Modified Stout recipe with extract

airiccc · 12-27-2010, 02:22 AM

I'm a winemaker and I'm trying to learn more about brewing beer...
Without having to invest much initially I'd like to do a few extract brews before I justify the expense of all the equipment I'll need for all grain.
Here is what I was thinking, I just need someone to tell me where I've gone wrong.
I love big high gravity stouts, Avery Mephistopheles, 3F Dark Lord, Goose Island Bourbon County, Bells Batch 9000. I get it, I'm never going to replicate these with extract but I want to come as close as I can with it.

OG on these beers (from my research) is about 1.13ish which in my language is around 30 some odd brix... FG lends itself to a finished beer with a tinge of sweetness.
My plan was to take a russian imperial stout kit from Brewers Best (which ive made before) and add dark DME to around my desired OG with no other real changes. I have experience with yeast starters and high gravity yeast which I intend to use.

Once the beer is around my desired Brix or SG I will move it to my freezer to stop the fermentation, filter it into a secondary where it will age on french oak chips soaked in bourbon, along with cocoa nibs for an added touch.
After I deem the infusion satisfactory I plan to do a final and tighter filtration into a corny keg where it will finish.

Please help me with any suggestions or concepts that I'm totally missing.
I do wonder about stability as well... In winemaking, sulphur dioxide is used as an anti-spoilage agent relative to the pH of the wine, do brewers use SO2 or KMS for microbial stability as well or do they rely on sanitary practices only?
Thanks

Calder · 12-27-2010, 03:37 AM

Use plain/light/Pils/Golden LME or DME rather than dark, and maybe steep 4 ozs each of Roast Barley, Crystal 60, and Chocolate. You don't know what they did to get the extract dark.

Use a couple of lbs of cane sugar to help get the gravity. Feed it as a syrup after the main ferment is mostly done (at about 6 days). The yeast will be better off with a lower gravity wort to begin with. Using sugar will help you get closer to your target gravity.

sugar will add 45 points, or 9 points per gallon in 5 gallons.

You want to start at 1.130? You are going to have a hard time ending lower than 1.030. That's 76%. Using some sugar will help as it is 100% fermentable. I don't think you will want or need to stop fermentation early. It will probably end up sweeter than you want anyway. Let it ferment out. You will need the yeast to carb in the bottle anyway.

I would recommend going for something around 1.090, and trying to end around 1.020. Use a pound of sugar to help get there and a high attenuating ale yeast. That will get you 9% alcohol.

For stability/keeping. Just prime, bottle, and it will keep for a couple of years.

No need to filter. It will clear just fine.

HexKrak · 12-27-2010, 03:50 AM

+1 on using light LME + some nice roasted steeping grains.

Also, when making a higher gravity beer with extract (at least in my experience) you won't be needing to stop the ferm before it finishes too dry, but rather trying to get the yeast to eat enough of those sugars for the beer to be quaffable.

Personally I wouldn't use any table sugar or cane sugar, just use more base malt or extract to bring it up to the desired gravity. Also to do anything above ~1.070 you'll want to make a good strong yeast starter.

When it has made it into the bottle, don't worry when you taste it after a week and it's not enjoyable. The general rule of thumb on these things is that with the higher gravity the longer you'll want to let it condition/age.

airiccc · 12-27-2010, 12:25 PM

I intended on force carbonating in a corny keg to avoid having to rely on yeast for bottle carbonation. I was going to just leave the keg in a dark corner for a few months before I tasted it because it has been my experience (like you have mentioned) that beer needs time to relax once its been finished.
My reasoning for stopping the fermentation was because I intend on using a high gravity brewing yeast capable of tolerating a 25% alcohol content so I wanted to stop it before it finished dry because a high gravity beer without a little sweetness wouldn't be good (I would imagine.)
I appreciate the comments on the dark extract, I will definitely use something else. Whether or not its more extract or cane sugar or both I haven't decided yet.
Has anyone had experience with the high gravity yeast culture from www.morebeer.com?

Calder · 12-27-2010, 09:29 PM

You will still need a big starter with that yeast. Probably easiest to make a beer of around 1.045, and pitch this one on the cake.

That yeast will not ferment any lower than another yeast. It is just more alcohol tolerant, so you will be hard pushed to get better than 75% attenuation.

Adding sugar rather than extract will help lower the FG. Extract is only about 75% fermentable, while sugar is 100% fermentable. But don't overdo the sugar. For example: 1 lb of DME (or 1.25 lbs of LME) will add 9 points to the OG, and leave between 2 and 3 points on the FG. While 1 lb of sugar will add 9 points to the OG, but none on the FG. Substituting 2 lbs of cane sugar (that's a lot, but this is a big beer) will be about 15% of the sugars (of a 1.130 OG beer), and will leave you with an FG about 5 points lower than if you used malt extract.