Grinder12000

Recipes 

I used 8oz of two different coffees (4oz of Sumatra for flavor at flame out and 4oz of Kona for aroma as a Dry "hop") in a stout. I was told that the coffee flavor which is WONDERFUL after 2 weeks bottled will fade over time and the chocolate (4 oz of two different kinds) will take over with age.

SO - what I'm trying to say is the coffee character will be strong in the beginning but fade over time.

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Grinders Island Brewery - Pipeline (Batch #)

Secondary Kentucky Common(83)
Primary #1 Scottish Ale 70(84)
Primary #2 The Black Pearl Porter(85)

Bru

Recipes 

I brewed a couple of days ago - everything went well. Ended up with OG of 1.061. I split the batch - S-04 in the one and US-05 in the other. The US-05 was already down to 1.020 in two days and tasting excellent.

But...I was expecting it to be black (being a stout) and its turned out dark brown - milk chocolate kind of brown.

In noOby terms - at what stage, in SRM, does brown become black ?
Is a stout considered "out of style" if its not black ?
Considering the recipe - was this to be expected ?

kanzimonson

Recipes 

When you say it's brown, what sample are you looking at? Because your hydrometer is going to look much lighter than a glass of beer. I brewed an imperial stout a couple weeks ago that was just dark brown in the hydrometer flask. Of course, in the carboy it's black as a tire. Let it completely finish fermenting before making a judgement on the color - yeast reflect light and make it seem lighter.

I generally feel like above 30 SRM is black, though when held up to a light you might get some ruby-brown highlights at the edge of the glass.

Here's a link to the BJCP stout guildelines: http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category13.php

You'll notice that some of the styles tolerate some colors that are slightly less than black. Just wait 'til it's fermented, cleared, bottled, carbonated, and sitting in your drinking glass before you start worrying about the little things!

Bru

Recipes 

Great - thanks.

Also - Ive got vanilla paste that I was considering using instead of a vodka soaked bean. The ingredients are vanilla bean, glucose, ethanol, xanthum gum and glycerine.
Is there reason not to add xanthum gum and glycerine ?
It would be in very small quantities.