Seymour Chocolate Milk Stout

[Jocky]

Just to drag this one back up again to get some advice about using Windsor in a stout.

It sounds like you wanted it to finish up with a FG around 1.016 but it ended up at 1.024 and then took two months to clear up. Would you do anything differently with the recipe next time? Any recommendations on fermentation temperature?

While bulk aging did you rack the beer off of the yeast at all, or just leave it there, and what did you do temperature wise for this phase?

Personally I'm not intending a milk or sweet stout, but ideally I do want my beer to finish up around the 1.016 to 1.018 mark so there's a little sweetness/body to balance out the roasted notes I want to have in there (from roasted barley). I'm using dry extract which my experience seems to show causes a slightly high FG anyway, so I'm thinking I'll not bother with the lactose, but certainly have some sugar in there like your recipe to get the Windsor to dry out a bit.

[seymour]

You'll obviously have less of a gravity problem than me, simply by eliminating lactose, but I'd still recommend mashing at a lower temp than you customarily do. Other than that, nothing special. It's a tasty English ale yeast, for sure. As always, I still recommend some unmalted oats, wheat, and/or barley for improved head retention, lace, and mouthfeel.

Good luck!

[timothy]

Graciously partaking in one of these Seymour Chocolate Milk Stouts as we speak! I have only recently developed a taste for stouts in general, but this one is delicious. Extremely smooth, not super sweet. Like iced coffee with a splash of milk, and silky chocolate flavors. I'd drink at least a couple of these a week if I had them around, which is saying a lot for this non-stout drinker.

[seymour]

Thanks mate! Glad you liked it. Can't wait to trade for some of your upcoming brews.

You are officially the first Jim's member to drink and comment on a beer I personally brewed.

[Matt12398]

There's a little bit of me that thinks Seymour may have developed a dual personality and you are in fact the same person.

[seymour]

There's a little bit of me that thinks Seymour may have developed a dual personality and you are in fact the same person.

First rule of Jim's Beer Kit Fight Club is: you NEVER talk about it...

[seymour]

November 2012:
And now for something truly different:

I've been experimenting lately with making sour small beers from my spent-grains. I mean, why not? It's being disposed either way. This time, I let my spent Chocolate Milk Stout mash tun "ripen" for three days. Reminder: it contained a small percentage of aciduated malt to hasten the souring. I then added a few hops to the mash tun, sparged again with 3 US gallons (11.3 L), stirred-in 2 lbs golden brown cane sugar to OG 1.048. No boil.

Finally--and this is the really crazy part--I pitched dregs from a mate's delicious wild fermented beer, plus dregs from my seriously sour Imperial Berliner Weiss, plus a wild yeast I cultured from Bulgarian juniper berries, plus a small Duvel bottle culture. It's a whole zoo of microorganisms, but I'm very excited to taste this experiment in a month or so.

Bump.

I just learned that Republic Brewing Company, a revered microbrewery in the Pacific Northwest, is fermenting a beer with this sour culture of mine and they may include Seymour in the name of the beer. Pretty cool.

I still have bottles of my own Chocolate Sour, which just keeps getting weirder and weirder, but very tasty. I have two jars left of the yeast trub, one of which developed a lambic pellicle as some of you predicted. Weird science, man!

[timbo41]

Ultimate accolade and well deserved mate

[jmc]

Congratulations Seymour.

I still have 3 gals of a version of your sour chocolate milk stout. Must be ready for bottling by now.

ATB John

[seymour]

I still have 3 gals of a version of your sour chocolate milk stout. Must be ready for bottling by now.

Oh, how cool! I forgot about that. Did you do the same kinda thing: a standard batch plus a sour beer from the second runnings? What did you use to ferment it? How's it tasting?

[jmc]

I still have 3 gals of a version of your sour chocolate milk stout. Must be ready for bottling by now.

Oh, how cool! I forgot about that. Did you do the same kinda thing: a standard batch plus a sour beer from the second runnings? What did you use to ferment it? How's it tasting?

Excuse repost

Summary info from previous posts to this topic and current pic below

(Late Dec 2012)
Sour mash..
I left grain in sealed mashtun but covered grain in plastic to inhibit acetobacter.
After a day in cold garage (7C) nothing seemed to be happening to mashed grains, so I added 100g Acid malt + 500g pale malt to up the lactobacillus.
Still nothing happening so I moved to somewhere a bit warmer a pulsed a bit of heat (handy feature of Lidl boiler / mash tun) to raise to 30C. I then left in a warmer place and temp seemed to stay in 20C -> 18C range. Day before mash moved to garage again

I mashed the soured grains yesterday., i.e. 7 days after previous mash. Prior to mash had a taste, a bit of lacto bite and odd taste but not gross.

I planned a 65C 60min mash to convert the added grain, I used Brewzor calc app to raise estimated 8.3 Kg of wet grain from 10C to 65C. 14L @ 90C liquor added. Liquor just treated with 7cc 1% sod met.
This raised to 60C (I must have under-estimated amount of water absorbed by mashed grain). I increased temp to 64C using Lidl heater.
Not converted after 60mins, probably due to low % unmashed grain / enzymes and low pH ~4
After 3 hours just about converted.
Remembered this was no boil and had forgotten hops so I made a 'hop tea' with 1 pt boiling water & 20g Cluster pellets. After 15mins poured gently on top of grain . Hopefully grain will filter.
I ran off to spare 5gal bucket. Wort run off OG=1016 & fairly clear.

After 3 gal / 13.5 L produced. After 1 Kg Billington's Demerara added OG raised to 1039.

Not Boiled. Left to cool to 26C then yeast starter of Duvel + Oude Krieke / Geuze dregs added

After normal clean up, copper mash tun manifold & silicone pipe used boiled in LIDL boiler for 20 mins to zap any remaining bugs.

(Mid January)
After 2 weeks in spare bucket at around 23C, I transfered Lambic Sour Stout to 3 plastic DJs (old Ashbeck spring water bottles).
Lots of lambic activity on surface when I transferred. It had got down to 1006.



Pic from today, nearly 6 months from starting. Pellicle on all 3.

[seymour]

Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder. Sure looks delicious. Cheers!

[jmc]

Woah, great post! Keep us posted on how it ends up tasting.

After 2 weeks in spare bucket at around 23C, I transfered Lambic Sour Stout to 3 plastic DJs (old Ashbeck spring water bottles).
Lots of lambic activity on surface when I transferred. It had got down to 1006.



Above picture was from a week ago. DJs all now have bug layer on surface.
Not sure how long to leave it in DJs before bottling but my try to leave at least 1 leave until after summer.

Just an update on this.

Its been a year so I bottled 2 of the DJs last night. Both had 1/2-1cm thick pellicle on top of the brew.

I could taste the chocolate malt, and of course it was very dry with lots of acidity but to be honest I was unimpressed.
It tasted a bit thin and one-dimensional.
It had lots of acidity but not as acid as say a Drie Fonteinen Oude Geuze.

I'm hoping that good carbonation and chilling will make it a refreshing chilled pint.

I think the acidity needs more alcohol / flavour to balance against..
If I did it again I'd brett a stronger version with more malt, no sugar and maybe some lactose to balance the brett. (I wonder if Brett would eat the lactose after a year though). I'll update when I taste in a couple of months.

[seymour]

Bump.

Here's a link to the Republic Seymour Magic Hat Wheat Ale fermented with my wild yeast blend herein described. Yum.

[mozza]

That is awesome!!!!!