£10 Xmas Stout!

[Monkeybrew]

I picked up a Wilko Dark Velvet Stout kit and 1kg of Muntons BKE back in their amazing half price sale for a total of £8!

Tonight I have knocked up an Xmas stout with a difference (close your ears Ditch), as it's been hopped up with some Amarillo pellets to hopefully give it a festive twist

Here is my recipe-

Xmas Stout

Brewlength - 15.5L
OG - 1.050
1.5kg Wilko Dark Velvet Stout Kit
1kg of Muntons BKE
25g of 2012 Amarillo Pellets 10.1%AA - Boiled for 1min and then left to steep for 30mins.
25g of 2012 Amarillo Pellets 10.1%AA - Dry Hop
Yeasts - 1 x 6g kit yeast (silver TGB pack) & 1 x 7g Coopers Ale/Lager mix
Ferment @20C




I have added the additional Coopers yeast because I am not really sure how good a quality the kit yeast is, and the spare Coopers Ale/Lager sachet that I've got, goes out of date in December so I thought WTH lets brew with a Tri-strain yeast!

The wort smelt more plum/prune than citrus, but pretty awesome all the same

MB

[LeeH]

Sounds yummy!

[twentyfootwilf]

I reckon it'll be fine and brewed short should be a nice bodied and flavoursome stout. A bit of choccy malt might go well with it too.

[Monkeybrew]

I reckon it'll be fine and brewed short should be a nice bodied and flavoursome stout. A bit of choccy malt might go well with it too.

I did toy with the idea of some Chocolate Malt, but as I've brewed it 7.5L short, I thought that it would be rich enough.

Whatever happens, I'll end up with 30 bottles of stout for 10 quids worth of ingredients

MB

[neilmcca]

That looks superb,
i've recently started to experiment with adding hops to kits with some really good results, although i haven't yet tried Amarillo,
i've still got plenty of the "Simply" export stout kits from the Homebrew online sale, they need to get used soon, their best before was last month (i know i can ignore that for a while yet),
I might try something similar with Chinook instead, and Willamette to dry hop, do u think that would work ? (i've got both those hops in my freezer good to go)

Neil.

[Monkeybrew]

Hey Neil

It's hard to advise you what to do, as this is the first stout that I've hopped like this, so don't really know how it's going to end up. Also, I haven't used Chinook or Willamette yet.

There's only one way to find out matey

MB

[neilmcca]

There's only one way to find out matey

MB

Thats all the encouragement i need, cheers fella

[Monkeybrew]

Less than 24hrs in, and it's going for it!



There was an almost constant venting of CO2 when I checked on it earlier this evening

MB

[Monkeybrew]

As this brew has gone from loads of blow-off tube activity to barely any on day 6, I've checked the gravity and added the dry hops.

The gravity is now at 1.012 (5.1%).

As I've given up drink in October, I could only sniff at the sample, and tbh it only smelt yeasty with a slight sulphurous aroma from the Coopers lager yeast.

Because the initial Amarillo addition appears lost, I've ramped up the dry hop from 25g to 45g (3g/L) in a bid to impart some of the lovely tangerine aromas that I was smelling tonight from the weighed out hops, into this stout.



MB

[Monkeybrew]

The gravity has been constant at 1.010 (5.4% ABV) for 5 days, so this brew is getting a couple of days of crash cooling before it gets bottled and kegged on Thursday.

No idea what it tastes like, but the samples smelt pretty good

MB

[Monkeybrew]

Roll on 2 months time

MB

[twentyfootwilf]

You can't beat a bottle of full bodied stout, wish I could join you in a bottle!

[Monkeybrew]

I crumbled last night, and tried a bottle at a little over 2 weeks old!

I primed low at 2.5g/L, so got a short gentle hiss on opening the bottle.

I then poured from a slight height to induce the head, but after this head hung around for the whole pint.

The aroma is all Amarillo goodness with lots of tangerine. The first sip was quite a surprise, really smooth body, no dark malt flavour, but just loads of complex fruits.

On the plus side it is really drinkable now and smooth, but I would have expected a bit of stoutyness to come through, but maybe that will come with time as the Amarillo mellows a bit.

I'm certainly not disappointed, because it was amazingly drinkable and not over bitter, and certainly didn't strike me as being 5.4%



Cheers

MB

[6470zzy]

I have just read through this thread and quite enjoyed it, thanks for sharing the brew with us I hope that you will give us another taste test once we get closer to Christmas to see how the stout matures.

Cheers

[widdersbel]

I have just read through this thread and quite enjoyed it, thanks for sharing the brew with us I hope that you will give us another taste test once we get closer to Christmas to see how the stout matures.

Cheers

Thanks for bumping the thread. This sounds right up my street so I've bookmarked it for future use. Too late for this Christmas but I'm tempted to make some in the New Year and set it aside for next Christmas...

(Also plan to try Ditch's stout at some point as well, of course.)