I made a stout on Sunday. The O.G. is 1.1! That was even before adding the yeast starter. It's a small batch and the yeast starter was pretty big, so I am hoping for 10 - 12 % ABV. I think it will work out to about $1.50 per bottle. I love all grain brewing. To boot it smells like chocolate brownies. I think I will add a tiny amount of coffee - about 5 or ten beans - to the secondary.
Barry, I think you should invest in a 'Barley Crusher'. You can use a 3/8'' drill to power it, or a hand crank, but the drill works great. I found this out after having cranked a bunch by hand.
Also I racked Saturday's Pale Ale to the secondary today and I think my experiment with the sparge water temperature has payed off - no icky cider smell is present at all. We will see how it tastes.
My second try with the golden promise that I drove back to State College from a few weeks ago is still in the secondary and it looks fantastic. A nice orange or burnt sienna if you will. Hopefully I have three winners in the pipeline. I'm actually low on bottles at the moment.
On a previous brew (the Nugget/Golden Promise that tastes like apple juice after brushing your teeth) I tried to carbonate with 'sugar drops'. Doesn't seem to have worked. (At any rate the beer tastes pretty badly.)
Finally I talked to the brewer at Otto's. He said he'd sell me hops (he has centennial and cascade and nugget) for 7 dollars PER POUND! Online, hops run about $2.50/oz. And grain sacks for $35 per 50 pounds. I was telling him how much I like golden promise and he might order some for their next IPA. Maybe I can get them to make a Surly Furious.
Here's the recipe from the stout:
Malt bill:
2 lbs 2-row pale
1/2 pound Belgian biscuit
1/2 lb chocolate
3/2 lbs crystal 40L
1/2 lb crystal 80L
1/4 lb black
Strike:
2 gallons at 165F
Dough in 151F 1 hour
Sparge 5/4 gallons at 170F
Hops:
1 oz northern 1 hour
1/4 oz norther 30 minutes
1/2 oz cluster 15 minutes
1/2 oz cluster 2 minutes
Yeast American Ale 1056 (starter 1 cup pilsen malt, 1 pint water)
O.G. 1.1
Yield in primary
2 gallons
5 comments:
Have you thought about grinding the coffee and putting it in some type of teabag type contraption to let it steep a little more? i wonder if that might help cut some of the acidity that was in that other coffee batch?
I've also heard coffee during the cooling of the wort is ideal. Let me know how it works.
That hop deal is unreal. I am truly jealous.
Pete,
Do you get Founder's in PA?
I am going to try a different bean this time. I would think grinding would add to the acidity b/c of the higher surface area. I also read once that grinding the coffee heats it up and extracts more oils which leads to a burnt taste.
I'm definitely going to be very conservative with the coffee, because this beer has a lot of promise.
Does anyone know a low acidity coffee?
I think if you go to a hippy-type grocery store that has a bunch of coffee you can read the descriptions and find a good one.
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