#61 Monks Slipper

[barney]

Happy New Year to Everyone here at Jims Beer Kit.

The Imperial Stout that was made on last years New Years Day Brew has matured nicely but is not the beer I expected. The bottling gravity was round about 1033 IIRC so I didnt add any sugar to prime assuming that there would still be enough going on to carbonate the bottles - there was not. I have a dark strong but very nice flat beer.

Todays brewday is being constructed with an early finish in mind, Again I will be making Stout and again I will be Parti-Gyling the batch.

First things First, the grain bill.


4.50 kg Fawcetts Tipple 48.6 %
1.50 kg Golden Toasted Oats 16.2 %
1.50 kg Wheat Malt, 16.2 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L 2.7 %
0.25 kg Chocolate Malt 2.7 %
0.25 kg Roasted Barley 2.7 %
1.00 kg Candi Sugar, Home Made, Dark 10.8 %
150.00 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 58.5 IBUs


The first Gyle will be a full batch infusion, NO SPARGE, targeting a liquor volume off 22 litres and will be FWH with all the fuggles, The yeast used will be Wyeast 1581 BELGIAN STOUT.

The Second Gyle will have another infusion of hot water added to the mash, at a temperature to maintain the Mash temps of 63 for another hour, And then will be left on the grain until the weekend (no cleaning up today) When I will drain and obtain another 22 ltr Of soured stout Which I will hop with flyer and inoculate with a pint of beer taken from my Lambic Brown Ale.

The water is on, I had better Get Milling.

The Brew is off to a good start, its not raining.

[alix101]

Good luck ....I would love to sneak a brew day in, but alas I don't think I have a cat in hells chance.
Why not soda stream the stout ...job done

[Manx Guy]

Wow !

That sounds like a great beer!

Have you made sour ales using the re-mash method before?
I saw that Seymour mentioned it on another thread, it sounded quite cool

Although I dont have any high gravity beers on the board before my summer break do this may have to wait until later in the year...

No brew day for me I'm 'working' today...


All the best for 2013
Cheers!

Guy

[barney]

Why not soda stream the stout ...job done

Good Idea Steve, Cheers.

Have you made sour ales using the re-mash method before?
I saw that Seymour mentioned it on another thread, it sounded quite cool.

Hello Guy, I have used it from Seymours suggestion in a Berlinner Weiss recipe, Its my second attempt as the first time I managed to kill off all my yeast and had to chuck it. This time it just seems to fit in with my lazy day and desire to finish before the football.


Its all gone wrong already though, or has it? Its good to go with the flow isnt it?

I have used Mild ale Malt as Its the first sack I got too under the stairs, the crystal was dark and I upped it to 300g as thats what I picked first dip with me bowl. I only had 150g of roast so stuck in 100g of black malt with it and lo and behold I found 500g of carafa special 1 and thoughts thats Belgium-ish and put 250g of that in. So the recipe is nothing like the above.

The crush from my mill was a work of art though and the mash temperature was 65°C spot on, So I got something right.

[barney]

First Brew done and tucked up 20ltr @ 1.088.

I have also taken two samples of the yeast, to plate, in an attempt to isolate different strains from the Wyeast 1581.

[barney]

Some Pictures,

Malt Milled Grain Shot


Fantastic Crush, Look at those whole Husks. not had a stuck mash or a slow run off for ages. The mash bed ends up lovely and thick and very springy, no compaction at all.


The wort after a quick recycle through the grain bed.


Boil With 140g of Fuggles, I managed to use the little electric boiler with only 23ltr to go at.


20ltr @1088, well happy with that.

[WishboneBrewery]

Looks a good one
I'll have to write up my day another day, had a major pain in the arse transfer to fermenter with the mesh hop-stopper blocking up ended up loosing the extra volume I'd managed to get in the copper though ended up with only 1 litre less than the predicted 23L, could have had maybe 4-5Litres more if the copper had drained better.

[jmc]

Sounds like you'll have 2 great brews there.

Will be interested to hear how you get on with these brews especially the sour brew & Wyeast 1581 Belgian Stout.

The method you used for sour batch looks relatively easy to do & a bit easier than letting mash grain ripen and then add sparge water after a few days, as getting 2nd mash / sparge temp right is difficult to calculate once wet mash has cooled.

Ripening method is one I used following Seymours suggestions in Seymour Chocolate Milk Stout

Funny enough I had a dark Belgian brew last night to finish holiday
Delirium Nocturnum

That was nearly flat too

[Lugsy]

They look like a couple of belters there Barney! I'm intrigued with this sour mash of the leftover grain technique, I think I'll be trying it as soon as the weather warms up enough that I can leave the mash out in the shed for a few days.

Hats off to you for getting a brew done on New Year's Day, I was in no fit state at all after some over-enthusiastic celebrating but I'd learned my lesson last year so did mine early

I have exactly the same problem with my RIS from last new year, the only carbonation is from residual CO2 from the ferment - the beer is nice enough after a year but flat as a fart even with priming. It looks like US05 is good up to 12% and no more. I'll be experimenting more with the style this year but maybe going for a slight drop in gravity to give the poor yeasties a chance.

[Tom_D]

Great stuff Barney, looks like an excellent brewday. I really like the idea of inoculating the sour mash with a pint from another of your sour beers. Great way to build your own microbial 'house culture' too

[smdjoachim]

I have exactly the same problem with my RIS from last new year, the only carbonation is from residual CO2 from the ferment - the beer is nice enough after a year but flat as a fart even with priming. It looks like US05 is good up to 12% and no more. I'll be experimenting more with the style this year but maybe going for a slight drop in gravity to give the poor yeasties a chance.

Did you reseed the yeast,normally it's pretty knackered after primary fermentation at those kind of gravities?

[Lugsy]

No, I stupidly assumed there would be enough viable cells even with the hefty alcohol content so I primed and bottled as it was. Next time I'll reseed with the same strain before bottling - at least there was a lesson learned there!

[barney]

Thanks guys for the kind words of support and the encouragement.

The tips are a bonus as well.

I had a sip of the wort today and its got a faint hint of sourness, I may bring it indoors tonight for the last day or so. I must say that even that subtle hint of activity really enhances the flavour of the wort.

[barney]

Well, sampled again tonight, The aroma was more pronounced. The sour taste was also more evident, firm but not overly sour and residual malt flavours were still in evidence.

Now, should I boil it to stop the show or add the Lambic sample straight in without boiling, adding hops or anything?

[Lugsy]

Now there's a question. I'd be in two minds about it, so why not split the batch and ferment two different beers? Boil half up with some flyer and leave the other half as is? Maybe split it in demijohns and really play around with the wort? Just a thought