Home Brew Forum

Brewed November 2, 2013—National Teach A Friend To Brew Day—outdoors at St. Louis Wine and Beermaking store along with 8 or 9 other homebrewers. The day started chilly but turned very pleasant. By the time the sun was up and all those batches came to a boil, our jackets and hoodies came off. We all had a lot of fun, answered questions and demonstrated for interested customers, shared some great bratwurst and brews, and each went home with a big ol' batch of beer. What's not to like?

One thing I definitely notice at these kind of events, club meetings, etc, is that we homebrewers can all sometimes come across as insufferable know-it-all jerks! I guess that's always the risk when you're really passionate about something, but I'll take this opportunity to apologize to anyone whom I've rubbed the wrong way.

Of course I realize stout is a UK style. And I intended this recipe as a complex, mainly English or Irish-styled Foreign Extra Stout (BJCP 13D), but I only got a disappointing mash efficiency of 73% (OG 1064 instead of the desired 1072). Since it contains American base malt, as well as distinctly American flavours from Victory and Crystal Malts, Chinook and Ahtanum hops, I'll pretend I was aiming for American Stout (BJCP 13E) all along. I figure my poor efficiency was a result of rushed mashing and rushed sparging, and an outdoor parking lot isn't exactly a controlled environment to begin with, but oh well, 6.6% ABV is still pretty big. I'm extremely happy with the aromas and hydrometer tastes so far. If you were to brew this recipe, expect an even bigger beer. In any case, it's bubbling away in the cellar as we speak (with English yeast of course!) I can't wait to "get amongst it."

I forgot to bring my camera, but there were several photographers taking pictures for Facebook pages, etc. So if I end-up finding any pictures, I'll repost them here later.

SEYMOUR AMERICAN STOUT
all-grain recipe

5.5 US Gallons = 4.6 Imperial Gallons = 20.8 Litres

GRAINBILL:
59.7% = 7.95 lb = 3.6 kg, Two-Row Pale Malt (US)
7% = .93 lb = 422 g, Steel-Cut Oats (US)
7% = .93 lb = 422 g, Briess Victory Malt (US)
7% = .93 lb = 422 g, Muntons Black Barley (English)
5.7% = .76 lb = 345 g, Crisp Pale Chocolate Malt 200°L (English)
5% = .67 lb = 304 g, Weyermann Beechwood-Smoked Malt (German)
2.8% = .37 lb = 170 g, Brown Malt (English)
2.8% = .37 lb = 170 g, Toasted Buckwheat (Russian)
1.5% = .2 lb = 89 g, Aciduated Malt (German)
1.5% = .2 lb = 89 g, Crystal 80L Malt (US)
Total weight: 13.3 lbs/6 kg (+ .5 lb/227 g Rice Hulls, non-fermentable, simply used to prevent stuck mash)

I struck the grainbed which was ≈ 60°F/15.6°C with 4.4 US gal/3.7 Imperial Gal/16.7L water ≈ 165°F/73.9°C to reach single-step mash temp. Stirred-in a sprinkle of Calcium carbonate. I mashed at 151°F/66°C for 70 minutes, confirmed conversion was complete with an iodine test. I vorlaufed and sparged for about 45 min to collect 6.5 US Gal/5.4 Imperial Gal/24.6L pre-boil. I added a sprinkle of gypsum (Burtonization?), it took another 15 min to come to a boil, then boiled for 60 minutes. I then chilled, drained to a fermentor bucket, used a Ditch-style drill-powered paint-stirrer to aerate, then pitched my yeast blend. It was visibly fermenting several hours later.

HOPS:
1 oz = 28.3 g, Chinook, First Wort addition
3 oz = 85 g, Hallertau, 30 min
1 oz = 28.3 g, Strisselspalt, 10 min
.5 oz = 14.2g, Ahtanum, at flame-out, steep until chilled

YEAST:
an English ale blend, my work-in-progress

STATS (assuming 73% mash efficiency and 84% yeast attenuation):
OG: 1064
FG: 1010
ABV: 7.1%
IBU: 70
COLOUR: 48°SRM/95°EBC, opaque black, reddish at the edges, with tan foam.

Nice post seymour, hope it turns out good for you. That is one hell of a list of ingredients!

I've been planning a US style porter/stout using the leftover hops from my three planned pale ales I'm going to brew in the coming weeks. Although it'll have all uk malts, the hops and us05 should make it more american I'd think

Hanglow wrote:Nice post seymour, hope it turns out good for you. That is one hell of a list of ingredients!...

Thanks man, I hope so too.

Hanglow wrote:I've been planning a US style porter/stout using the leftover hops from my three planned pale ales I'm going to brew in the coming weeks. Although it'll have all uk malts, the hops and us05 should make it more american I'd think

You're probably right. The "American Stout" classification seems mainly a Foreign Extra Stout strength, but with stronger/grapefruitier American hops balance. Good luck on your brew as well!

I found some pictures:


Dough-in





Set-up and crowd shots



Vorlaufing



Batch sparging



Allright...listen up, class!

top looking event that. really great to showcase different setups, styles and techniques for people - and cool for us to see those pictures and maybe get ideas too. hopefully someone else brewing there was able to convey also that you don't have to have a degree in math to compose a grainbill!

is there a "part II" reunion planned for four weeks later?

jaroporter wrote:top looking event that. really great to showcase different setups, styles and techniques for people - and cool for us to see those pictures and maybe get ideas too...

That's exactly right. I'm sure we brewers learned as much from each other as the customers did. I hope the store considered it a success, too. I personally bought some ingredients, as did most other brewers, and I spoke with several newbies who were going to buy a whole kit based on what they were seeing.

You guys should contact your local homebrew store to organize something similar. As incentive, the store usually provides food, free base grain, electricity and water hookups, use of their scale and grainmill, hoses and splitters, and begs a local brewery to share enough fresh yeast to go around. It's a lot of work but a lot of fun. When done right, it's definitely mutually beneficial to everyone involved. A rising sea lifts all ships, right?

jaroporter wrote:...hopefully someone else brewing there was able to convey also that you don't have to have a degree in math to compose a grainbill! ...

You mean a degree in delicious, right? No, I take your point. Next time I brew portable like this it'll probably be a 100% pale grainbill, for simplicity and maximum conversion.

jaroporter wrote:...is there a "part II" reunion planned for four weeks later?

There's no official reunion scheduled, but at least five of us are members of St. Louis Brews (get it? Like the song "St. Louis Blues"…yuk, yuk) so I'm sure we'll be sharing and swapping at upcoming monthly club meetings.

Here's my buddy Mike brewing a clone of this beer: The Bruery Smoking Wood - Bourbon Barrel Aged Smoked Porter We split his hydrometer sample, which was already crazy delicious. Mike also brought recycled American Ale yeast from Kirkwood Station brewery to share with everyone.



Another friend named Mike, who also happens to be our club president, brewed another batch of his award-winning IPA (containing Simcoe, Columbus, Chinook, Cascade and Centennial) on his fancy 3-vessel HERMS system. Earlier this year he guest-brewed it commercially, which is listed on Ratebeer as Alpha BeerMikester IPA



Kerth brewed a Düsseldorf Altbier:



I saw other guys brewing a Vanilla Porter and a couple Rye IPAs. A St. Louis Wine and Beermaking employee demonstrated on a cool Blichmann Top Tier tower system. The resulting IPA will be served on tap at the store.

Great post man, and great looking recipe! I've been thinking of an american stout recently! JOINK!!!!

An interesting grain bill to be sure. I am hoping that you will share a more detailed description of your English ale blend (yeast) with us, looks like a great brew day.

Cheers

6470zzy wrote:An interesting grain bill to be sure. I am hoping that you will share a more detailed description of your English ale blend (yeast) with us...

Of course. The heavy-lifting is done by the Marble/Gales strain, this is my third reuse of a bottle culture and by far the biggest part of the slurry.

I also enjoy the distinctly English fruity esters of Windsor and--believe it or not--Muntons (the plain, cheaper version, not Muntons Gold) dry packets, but find them a wee bit low-attenuating for my grainbills which always include lots of unmalted and complex ingredients. So, I've been breeding hardier, higher-attenuating, more alcohol-tolerant liquid versions of each by drawing yeast from the bottom of the secondary fermentor after lengthy aging. I figure the cells which survive to that point must be the strongest, especially after multiple repititions. So far, I've managed to keep the ester profile I like but increased overall productivity. Some of of those two strains were in the slurry too, so it's a triple strain this time. I haven't counted cells under a microscope or anything, though, so I have no idea what the ratios are each time.

I've been holding back some interesting bottle-conditioned English ales in my fridge, planning to culture their yeasts, but to be honest I haven't put the time and energy into it because I've been pleased with the results of common dry yeasts lately.

What do you qualify as "lengthy ageing" in secondary ?

leedsbrew wrote:Great post man, and great looking recipe! I've been thinking of an american stout recently! JOINK!!!!

That's great, go for it! Your recipe certainly doesn't need to be this complex. Guinness Foreign Extra is something like 80% Pale, 13% Flaked Barley, 7% Roasted Barley, then you could add a sh!tload of American hops for aroma. One of the most popular American Stouts is Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout, something like 67% Pale, 11% Dark Crystal 120L Malt, 11% Chocolate Malt, 9.5% Flaked Oats, 1.5% Roasted Barley with Cascade hops at 90 min and flame-out.

6470zzy wrote:What do you qualify as "lengthy ageing" in secondary ?

Well, the exact answer to that question is "however long it takes me to get around to bottling."

For instance, in my recent Seymour Dark Mild No.3, I brewed on Aug 25 and bottled on Oct 6. If I recall correctly, I racked to secondary after a week, which would mean it sat in secondary for a little over 5 weeks. That's much longer than necessary, especially for a mild, but chalk that up to my being busy or lazy more than any definite plan. It certainly led to high attenuation (so much so that it lacks the full body of a young mild, so I submitted it to a competition in the ordinary bitter category, although I resent that term "ordinary".)

you guys have missed the bigger picture! I've spotted a Ginger Bearded Seymour amongst that bevvy if brewers!
In brewing plumage!!!
That's going in the book.

great brew day, rare in these parts.
The American scene seems much more communal,....here it's normally sad little men in their sheds.

signed...sad little man in his shed!!

timbo41 wrote:,....here it's normally sad little men in their sheds.

signed...sad little man in his shed!!

lol! maybe but not alway fella! there is a thriving home-brew scene up here in Gods county (I mean Leeds/Yorkshire )

Although I will be brewing later........on my own.........in my shed! lol

timbo41 wrote:,....here it's normally sad little men in their sheds.

signed...sad little man in his shed!!

lol! maybe but not alway fella! there is a thriving home-brew scene up here in Gods county (I mean Leeds/Yorkshire )

Although I will be brewing later........on my own.........in my shed! lol

Great looking event! I was extremely sad to have missed it. While I was busy all weekend, I ended up sleeping most of the morning away anyways when I could have been brewing. Damn! Nice pics too. It's cool to see everyone's setup. Wish I could have been there to represent my low-brow tech for the newbies utilizing my single vessel mash/lauter/boil process, sans cooler or triple vessel setup. Ah, oh well. As usual, a great looking recipe. I like the usual addition of oats, as well as the toasted buckwheat and smoked malt. Should be nice and complex.

timbo41 wrote:you guys have missed the bigger picture! I've spotted a Ginger Bearded Seymour amongst that bevvy if brewers!
In brewing plumage!!!

LOL!!! Brewing plumage indeed.