Storage of stout !!

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AlDaviz

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Hi All
I’ve ordered the ingredients to make a stout, but is it best to store in a glass demijohn to age. Or bottle after fermentation ??
I was planning on ageing with oak soaked in Glenfarclas whiskey for a couple of weeks then transferring to a glass demijohn until November before bottling for Xmas.
But would I need to add more yeast to carbonate ??
Any comments or advice much appreciated.
 
Why not split the batch and soak some of it on the oak and bottle the rest. My experience is that aged beers tend to take ages, even 3-4 months to condition after they are eventually bottled. Unless you add a bottling yeast, and even then...
My "Christmas Citra" (10% abv) bottled early September wasn't drinkable until the end of February!
 
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How strong is this stout you're making? Unless it's really high abv then ageing shouldn't be necessary beyond a few weeks in the bottle. Putting it on the oak for a couple of weeks means you probably do want to transfer it off the primary yeast, but even then you could ferment for a week then add the oak and bottle after 3 weeks (timings approximate). I'm not used oak before so this is just a guess from reading.
 
Hi Guys,

I watched a vlog earlier and the guy made a 10% Stout which he said he was going to bottle then leave for 6 months to age. Is it just to get a better flavour? Whats the reason for ageing?

Advice appreciated! Cheers,

Daryll
 
How strong is this stout you're making? Unless it's really high abv then ageing shouldn't be necessary beyond a few weeks in the bottle. Putting it on the oak for a couple of weeks means you probably do want to transfer it off the primary yeast, but even then you could ferment for a week then add the oak and bottle after 3 weeks (timings approximate). I'm not used oak before so this is just a guess from reading.
Looking about 10%
That’s the plan transfer for a couple of weeks with the oak to secondary, but not sure if best to store in a demijohn or just bottle, suppose if I bottle I can then sample a bottle every month !!
 
Hi Guys,

I watched a vlog earlier and the guy made a 10% Stout which he said he was going to bottle then leave for 6 months to age. Is it just to get a better flavour? Whats the reason for ageing?

Advice appreciated! Cheers,

Daryll
I’m same just hear people say there gonna leave for 6 months, but now guessing it’s down to your own taste !! After a month or even a few weeks you might thinknit tastes good, if not as I said you could leave and try once a month to see if it changes, trial and error !-)
 
There's a thought that bulk ageing helps the beer to mature quicker/better but it's all anecdotal. Some like big stouts younger, others older, having them in a bottle means you can try then over time and see which point you like best. The only beers i tend to bulk age now are sours which are still slowly fermenting so can't be bottled safely.
 
I bought a10L Carboy back in November last year and used it age part of an Old Peculier clone (8%) that I bottled (and put in Carboy) on 8th December 2018.

A bit later- early March this year, I brewed a Dark Porter (6,7%), I bottled 12L (23 March) and added the OP clone out of the Carboy, mainly because I could not face the faffing with a bottling yeast. Also, just basically pouring the stuff out the Carboy into the bottling bucket containing the OP was a lot easier for me in my then condition (broken left shoulder).

So this means I had 10-11L of the OP in storage for about 15 weeks and blended it with a fairly strong beer at bottling. I think the blended beer tastes better than either the original OP clone (drunk ages ago - I like this recipe!) or the Dark Porter. So maybe there is something in this bulk ageing.

Next into the Carboy will be a Barley Wine - 10L brewed 18 April, with a view to being drunk sometime in 2020.
 
I bought a10L Carboy back in November last year and used it age part of an Old Peculier clone (8%) that I bottled (and put in Carboy) on 8th December 2018.

A bit later- early March this year, I brewed a Dark Porter (6,7%), I bottled 12L (23 March) and added the OP clone out of the Carboy, mainly because I could not face the faffing with a bottling yeast. Also, just basically pouring the stuff out the Carboy into the bottling bucket containing the OP was a lot easier for me in my then condition (broken left shoulder).

So this means I had 10-11L of the OP in storage for about 15 weeks and blended it with a fairly strong beer at bottling. I think the blended beer tastes better than either the original OP clone (drunk ages ago - I like this recipe!) or the Dark Porter. So maybe there is something in this bulk ageing.

Next into the Carboy will be a Barley Wine - 10L brewed 18 April, with a view to being drunk sometime in 2020.
Yes think I could do with buying a couple of 10L carboys !! But I do have a 19L that I was planning on storing all the stout after a couple of weeks of ageing with the oak and whisky.
I’m now thinking of just bottling this time instead of adding to the carboy.
 
I have decided to go big around 12kg of grain, so planning a reiterated mash !! Ordered items from Maltmiller split into 2 halves in my order / example 2x 500g crystal, 2x 3500g pale malt etc. All turns up added together. 1kg bags of crystal and other malts + a 3kg and 4 kg bag of pale malt. So now I have to split and re-weigh, not good if I was gonna use these items for different brews at different times and I wanted to keep the bags sealed !! I’ll mail and have a word I think
Thanks for all your advice, I’ve only been brewing for around 8 months and all going good
 
I have decided to go big around 12kg of grain, so planning a reiterated mash !! Ordered items from Maltmiller split into 2 halves in my order / example 2x 500g crystal, 2x 3500g pale malt etc. All turns up added together. 1kg bags of crystal and other malts + a 3kg and 4 kg bag of pale malt. So now I have to split and re-weigh, not good if I was gonna use these items for different brews at different times and I wanted to keep the bags sealed !! I’ll mail and have a word I think
Thanks for all your advice, I’ve only been brewing for around 8 months and all going good
12kg of grain sounds like a lot, even for a re-iterated mash. The second mash does not "behave" the same way as the first one, that is for sure!
If this is your first re-iterated mash, you may try a slightly smaller grain bill?
 
12kg of grain sounds like a lot, even for a re-iterated mash. The second mash does not "behave" the same way as the first one, that is for sure!
If this is your first re-iterated mash, you may try a slightly smaller grain bill?
It was either reiterated or I’d need to drain the GF and then do second mash and then combine to boil ??
I made a Dipa and added grapefruit a few months ago came out about 8% abv, the figures I’d calculated (can’t remember how now) said it should of been higher !! So it might be better to do 2x mashes and just add together to boil the wort ?? Any thoughts ??
 
In "Radical Brewing" p135 Randy Mosher recalls the description of the technique as "a waste of both grain and men".

Both approaches - reiterated mashing or combining the first runnings of two mashes will give very poor efficiencies with 12kg in the GF.

Parti-Gyle, where you use the first runnings from a 7-8kg mash for a strong beer and then add more water for a second mash is another approach. This is described in Radical Brewing at P201.

This thread contains all my ramblings on the subject:

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/parti-gyle-brewing.68729/
 
In "Radical Brewing" p135 Randy Mosher recalls the description of the technique as "a waste of both grain and men".

Both approaches - reiterated mashing or combining the first runnings of two mashes will give very poor efficiencies with 12kg in the GF.

Parti-Gyle, where you use the first runnings from a 7-8kg mash for a strong beer and then add more water for a second mash is another approach. This is described in Radical Brewing at P201.

This thread contains all my ramblings on the subject:

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/parti-gyle-brewing.68729/
I did already read the post you added for the Part-Gyle style brew that fullers use found it quite interesting. More I think about it, the more logical it sounds !
 

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