Brewing a mephistopheles inspired beer.

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looneybomber

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As taken from this thread, I am about to brew this beer and wanted to keep notes about the process in case it turns out great or horrible...a year from now.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/mephistopheles-stout-41966/

Picked up all of my ingredients from Northernbrewer and my LHBS.


Fermentable Ingredients:
-7lbs Maris Otter
-3lbs 2row
-1.66lbs Belgian Aromatic
-1.5lbs English Roasted Barley
-1lb Belgian Special B (bought 2lbs on accident, so I could add more)
-0.5lb English Black Malt
Gravity subtotal = 1.070 (70% efficiency, 5.25gal batch)

-6lbs MO (LME) +0.040 pts
-2lbs Corn Sugar +0.017 pts
-2lbs Turbinado Sugar +0.017pts
Gravity total = 1.144
If I can get 85% attenuation out of WLP099, it will finish at 1.022.

Hops (had to make some substitutions for what I had on hand)
2.00 oz. Northern Brewer (pellet, 8.5%) 90 min.
2.00 oz. Magnum Whole (pellet 14.7%) 90 min.
1.00 oz. Willamette (pellet, 4.5%) 20 min.
1.00 oz. Willamette (pellet, 4.5%) 10 min.
0.50 oz. Willamette (pellet, 4.5%) 5 min.
IBU total = 105

This is going to be my first partial mash and my game plan goes like so,
1) create 3L starter of WLP099 (Thurs night [tonight])
2) mash all grains, boil, chill, wort in fermenter.
3) Hydrate and pitch T-58.
4) Chill, decant, and pitch WLP099 starter.
5) Add 6lbs LME
6) Add 2lbs corn and 2lbs turbinado sugar.
x) Aerate once or twice after fermentation has started
x) Use twice as much nutrient (1tsp of Wyeast)

My options go as follows,
1) Brew the beer tomorrow (Friday), pitch T-58, and aerate when signs of fermentation start. When the krausen begins to fall, add the 6lbs LME, add another dose of nutrient, aerate, and pitch WLP099. Add sugar incrementally when fermentation slows.

2) Brew the beer Monday, pitch T-58 and WLP099, aerate in about 12hrs, add LME when gravity reaches ~1.030 or whenever the krausen begins to fall - whichever comes first. Aerate, add another dose of nutrient, and add sugar incrementally when fermentation slows.

I think option 2 is my best bet so I can get both yeasts to grow. I want to get the estery Belgian like flavors from the T-58, but I need the 099 to finish the beer off. I think if I pitch 099 days after T-58, I won't get enough growth out of it?

For the yeast nutrient, does it all have to go into boil, or can I add some later with my addition of LME?
 
WLP099 starter is now sitting in the fridge. Hopefully it will be ready to decant in 30hrs, otherwise I will pitch it around 36hrs (when I wake up the next morning).

My 20gal tubs are partially filled with water, chilling outside (won't get above freezing between now and brew night), for use to put my boil pots in. Yes I said pots because I will end up using a 5 and 7gal pot to complete my boil. This will allow me to use more water and increase my efficiency. I think with the additional 6lbs of LME and my multiple sugar additions boiled with water, I will end up closer to 6gal of beer, so I will need my efficiency up to get the more flavor from the grains.
 
I added .5lbs of special B to the recipe and 5oz of chocolate wheat I had sitting around. Figured what the heck.

Had a hell of a time mashing this. My 7gal pot with 5gal of water at 159 and my 5gal pot with 3.25gal of water at 180 I thought were going to work well for me, but I couldn't fit the bag (16lbs of grain) in my big pot with the false bottom. I took out the false bottom and could no longer use the burner to heat my mash water. That said, My mash temp went from 147 down to 143 by the time I was done. Because of the low temps, I mashed longer, closer to 100min by the time I was able to get the bag pulled out.

My 5gal pot of sparge water overflowed when I tried to put the bag in, so I had to transfer my wort to a bucket so I could dump my strike water into the 7gal pot. I put the false bottom back in, heated the water to 190 and found out that was not hot enough. I kept stirring the grain, but only got it up to the mid 150's. I kicked the burner on high and sitrred frequently, keeping the lid on when I could. Eventually I got up over 170, shut the burner off, added 2qts of warm water to cool it and get all the grain covered, and let it sit there 12min before I could get the bag pulled out.

So what I thought would take me right at 90-100min to complete (mash and sparge), was well over 2hrs. (time frame, I started heating water just after 8pm, and finished scrubbing clean my last item around 4am)

Currently about 30min into the just over 2hr boil. I gathered 7.25gal of 1.056 wort so my boil is going to be a little longer. On the bright side, that puts my efficiency about 74% and I was anticipating 70%.

Side note: I have two pots boiling on the stove. My windows are pretty foggy.

*edit* It's 3:53am, both yeasts are pitched, wort is at 69º and sitting in my 53º garage. The kids will be waking me up in about 3.5hrs, so I figure I can move it inside if it's cooled down. I am aiming for 64º.

I boiled off too much water so I shortened the hopped boil to 85mins.
I decreased the hops a tiny bit to make up for the increased boil volume.
Magnum 2oz, 85min
Norther brewer 1.8oz, 85min
Willamette .8oz 15min
Willamette .8oz 5min

After pouring in the drippings from the grain bag that sat draining in a pot, it added enough sugars, combined with the extra boil-off to give me a wort gravity reading of 1.095*. I was anticipating 1.070. But that said, I have almost 5gal of wort right now, so I don't want to add a gallon to bring it back down to around 1.070 just in case it dilutes the flavors too much. Maybe when the kids wake me up, I'll boil a half gallon of water to pour in? In any case, coming in 25pts over clearly indicates I need to practice more partial mashes.

I chilled the two pots in icey tubs of water outside. I lost track of time cleaning, but somewhere around 25-30min I checked on the wort and it was down around 50º. I warmed on the stove (a tiny bit too much) to get to pitching temp.

*edit 2 at 9am 1/15*
Went to check my wort temp in the garage (which was now 48) and the thermometer read 88. What the heck!? Then all of a sudden it read 93, then 91, and now says 100 just sitting on the counter. I'll try some new batteries to see if that helps.

*edit 3 at 8:45pm 1/15*
My gravity reading of 1.095 is wrong. My hydrometer measures just over 1.000 in water at 68deg. So it's reading .002pts high right? That should put my gravity at 1.093.
 
I will use this post to keep track of events chronologically.

1/15 @ 03:50: Pitched T-58 and WLP099 starter (decanted)
Temp: 69
Gravity: 1.095* with just under 5gal (*1.093, my hydrometer is off)
Put fermenter in cool garage.
@ 09:00: Checked temp, thermometer broken. Put fermenter in kitchen (69deg) because it felt cool.
@16:00: Took gravity reading. Failed because there's too much crap (hop material and foam) in the testing tube for the hydrometer to float right. It looked like it might have been between 1.060-1.070.
Temp: 66
@ 16:30: Added 1.5qts water because my gravity, initially, was too high due to too much boil-off. That should put my OG at 1.086.
@ 18:45: Aerated for 1.25hrs. The fish pump didn't put out much air, so I let it run while I worked out.
@ 20:00: Temp 68. Moved fermenter to my basement closet (59deg)
@ 22:50: Temp 66.

1/16 @ 08:30: Temp 63.
@10:30 Attempted to take a gravity reading, but there was too much crap in solution, so I poured the wort/beer through a paint strainer into another fermenter.
@ 15:30: Temp 65. Gravity 1.054
@ 15:36: Just broke hydrometer. LHBS won't open for another 25hrs
@ 22:15: Temp 66. Gravity 1.044 (I super glued the top of my hydrometer back on)
@ 23:40: Temp 68, gravity 1.060 (Boiled ~3lb LME with 16oz water. Cooled and poured in fermenter.)

1/17 @ 08:30: Temp 66, ambient temp 54
@ 15:40: Temp 64. Gravity 1.039. Wow, 21pts in 15hrs. Warming up my next LME addition.
@ 16:45: Temp 67. Gravity 1.061. (Boiled the rest of the 6lbs of LME with 12oz water)

1/18 @ 08:30 Temp 63
@ 11:00: Temp 62, Gravity 1.044
@ 12:30: Temp 66, Gravity 1.052 (added 1lb turbinado with 12oz water)
@ 15:45: Temp 69. Put fermenter back downstairs.
@ 21:45: Temp 67. Gravity 1.046

1/19 @ 04:30: Temp 65. Gravity 1.040. I then added 1lb of corn sugar, but didn't have time to take a gravity reading. Slight H2S smell and very little krausen/foam. Once pouring in the sugar, I instantly had 3-4" if foam. Stired gently for a minute.
@ 19:00: Temp 68. Gravity 1.040. It ate 1lb of dextrose in <15hrs.
@ 20:50: Temp 70. Gravity 1.050. (Added 1lb turbinado and .25lb light DME I had with 8oz water) Definitely a sulfur smell when I stir in the sugar addition.

1/20 @ 04:30: Temp 69.
@ 19:30: Temp 66. Gravity 1.038
@ 20:30: Temp 65. Gravity 1.046 (last 1lb dextrose addition) Sulfur smell decreasing a lot.

1/21 @ 04:30: Temp 68.
@ 22:30: Temp 71. Gravity 1.035 More sulfur than before. 13.9% AbV at this point

1/22 @ 20:30 Temp 69. Gravity 1.033 Not much sulfur smell, no krausen either.

1/24 @ 23:00 Temp 69. Gravity 1.032. 14.3% AbV according to Brewersfriend.com

1/26 @ 20:30 Temp 70. Gravity 1.032 maybe 1.031.

1/27 @ 19:30 Temp 70.

1/28 @ 22:00 Temp 72. Gravity 1.032 maybe 1.031. That yeast is done.

2/1 @ 21:30 Racked to carboy with 2oz med toast oak chips and 1oz whiskey (all I had in the house). I had enough left over to pour myself a glass and it tastes way too hoppy (to be expected) and I think a tad sweet. I may try to ferment this again and drop a few pts. in the future.

2/6 @ 21:00 Temp 66. Gravity 1.029 or 1.030. Dropped 2pts? I've been watching it release little bubbles constantly since I racked it. I assumed it was off gassing. Bad news, I thought the yeast might still be wanting to work, so I used a stir stick, which caused it to release a lot of CO2 and overflowed out of the carboy. Probably lost 4-5oz beer and probably half an ounce of chips?
 
I'll use this post to keep track of all liquid additions.

Starting wort volume 4.8Qts
+ 48oz water (1/15 @16:30) to lower starting gravity.
+ 16oz water & 32oz LME (1/16 @ 23:40) 1st malt addition.
+ 12oz water & 32oz LME (1/17 @ 16:45) 2nd malt addition.
+ 12oz water with 1lb turbinado. (1/18 @ 12:30) 1st sugar addition
+ 8oz water with 1lb turbinado and .25lb light DME (1/19 @ 20:50) 3rd sugar addition
= 6.05 gal. So let's call it 6 gallons.
 
Doing a little math to find gravities, here's what I've come up with. Double check for errors.

1.093 @ 4.8gal = 1.074 @ 6gal.
6lbs LME = 35pts
2lbs Turbinado = 15pts
2lbs corn sugar = 15pts
.25lb DME = 2pts
-------------------------
= 1.141 OG with 6gal.
 
I pitched my yeasts around 4am Tuesday morning. By Saturday at roughly 9pm, I had the equivalent of 6gal of 1.124 wort go to 1.040. So 84pts in 113hrs. Is that too fast?
 
Well, I dropped 1pt in two days. Looks like my yeast is calling it quits? I would still like another 8 or 9pt drop, but not sure how to go about doing that.
 
WLP099 starter is now sitting in the fridge.
a17.jpg
 
Looks like my yeast is calling it quits? I would still like another 8 or 9pt drop, but not sure how to go about doing that.

Is new/more yeast required, or do you think I ran out of fermentables?
 
I swirl it multiple times a day. Temps have been pretty steady at 69 for the last few days. Can't really figure out why I didn't get good attenuation with WLP099. I was actually worried it was going to dry too much.

*edit*
Just took a temp reading. Been at 70 for 24hrs now.
 
Just took a temp and gravity reading. 72 and 1.032. Unchanged for 4 days. That yeast is done.

Will pitching a new starter of WLP099 get it going again? Looking at the recipe posted in the first post, I finished drier than what Evan! did, but I only got about 77-78% attenuation instead of the 80-85% whitelabs claims.
 
I decided it wasn't worth fighting with this beer to drop more pts. I racked it to a 5gal carboy with 2oz med toast oak chips and 1oz of whiskey. I would have used more whiskey, but the last time I looked, I had quite a bit more in my bottle. I think my wife and her friend must'a got into it.

I had enough left over to fill a 12oz bottle and get about 7-8oz in my glass I am currently drinking. It's not too bad for a way young, uncarbed beer. The hops are too much and it tastes a tad sweet. Maybe I should try to ferment this again and drop a few pts...

I'm amazed I lost nearly 1gal of beer. There was a huge sludge pile at the bottom of the fermenter.
 
Just took a gravity reading and I might have dropped 2pts after I thought the yeast was done. Could that be due to the oak for any reason? Did my yeast maybe wake up a little bit due to the racking?
 
Took another gravity reading, still at the 1.029/.030 mark from weeks ago.

Finally adding pics.
This is a 5gal paint straining bag. It's pretty full...


Trying to mash said bag full of 14.67lbs of grain.


Taking an impossible gravity reading due to all the crap still in suspension. That wort was later poured through another sanitized paint strainer bag when it was time to aerate. Took forever to drain, but I did filter out a LOT of hop material and other bits of grain particles.


Using a 1gal wine jug to make the 3L starter of WLP099


Warming up the 6lbs of marris otter LME for the 2nd malt addition.


Here is all of my collected beer. I knew it was going to overflow the carboy, so I had the sanitized thing next to it ready to catch whatever was left. I used that to fill one 12oz bottle, letting it (hopefully) carb with whatever viable yeast was still in suspension.
 
Well, I cracked open my test bottle to see how it tastes. I call it my test bottle because it was my left overs after racking 5gal on oak chips.

It carbed naturally with some sugar in the bottle and whatever WLP099 was in suspension. That said, if I would have added more sugar to my original beer, I could have gotten that AbV higher and dried it out a tad, but maybe next time.

I'll attach the picture tomorrow, but it produced about 2 fingers of head with a gentle pour (chilled only 2hrs). It tastes great, but it is not a Meph clone. I haven't had a Meph in a month or two, but I know for sure this is not the same. This is sweeter (as evident by the final gravity), has more mouth feel, and doesn't have the alcohol bite that meph has. Flavor wise, I'd need a Meph next to me in order to taste these back to back to distinguish the different flavors between the two.

So while this is NOT a good clone of Meph, it is a stout that I would be proud of had I put the recipe together myself. I will put this beer on my list of "house beers" and continually brew it. For next time, I will sub out some of the Marris otter grain for some sugar in order to get my attenuation higher, but I'll keep with the MO LME from northern brewer since I have yet to move to AG.
 
Just a quick update. I bottled this beer just a tad over a week ago after being on oak for pretty much 3mo. I even added more med toasted oak chips 2mo into it. That said, I think it's OVER oaked. It has a bit of a burnt and tannin flavor that is just a bit too much. I hope that dies out with age.

When bottling, I added the priming sugar and a rehydrated packet of EC1118 to the bottling bucket. I tried to keep it close to 70 degrees the whole time with the exception of a two day period when it was around 66. I got stupid with the heater. Currently, the one plastic bottle I used shows some firmness, so that means I am getting some carbonation. I hope the 1118 stays strong and carbs this beer!
 
Just a quick update. I bottled this beer just a tad over a week ago after being on oak for pretty much 3mo. I even added more med toasted oak chips 2mo into it. That said, I think it's OVER oaked. It has a bit of a burnt and tannin flavor that is just a bit too much. I hope that dies out with age.

When bottling, I added the priming sugar and a rehydrated packet of EC1118 to the bottling bucket. I tried to keep it close to 70 degrees the whole time with the exception of a two day period when it was around 66. I got stupid with the heater. Currently, the one plastic bottle I used shows some firmness, so that means I am getting some carbonation. I hope the 1118 stays strong and carbs this beer!
 
Trying this one again. I think I'll do it every spring.

The 2013 batch did not carb, so I will not age this one in secondary, but instead, bottle it a few days after reaching terminal gravity. Then I will suck up some slurry at the bottom and drip some of that into each bottle from the 2013 batch.

For 2014:
-1lb 6-Row
-2lb Roasted Barley
-1.66lb Aromatic
-1lb Special B
-1lb Briess Extra Special
-9oz Briess Black malt
-4lb DME (light) added at 10 min
- 1 tsp Wyeast nutrient at 10 min

Mashed (BIAB/steep) with 3gal starting around 165 dropping dropping to 150 over 2.5hrs while I was at class. I added 1/4 tsp of Amylase enzyme. I sparged with 1.5gal. It was either that, or wait 3 wks to brew.

Hops:
-2oz Magnum added preboil (then boiled 100min)
-2oz Northern Brewer added preboil
-1oz Northern Brewer at 40 mins.
-1oz Williamette at 15 mins.

I boiled nearly 5 gal. (7gal pot, stovetop)
Added all 3L starter of WLP099
Added rehydrated T-58 along with WLP099 starter

After losses and spillage, I ended up with 4.5 gal of 1.064 wort.

In the future I will add 6 lbs DME, 3lbs turbinado or maybe just 2lbs. We'll see. That will get my OG up near 1.140, but in order to finish below 1.025, I may sub out a pound of DME for .75lb sugar.
 
Just going by memory here.
-I kept the fermenter in the basement that stayed around 62-64 the whole time. So wort temps were likely a little warmer. Perfect!
-I added the 6lbs of DME along with another dose of yeast nutrient.
-Around 1.040 I started adding 1lb additions of sugar boiled with 16oz water.
-I added 1 addition a day, for 3 days (3lbs)

Doing some quick OG math.
4.5gal + 48oz = 4.875gal (Dang, really wanted more!)
4.5 gal at 1.064 = 1.060 with 4.875gal.
+ 6lb DME = 1.112 with 4.875gal
+ 3lbs Turbinado = 1.139 with 4.875gal.

I just took a gravity reading and I'm at 1.023

If that's right, then I am just over 15% AbV, which is close to a Mephistopheles and more than enough! I'll check the gravity again in a cpl days.
 
Ahh good news. Bottled up my 2014 batch. Finished at 1.018-1.019 (using a $6 hydrometer, so that's as close as I can eyeball), but I had a little over 5 gal in my bottling bucket, so I had about 5.25gal in my fermenter. So, redoing my math to find my original gravity, my OG was right near 1.132 instead of 1.139...and maybe a little lower since it finished right at 85% efficiency.

Using 1.132 instead of 1.139, my AbV just hits 15% which is higher than I wanted, but my taste sample was very roasty and not very jet fuelly, so I'm excited to try this. No oak aging for me since it messed up my ability to carb last time.
 
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