Bottle ageing a stout. Advice please.

[treebeard]

Good morning font of knowledge.

I am planning my first stout. I have a recipe that I have adapted/tweaked for BIAB with UK malts. My question is; I would like to age this in the bottles until next Christmas. My recipe is below, does this look like a good candidate for ageing and what sort of temperature would be ideal to store the bottles at.

My second question is; I am estimating the brew to be over 7% ABV, is one packet of yeast enough or should I perhaps use one and a half.

Any help and advice would be very much appreciated :thumb:

 

[Dutto]

A Yeast Starter would solve the problems and get you fixed up for the future. Check out this video ...

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhFerNTwbQ[/ame]

If you can't be bothered then I suggest that you use 2 x 7gm packets of yeast.

With regard to bottling a stout, I am waiting for an Oatmeal Stout to finish fermenting after over three weeks. It stuck at 1.024 after two weeks and even now (a week later) it's still showing signs of fermentation. (i.e. there is still a bubble sat at the tip of the bubble-tube.)

The problem for me is that I want to bottle the stout and keep it for up to a year so I must know that it has fermented out BUT the BrewersFriend system reckoned that the FG will be at 1.016 (I suspect due to the non-fermentable sugars in the toasted flaked oats) so it probably won't get down to the usual 1.011/1.010.

I'm in no hurry so I will wait at least another week before checking the SG again. If it's below 1.016 and there is no sign of fermentation, then I will bottle it and check a bottle a week whilst living in hope (as usual)! :lol:

 

[treebeard]

I will bottle it and check a bottle a week whilst living in hope (as usual)! :lol:

Thanks Dutto :lol:

 

[Slid]

I would use US 05 for a stout myself and this would be 85% attenuation, so over 8% ABV.

For a beer that is going to be stored for 10 months or so, a high ABV is probably desirable. Myself, I have done two such and both were horribly over-primed by December of the brewing year. Hence my suggestion of using a high attenuation yeast - maybe even a Belgian yeast @ 90% plus.

The sort of beer you are describing ~ 7-7.5% might be at its best around 6-9 months from pitching?

 

[dad_of_jon]

Good morning font of knowledge.

I am planning my first stout. I have a recipe that I have adapted/tweaked for BIAB with UK malts. My question is; I would like to age this in the bottles until next Christmas. My recipe is below, does this look like a good candidate for ageing and what sort of temperature would be ideal to store the bottles at.

My second question is; I am estimating the brew to be over 7% ABV, is one packet of yeast enough or should I perhaps use one and a half.

Any help and advice would be very much appreciated :thumb:

1 packet re-hydrated can do the job no problem dependant on the yeast in question of course. I've done 21 litres of 8%+ beers using be-256, fermentis abbye, various mangrove jacks yeasts. (saison, belgian strong ale, etc) Something that has high alcohol tolerance and doesn't drop out too quick.

 

[dad_of_jon]

with the lactose the sweetness will remain, so it will age well at 7% plus. As others have said overcarbination can be an issue. I have no temp control for bottles so underprime my 6-9 month aged beers that pass thru a summer.

I#ve found my dark beers go through a licorice phase at around 9 months so I drink them around 3-6 months or leave them for 12 months.

 

[Saisonator]

I wonder why stouts are prone to overcarbonation?

 

[chthon]

Wouldn't a higher IBU also not be a benefit for something aging a year? I made a RIS last year, with an IBU of 50. Hop bitterness does diminish when aging. An IBU of 30 looks a little bit on the low side.

About overcarbonation in stouts: I did find a scientific article about dark malts (should look it up after the weekend) which seems to point in the direction that dark and roast malts have a negative effect on the metabolism of yeast. I would suppose that overcarbonation could be because of bottling too soon, in that the yeast keeps working but slower. I bottled my RIS only after two weeks fermentation, then racking it to secondary, and then bottling only 4 weeks later. I wanted 2.4 volumes of CO2, and that seems to be the case. My RIS survived the summer, the north side of my garage is used to stock my beers, I do not have a cellar.

 

[Ajhutch]

I heard once (I believe it was a Dr Homebrew episode) that beers with oats in them are more prone to oxidation effects than all barley, so that’s something to bear in mind for a beer you want to lay down for a while.

 

[ExpatBrewer]

I am estimating the brew to be over 7% ABV, is one packet of yeast enough or should I perhaps use one and a half.

According to Brewers Friend yeast pitch calculator:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/
...you'd need 33g of dried yeast i.e. around 3 x 10 or 11.5g pkts of yeast. Anything else according to the calculator is an under-pitch. In practice however, I've gotten away with less and still witnessed a healthy fermentation.

I've done 21 litres of 8%+ beers using be-256, fermentis abbye

I used BE256 twice recently an on both occasions it failed to even attenuate to 80%... not sure why? The beers turned out fine, both Belgians and very Belgian in their flavour profile. Not sure you'd necessarily want that in a stout? :hmm:

Nottingham would be another possible choice.

 

[dad_of_jon]

According to Brewers Friend yeast pitch calculator:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/
...you'd need 33g of dried yeast i.e. around 3 x 10 or 11.5g pkts of yeast. Anything else according to the calculator is an under-pitch. In practice however, I've gotten away with less and still witnessed a healthy fermentation.

I used BE256 twice recently an on both occasions it failed to even attenuate to 80%... not sure why? The beers turned out fine, both Belgians and very Belgian in their flavour profile. Not sure you'd necessarily want that in a stout? :hmm:

Nottingham would be another possible choice.

be-256 tried to strangle me in my sleep. :-o

I use candi sugar in my brews maybe that's what annoyed it so much it wanted to kill me

 

[ExpatBrewer]

I use candi sugar in my brews maybe that's what annoyed it so much it wanted to kill me

My 2 brews got a dose of plain sugar at around 7%. I was to tight-fisted to buy candy sugar and far too lazy to bother making it myself! :)

 

[Dutto]

I wonder why stouts are prone to overcarbonation?

Maybe the brewer thinks it has fermented out when it hasn't?

After two weeks in the FV and no sign of a bubble from the blow-off tube for four days, I fully expected the SG on mine to be well below the 1.016 predicted by BrewersFriend.

A hydrometer is definitely a "must have" when brewing! :thumb:

 

[treebeard]

I would use US 05 for a stout myself and this would be 85% attenuation, so over 8% ABV.

For a beer that is going to be stored for 10 months or so, a high ABV is probably desirable. Myself, I have done two such and both were horribly over-primed by December of the brewing year. Hence my suggestion of using a high attenuation yeast - maybe even a Belgian yeast @ 90% plus.

The sort of beer you are describing ~ 7-7.5% might be at its best around 6-9 months from pitching?

Thanks Slid. US 05 is usually my go to yeast, however, my reasoning for choosing the Liberty Bell is because it's a top fermenting yeast and this strain produces light, delicate fruity esters and helps to develop malt character.

The consensus seems to be store for around 6 months or so. I am brewing this next weekend so lots to think about. :thumb:

 

[treebeard]

with the lactose the sweetness will remain, so it will age well at 7% plus. As others have said overcarbination can be an issue. I have no temp control for bottles so underprime my 6-9 month aged beers that pass thru a summer.

I#ve found my dark beers go through a licorice phase at around 9 months so I drink them around 3-6 months or leave them for 12 months.

Thanks dad_of_jon. I have a beer fridge I can store them in during warmer weather, I will underprime a bit anyway I usually do. I think I'll do the brew and see what the FG is, if it's anything less than 7% I'll re-think the ageing time.:thumb: