Celtic Stout Mk II 11/03/09

[adm]

Well.... I was waiting this morning for H&G to deliver my Carafa III so I could do another Four Shades, but in the end I got bored waiting, so I've got a Guinness clone-ish on instead! The delivery is guaranteed by 4pm today, so I could have waited, but the itch to brew just got the better of me.....the HLT was hot and ready and calling my name.

21L brew length, should come out at 4.6 ABV if my calculations are correct.

3.5Kg Maris Otter
1Kg Flaked Barley
448g Roast Barley
52g Chocolate malt

(Strange numbers for the Roast and Choc, but I had an open bag of roast with 462g left and didn't want to open another one, so i just made it up with a bit of Choc. I wonder if I'll even be able to taste it....)

Hops are Northdowns to use up some of the ones I got from McToon. I think they'll work well. I almost used up some open NZ Cascade, but I thought I'd save that for dry hopping some of the beers I've got conditioning.
35g First Wort Hop
15g 15 minutes
This should give 39 IBU - I think Guinness just uses a single bittering addition, but the last version of this I did had a 15 min Perle addition and it was lovely. Better than Guinness in my opinion....so I'm sticking with the same hop schedule.

Yeast will be S04.

Water treatment is to the Stout setting in Graham's water calculator.

The mash has been on for 35 minutes as I type. I'll post pics up later once I'm done.

It's a lovely day for brewing.

[delboy]

Have a good one adm.
I have some perle knocking about for making SNPA, most try it as a late hop sometime.

[adm]

That went well.....all in all a nice smooth brewday which could have been done in 4 hours or so (HLT heating not included) had I not had to look after the kids and do some work at the same time...


Here's the pr0n:


Grain bill. MO, Roast and Flaked Barley and a little bit of Chocolate Malt


Mashed In


Today I even hit my target mash temp almost perfectly


First Wort Hops ready to go. 35g Northdowns at about 8% AA


Grain bed at 90 minutes


First runnings


Malt soup - with lovely hop croutons


Running off and chilling via the "Little Chair of Beer". Straight through the chiller and into the FV at 22C, no bother.


OG 1049. That's a bit better than expected - especially as I collected exactly the right amount. 81% mash efficiency. We're having a good day here!


21L at about 20C by the time i got back to it and was able to aerate and pitch it


Sloppy seconds...


And finally....into the box you go. See you in a week or two.

[DarloDave]

I love your hop strainer, is it actually as good as it looks? Your set up looks great, I want something like that rather than having to lug water about everywhere.

[adm]

Thanks Dave,

The hop strainer so far works perfectly. It's night and day compared to the Hop & Grape "hop blocker" I used to have and it deals effortlessly with both pellet and whole hops.

For pellets though, I suspect it just lets the small bits (<2mm) of trub through into the FV - but that's no big deal as they just settle out anyway.

As for the setup, most of it is a 3 tier gravity system - which is wonderful as there's no lifting, jugging or pumping needed. It just works. The pump is really only used because of the plate chiller and hop back (when I use it), although I do plan to use it for a HERMS set up soon.

It all certainly makes for an easy brew day though. The downside is that there's a bit more to put together, take apart and clean. The chiller shortens the brew day a bit, but what you gain in chill time is probably lost in the cleaning time afterwards. I am a gear whore though...so for me it's worth it.

I think, for absolute best ease of use, a 3 tier gravity system, with immersion chiller would be the way to go.

[kevthebootboy]

loving the gear, looks ace!

kev

[adm]

I had my fIrst taste of this one today.

Oooooohhh.......that's nice!

Beautifully silky smooth and creamy. The chocolate is definitely tasteable - even at 1% of grist. Not sure whether it's fresher BB ingredients vs. LHBS or what, but it's much nicer than the first version of this was at the same age. Different yeast though. This one was SO4, vs Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale.

Yummy. 3 1/2 weeks old, and on tap now!

[jdt199]

I had my fIrst taste of this one today.

Oooooohhh.......that's nice!

Beautifully silky smooth and creamy. The chocolate is definitely tasteable - even at 1% of grist. Not sure whether it's fresher BB ingredients vs. LHBS or what, but it's much nicer than the first version of this was at the same age. Different yeast though. This one was SO4, vs Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale.

Yummy. 3 1/2 weeks old, and on tap now!

I have just started drinking my first 4 shades and I had the same reaction to you just now. I'm amazed I made the stuff. Only my 3rd AG so I still get that excitement tasting an amazing beer that I have made. I like the look of this though I may try that for my next stout. How does it compare to the 4 shades? I will have to get some mixed gas as well at some point as I'm sure that adds a lot to the drinking experience.

[adm]

That's a good question.

The first time I made this Stout recipe I was very pleased with it. Then I made Four Shades and thought that was better. Now I've made this one again and it tastes better than the Four Shades! I haven't got any Four Shades left to do a side by side taste test though....

[tangoman]

A side note adm, don't you cover the end of the tap on your FV, I tend to put a small plastic bag over the end of mine to stop any nasties getting in.
Nice setup BTW.

[adm]

Here's how this one's looking now. Had a few pints last night....

[Parp]

Uber!

[Robdog]

That looks cracking Alasdair. My Oatmeal Stout is comming along now also but this post has inspired me to get another Stout on tomorrow. Think ill do a Guinness clone from Wheelers new book.

I may make it a bit stronger though

[kevthebootboy]

That looks a cracking pint, id drink that right now even though i have a stinking hangover!

[Robdog]

You cant beat Stout or Porter through 70/30 mixed gas imo.