Home Brew Forum

Had a mate round to help brew this as he is looking into going AG.

Also added 5g of gypsum to the mash and 5g calcium chloride. 1st outing into the land of water treatment so hope it will be beneficial

So I was aiming for 20L @ OG 1.058
60 min mash, 90 min boil


MO, Crystal, Flaked Barley, Chocolate malt, Wheat malt, and Roasted Barley


Mashed in. Hit the mash temp bang on. Although I do have t get a new digital thermometer now as I dropped mine into the full HLT
It wasn't water proof


After 60 mins and the first sparge water. Starting to look like a good coffee already


Got a really good sparge going again. I think in the past I have been pushing the manifold onto the tube at the back of the tap too much, as it has a bit of give. This must have been the reason behind my slow sparges in the early days.


Bought some pH strips to test my mash pH for the 1st time. Totally forgot to use them untill the second sparge So it looks a little off but I reckon it was ok.


The hop additions. 50g Fuggles on the left, 30g Goldings + Protofloc tab on the right


1.041 @ 45oC = 1.049 @ 20oC. Was aiming for 28L @ 1.045 and got 27L @ 1.049


boil hops going in


Cooling


Collection. Ended up with 19.5L @ 1.056 so a bit under the mark but only a touch.


All in all it was a good brew day. Tucked up in the spare room at 20 deg c.

Just taken an SG reading. 1.025 which makes it 4.2%. Roused the yeast as the temp in the spare room dropped last night.

Nice one - great pics as well.

One question though.....where's the Coffee ?

Sounds good to me...
On my recent comparrison between s-04 and WL Irish Ale yeast, the Irish Ale yeast Blends and adds a creaminess... But I prefer the s-04, its dryer and more drinkable with the dark malts.
Yours should be good drinking

Looks like a great day.

adm wrote:Nice one - great pics as well.

One question though.....where's the Coffee ?

Thanks adm. The name's from Paul @ Barley Bottom. It's his recipe from his recipe kits. I can see where he is coming from. Even from just the little sample I had today it definitely has some complex coffee and chocolate flavours going on.

pdtnc wrote:Sounds good to me...
On my recent comparrison between s-04 and WL Irish Ale yeast, the Irish Ale yeast Blends and adds a creaminess... But I prefer the s-04, its dryer and more drinkable with the dark malts.
Yours should be good drinking

Aye cheers matey. I was considering the WLP004 for next time. I've noticed you doing a few comparisons. didn't you do one with the trappist red as well?

The Trappist is still a work in progress vs s-04

Ah I see. you'll have to keep us informed of your verdict matey

Well had a few glasses of this tonight. My god it's good! Very well rounded already (it's only 14 days old!). Very complex coffee, roasted flavors. Just the right bitterness so as not to distract from the malts. It has just the right amount of carbonation to have the mouth feel of a draft pint (it has been dispensed from a corni with a dalex tap).

the past few brews I have done have been a little lacking in body. Not this one, it has a coating, warming body that wants you to finish the glass and pour another!

It's that good I think I'm going to have to either put it away in the garage until Christmas................................or brew another one and finish this quickly to free up some keg space:oops:

Nice! I might give this one a go as my next Stout....(and I need to brew another one. Just enough time left before Christmas!)

Well done getting that Expanded Foam disk to float on top!!
That looks mighty nice

I hope my Black Dog Stout comes out looking as good as this!

Well having just had a little lift of the corny this is almost gone! It was on of the best stouts I have every had. I've got 20L of 4 shades for over Christmas but in the mean time I'm gonna get another one of these on the go ASAP. Definitely recommend this to stout lovers!

You can't beat a good stout I need to make my Rye Stout again that was a winner!!