Brewday 16/09/06

[Andy]

OK, brewing tomorrow - Vanilla stout

Picked up the Pale malt and yeast from the brewery this evening

4.3kg Pale Malt
50g Crystal
500g Flaked Barley
300g Roast Barley

Mash at 68degC for 90 mins

75g Fuggles - 90 mins
15g Fuggles - 5 mins

23L OG 1048 at 70% efficiency

Will worry about the vanilla bit after the primary.

First outing for wort pump, *new* larger spinny sparger and a couple of scavenger tube fittings to the HLT and mash collection bucket.

Fingers crossed.

[Bigster]

Hope it goes well

[Vossy1]

Enjoy playing with the new shiny things

[jasonaustin]

Have a good one.
My (vanilla) stout is currently in secondary. I decided that since I was going to add extract (cf pods) I needn't add it till I transferred to the serving kegs, so as yet I haven't added any vanilla. Expect to do this next week. Look forward to comparing tasting notes.

[Andy]

OK, another one in the bucket!

No pics today

Didn't have a good start, filled the HLT with 25 litres of filtered water to find that the nylon W&D trip was leaking! Emptied liquor into another bin, took the tap to bits and cleaned it. Everything back together, liquor added again.....still leaking! So drove to LHBS (only 10 mins away) and picked up a new tap. Swapped it over and we're off again....

Mash was all over the place temperature wise - 66 in some places 70 in others! Lots of stirring and added cold liquor - may have got temp too low.

Everything else went like clockwork though, the new pump was great - not a chance of any HSA

Just the clearing up to do now

[Andy]

Cheers matey

[BitterTed]

No pics today

Pictures, we like pictures!! (doing his best Andy):lol:
I wouldn't worry at all about the probs, this will probably turn out to be one of your best beers!! Glad the rest of the day went well!

[eskimobob]

So, Vanilla Stout has taken off then

I did my Vanilla Stout a couple of days ago but only just getting some details up (still no broadband - Tiscali have f@@@@d it up bigtime! - have to wait at least another 10 days apparently because some moron in Mumbai entered the wrong info ).

[PieOPah]

Just had a look at your Vanilla Stout blog. Looks great.

I haven't any experience of fly sparging, but that spinny arm did seem to be going quite fast. How long did your sparging take? From what I have read, it should take about an hour which is to give the water time to absorb the sugar. That might explain the lower than expected efficiency?

[Andy]

EB - nice report and pics!

One question though - are you sure your recipe details are correct:-

Pale Malt 2500g (Marris Otter)
Roasted Barley 400g
Flaked Barley 1000g


Promash comes out with a OG of 1038 at 75% efficiency with that grain bill.
Have you missed something out ?

[eskimobob]

Thanks Guys,

I haven't any experience of fly sparging, but that spinny arm did seem to be going quite fast. How long did your sparging take? From what I have read, it should take about an hour which is to give the water time to absorb the sugar. That might explain the lower than expected efficiency?

Sparging took me 35 minutes. Perhaps it may have been a little fast although I have sparged with a watering can rose before and sure it was shorted than that
First time I have user the spinny sparge arm though - great to see it fly around.

One question though - are you sure your recipe details are correct:-
Promash comes out with a OG of 1038 at 75% efficiency with that grain bill. Have you missed something out ?

Hope not. Based on 19 litre batch size, BeerSmith tells me to expect 1045 OG at 75%. I worked out the recipe expecting my more normal 85% for which BeerSmith seems to expect 1051 OG. No idea why there is such a discrepancy with Promash but here's part of the BeerSmith output:

Ingredients
2500.00 gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 64.1 %
1000.00 gm Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 25.6 %
400.00 gm Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 10.3 %
45.00 gm Fuggles [5.70%] (60 min) Hops 34.9 IBU
3.00 items Vanilla Beans (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc
5.00 gm Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [Starter 35 ml] Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.041 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.0 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 3.8 %
Bitterness: 34.9 IBU Calories: 382 cal/l
Est Color: 23.8 SRM Color: Color

[Andy]

Ah, I used a 23L batch size in Promash!

If I change to 19L then get 1052 @ 85%.

[eskimobob]

Ooops! I guess I had better add the batch size to my recipe as it is not clear at the moment - thanks Andy, well spotted.

[Andy]

Have a good one.
My (vanilla) stout is currently in secondary. I decided that since I was going to add extract (cf pods) I needn't add it till I transferred to the serving kegs, so as yet I haven't added any vanilla. Expect to do this next week. Look forward to comparing tasting notes.

Jason, have you added the vanilla yet ?

[jasonaustin]

Yes, I kegged last week and added 2.5 tbsp of Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract (to full corny). Had a first taste last night. It's good and I would definitely do it again, although if I'm honest I would reduce the vanilla just a touch - maybe 1.5 - 2 tbsp only. It's in no way overpowering, but it's definitely there (ie, it's not just a background taste). I think I would prefer it to be slightly more of a background note than an up front taste.
Look forward to hearing how yours turns out.