 9 minutes remaining in the boil
Remove from heat and remove hop sack

Use Screwy's Cooler until wort temperature cools to 70F
Pour cooled wort into fermenter keg and pitch yeast  
Ferment at constant 70F temperature for 5 to 7 days
Rack to secondary for 2 to 4 weeks
Cold crash at 34F for 3 to 5 days they rack to keg or bottle

Steep The Grains At Constant 152 To 157F For 30 Minutes

I rehydrated the Windsor yeast in boiled water cooled between 86 and 92 degrees and stirred the mixture occasionally. By the time my wort was chilled to 70F the yeast mixture was the same temperature as the wort and ready to pitch.

Danstar Windsor British Ale Yeast New Packaging

The yeast has only been pitched about 7 hours and the fermentation is furious already. I place the lids of plastic storage bins directly under each Mr. Beer fermenter just in case they kegs decide to overflow they won't ruin the carpeting. I had the same fermentation spillover happen last December when I brewed the Barley Stout recipe for the first time so I had a strong feeling it might happen again this time.

The Next 3 Days Will Require A Lot Of Clean Up

I woke up this morning to a potentially huge mess, luckily the fermenters were on top of drip trays and the spill was contained. I sopped up most of the beer with a washcloth and then got the rest with napkins and paper towels. One of the fermenters is still spitting Co2 and beer but the other one has seemed to calm down now, I must have pitched that one before the other.

The Mess 16 Hours After Pitching The Yeast

Yesterday I racked the Stouts to clean secondary fermenters where they'll sit for another few weeks at least before bottling them. The insides of the primaries were pretty gunked up with stuff produced during the primary fermentation so I figured it won't hurt to get the beer out of there.

After 2 weeks in the secondaries I moved the fermenters to the refrigerator to cold crash for 5 days. The idea is to let the cold temperature help drop out any suspended yeast or trub still remaining in the beer to the bottom of the Mr. Beer kegs before bottling and kegging it up. This step is important because it reduces the amount of gunk that eventually would end up in your glass.

If you've ever washed out a corny keg after killing it you'll know what I mean, even after cold crashing there is a slight layer of trub at the bottom of the keg. I've noticed that the beers I've racked to corny kegs without cold crashing first left a thicker layer of trub on the bottom than those I did take the time to cold crash. 

My final gravity hydrometer reading at room temperature showed the beer fermented out to 1.017 or about a point lower than qBrew had estimated. The beer sample I drank was clear and dark and had that nice roasted Barley taste that came through nicely even without the carbonation being present. I plan on kegging one batch and bottling the other in 12 ounce bottles today and adding 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract per gallon of stout to enhance the chocolate flavors.

I kegged 2.5 gallons of the Chocolate Barley Stout directly to a corny keg adding 2.5 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract to the keg before filling it. I purged the keg with some Co2 before transferring the Stout to it by connecting the gas ball lock to the beer out side of the keg. I filled the keg up to the dark line on the inside of the keg, locked on the lid and hooked the gas up to the gas in and purged it a few times. I'll let it sit with 15 psi for 5 days before 'sampling' it.

I had enough Stout left over to fill 17 long necks after topping off my corny keg. I primed them with a shade more than .5 teaspoon of pure cane sugar and I'll let these carbonate for 3 weeks and condition for another 3 weeks before I start drinking them. I didn't add any vanilla extract the the bottles but at almost 7% alcohol they should be very tasty.

This Chocolate Barley Stout was brewed on April 23 and kegged on May 14th and it was gone by May 29th. I still have about 8 twelve ounce bottles left and I'll drink them too soon enough. The addition of 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract per gallon of stout worked well in bringing out the chocolate flavor in this beer.

The next time I brew this recipe I will add another 1/2 pound of Roasted Barley malt to the recipe to increase the roasty flavors that balance out the chocolate flavors. The Kent Goldings hops worked well in the background for adding enough bitterness so the beer was not overly sweet. For my tastes every Stout should have a strong Roasted Barley backbone and any adjuncts added should work with and not overpower that.

Screwys Double Recipe #53 - American Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada Clone)

This past February I brewed an 'off the charts' hoppy pale ale and produced a definitely memorable beer, loved by the hop heads and not so much by the light beer crowd. With an estimated IBU of 130 plus points from Saaz, Chinook, Northern Brewer and Cascade hops with first wort additions and 90 minute boils this was a powerhouse of an ale.

10 Lbs. Marris Otter, 3/4 Lb. Crystal 40L and 1/4 Lb. Biscuit Malt

This time around I used qBrew to calculate a not so in your face hoppy recipe that calculated to be a mere 78 IBUs, something still tasty enough for the hop heads in the crowd. I also searched the Internet looking for all grain Sierra Nevada clone recipes out there to see if someone had already unlocked the secrets to brewing this very popular beer at home. I finally found a recipe that was first posted in 2007 and had been revised by other brewers several times over the years until, as I understood it, the recipe actually replicated the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale recipe.

All Grain Wort With Whole Leaf Hop Boil

Of course the only way you can ever really tell if any recipe is great is to actually go ahead order the ingredients and brew it. I understand that there are differences in brewing processes like their efficiencies, fluid transfers process and fermentation technique that do show up in their finished beer.  But most folks who've claimed to have brewed this recipe really seemed to agree it was spot on, so I decided to brew it myself.

I used qBrew's default 'American IPA' style guidelines as the basis for crunching this recipe's numbers and the recipe download contains my complete ingredient list and brewing notes. 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 4.25 gallons: Estimated IBU=63, SRM=13, OG=1.073, FG=1.018, ABV=7.1%

10 pounds Marris Otter Malt (UK)

3/4 pound Crystal Malt (40 °L)

1/4 pound Biscuit Malt (Belgium)

1 ounce Yakima Magnum (pellet)

1 ounce Northern Brewer (plug)

1 ounce Cascade (whole leaf)

1 Safale S-05 11g American Ale yeast

Mash at 152° F for 60 minutes.

Boil for 60-90 minutes.

Aerate, pitch at 70° F and ferment at 68° F for 12 days

Raise to 70° F over days 13 to 14 then rack to secondary fermenter and dry hop

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34° F

Keg at 30 psi for 2-3 days and serve at 34° F

Directions:  

Infusion Mash: (Soak mash tun in 8 quarts of 180° F water for 20 minutes to pre heat it)

Heat 21 quarts of filtered water to 172° F

Pour 14 quarts of 172° F water into mash tun

Mix in 11.0 pounds of crushed grain mix at 58° F

Pour the remaining 172° F water to fill mash tun to 4.50 gallon mark

Stir water and grain mixture and adjust to 152°F and mash for 60 minutes

Sparge with 172° F strike water to set mash bed to 168° F

Add 1 ounce of Yakim Magnum hops to boil pot as first wort hop addition

Lauter for 30 minutes adding 11.5 quarts of sweet wort to both boil pots

Full Wort Boil: (Split these quantities between both boil pots)

Add 1 ounce Northern Brewer (U.K.) hops with 30 minutes remaining to boil

Add 1 ounces Cascade hops with 10 minutes minutes remaining to boil

Add 1/4 tablet WhirlFloc with 9 minutes remaining to boil

Use wort chiller to cool wort to 70° F

Primary Fermentation:

Pour wort through strainer to remove excess hop and grain debris

Fill the Mr. Beer fermenter with wort to just above the 8.5 quart mark

Aerate wort and pitch 1 package of Safale S-05 Dry Ale Yeast at 70° F

Ferment at 68° F for 12 days, raise to 70° F over days 13 to 14 for rest

Secondary Fermentation:

Cold condition secondary fermenter for 1 week at 34°F

Keg/Bottle:

Keg and force carbonate at 30 psi for 2-3 days at 34°F

Bottle prime and carbonate at 70° for 7-14 days

Mashing Mixed Grains At 152F For 60 Minutes

By now I'm pretty good at calculating my grain thickness, grain temperature and strike water temperature and volumes to hit my mash temperatures every time. Although I do keep extra hot filtered water and cold filtered water on hand just in case it needs a bit of tweaking, or I suddenly change my mind on the mash temperature I want to use.

Lauter Into Two 12 Quart Boil Pots For 60 Minutes

After splitting the wort into 2 separate boil pots I'd been boiling 1 pot for 60 minutes and the other pot for 90 minutes. The 30 minute difference was to allow me to chill the first pot down and pitch the yeast before using my wort chiller to cool down the second pot. I have to change this method though since I can actually tell the difference between the 2 batches, due to the extra boil time.....I think.

Bottled In 1 Liter And Half Gallon Sizes

Well it's May 21, 2011 a little over 4 weeks since I brewed this beer and the first sample I took is very bitter and astringent tasting. I can feel a very fry, bitterness on my tongue and it has a really graining taste that overpowers the hops and last for several minutes in your mouth. It looks clear and has great carbonation but it is really rough. This one I won't even bother tasting for another 4 weeks, it's just that bad right now.

I ended up pouring the rest of this recipe down the drain, it never got any better after conditioning for 3 weeks in the bottles.I think I know what caused the infection, although I can probably never be really sure. I thought back and remembered pouring the cooled wort into the fermenter through a metal strainer to catch the hop leaves. I had given the strainer a quick soak in One-Step but after cleaning it later I noticed the mesh wasn't made out of stainless steel and it had some oxidation on it in several places.

I've since replaced that strainer with an auto siphon made out of clear plastic. I have found the auto siphon to be really easy to use, clean and sanitize too. It's a great tool to have in the brewhaus and I actually look forward to using it for transferring wort and beer.

Surviving Sample Of Recipe #53

 I found a growler of this recipe that I hadn't thrown out with all the rest of this batch that went south. I carefully opened the twist cap and to my surprise no gushing at all. So prepared for the worst I poured a glassful and tasted it and to my surprise it tasted pretty good. Unlike the rest of the batch that turned out to be undrinkable this half gallon of beer actually tasted okay.

Split A Yeast Pack In Half For Mr. Beer Batches

Whenever I brew Ale recipes I like to split a single tube, or package, of yeast into two 2.13 gallon Mr. Beer fermenters. And I do this without worrying if that will be enough yeast to properly ferment all of the beer. I've been doing this for over a year now with perfect results, pitching half the packaged amount of yeast works perfectly for Mr. Beer sized batches. Yeast companies package and sell their homebrewer products based on 5 gallon batches, the typical size used by most brewers at home.

Split A Single WLP005 Yeast Tube Into Two

I also look at this as a great way of keeping yeast costs under control while continually pitching fresh yeast. I cool my wort down to the yeast's lower end of it's optimal temperature range and then maintain that temperature throughout the primary fermentation which usually lasts between 1-2 weeks.

Very Active Primary Fermentation Using WLP005

Once the activity inside the keg has stopped for a few days I'll raise the temperature 2-3 degrees and allow another day or two before racking to a secondary fermenter for cold crashing. The last brew I made was my all grain Screwy's Pale Ale where I pitched a single 11g package of Safale S-05 into two Mr. Beer fermenters. The brew before that was my all grain Extra Screwy Bitters where I pitched a single tube of WLP005 into two Mr. Beer fermenters. In both cases the fermentations took off quickly and finished up with a low final gravity.

Final Gravity Reading When Racking To Secondary

Splitting a dry yeast package is straightforward and easy to do. I boil about a cup of filtered water for 10-15 minutes and let it cool down to 90F and pour it into a small sanitized bowl. I pour in the dry yeast and let it sit for 20 minutes, during this time the yeast will slowly begin to rehydrate. Stir this yeast mixture every 5-10 minutes until it becomes creamy in texture and it's ready to pitch.

Rehydrating Dry Yeast Before Splitting It In Two

Once the yeast is nice and creamy fill two small sanitized cups evenly with the rehydrated yeast mixture and you're now ready to pitch. I've prepared my yeast up o 2 hours ahead of time and have had perfect fermentations every time. During the time it takes to rehydrate the dry yeast the temperature of the mixture will fall to room temperature, just right for pitching into your cool wort.