And on to my most recent brew
I really, really like a pastry stout. Big, bold, mostly sweet flavours, of caramel, vanilla, chocolate, coffee, dark fruits, millionaire shortbread, honeycomb, all that jazz. So I thougt I'd try and make something ready for "Christmas".
I got the majority of the recipe base from
Secret Level Brewing - and then worked out that I had in stock to try and sweeten it up.
AG#35 Imperial Stout Base
Imperial Stout
9.6% / 22.2 °P
Recipe by
Secret Level Brewing
All Grain
70% efficiency
Batch Volume:
9 L
Boil Time:
40 min
Mash Water:
15.57 L
Total Water:
15.57 L
Boil Volume:
12.42 L
Pre-Boil Gravity:
1078
Vitals
Original Gravity:
1093
Final Gravity:
1020
IBU (Tinseth):
44
BU/GU:
0.47
Colour:
124 EBC
Mash
Temperature —
67 °C —
40 min
Malts (4.055 kg)
1.857 kg (45.8%) — Simpsons Pale Ale Golden Promise — Grain — 5 EBC
619 g (15.3%) — Oats, Flaked - Breakfast — Grain — 2 EBC
413 g (10.2%) — Crisp Low Colour Chocolate Malt — Grain — 550 EBC
412 g (10.2%) — Munich Malt — Grain — 17.7 EBC
274 g (6.8%) — Simpsons Aromatic Malt — Grain — 60 EBC
274 g (6.8%) — Simpsons Crystal DRC — Grain — 300 EBC
165 g (4.1%) — Crisp Chocolate Malt — Grain — 1045 EBC
41 g (1%) — Crisp Roasted Barley — Grain — 1200 EBC
Hops (66 g)
35 g (26 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 4.25% — Boil —
40 min
22 g (16 IBU) — Fuggles 4.1% — Boil —
40 min
9 g (2 IBU) — Hallertauer Hersbrucker 4% — Boil —
10 min
Miscs
4 ml — CRS/AMS —
Mash
0.9 g — Canning Salt (NaCl) —
Mash
0.08 g — Sodium Metabisulfite (Na2S2O5) —
Mash
Yeast
1 pkg — CML Four 73%
0.5 pkg — CML Midland 79%
Fermentation
Primary —
19 °C —
14 days
Notes
Brewhouse efficiency was really down on this one. Was pitching for SG of 1078 / 10% ball park, but pre-ferment SG was 1060 so we might end up with 7-8%
Hops (EKG) were marked on the www site as 6.0% which would be about right, but when they turned up they were marked 2.6% which sounds a bit low. So it's not clear whether they were actually 2.6 or whether it was a labelling issue.
Had planned to cold steep the dark grains, but as I decided to brew late, I didn't have the time to do this, so instead I added them halfway through the mash @ 20 mins.
The ferment didn't produce the krausen that I had expected. There was definitely some CO2 being released, but pretty much zero foam, so I had expected that this would finish very high, but less than two weeks in it had dropped to 1020 which was a surprise. I had a quick taste and I'm very happy with it at this stage.
I added a tincture of 3 teaspoons of vanilla paste in about 50-60mls of vodka about 9 days in.
I then 'dry beaned' with 150g coarse crushed roasted coffee beans for two days.
I might also add some lactose to sweeten it up even more, but having read a bit, it seems you can add this anytime, even after it's been in the keg.
Should be a good 'un.