lspr_mtu

Recipes 

Hey all,
I'm new to brewing and for my third batch I tried the breakfast stout partial grain kit from Northern Brewer.

Ingredients: http://www.northernbrewer.com/docs/kis-html/1591.html
Instructions: http://www.northernbrewer.com/docs/html/extract.html

The brewday went fairly smoothly, and the only real abnormality I think might be worth mentioning is that I tried using a nylon funnel filter when transferring from the brewpot to the primary, and I had a bear of a time with the filter clogging up during the trasnfer. I had to poke my finger in there and scrape the filter continuously as I poured the cooled wort into the bucket. This problem will be rectified for further batches as I am purchasing a huge stainless double-mesh strainer (14" baby!).

Other than that, everything went very smoothly. Oh, and I aerated the wort by dumping the wort between the boil pot and the primary about 14 times, but haven't tried the aeration stone method.

So now I have this beer that doesn't really taste all that "bad", but it isn't what I expected and I'm very dissappointed with the lack of "stoutiness". I originally went for the breakfast stout because I feel in love with Founders' version and wanted to try something similar. Although I didn't expect an exact match, I at least expected a strong, dark stout that I can feel in my nose as I drink. I'm not sure what I have, but it isn't as dark and opaque as I expected, and it is very weak by stout standards. But like I said, it is drinkable and actually enjoyable. (I wish I had the palet and vocabulary to explain it better than that. I need to find out where I can take some beer tasting classes.)

The other note is that this is my first time kegging, although I let it condition and carbonate naturally - but I wouldn't think that would affect taste too much at that point.

So I guess I'm just looking for clues on which aspects of the process or ingredients you think I may be lacking. If you have a more fullproof stout (any kind) recipe or kit for me to try and some brewing tips, I'd like to keep on trying until I get it right. I'm a stout-lover at heart and just don't see myself continuing brewing long-term if I can't even turn out a good stout every once in a while.

On another note I've found that, unlike my first two batches, I'm no longer getting as much of the homebrew/yeasty flavor the first couple sips of a glass of beer since I switched to kegging. I'm assuming all that flavor is floating on the top portion of the keg and will probably come out the last few glasses of the batch. Oh yeah, I used an electric stove for the boil. I don't have a problem getting 2.5 gallons to boil with my setup, but it's definitely nowhere near the point where I'm concerned about boil-overs. Is there any benefit to aggressive vs calm boil? I figured a boil is a boil.

Thanks for any help you can give. You guys are awesome - I can't believe how much knowledge there is in the collective community here. Cheers, and sorry for the long post!

Hell Brew

Recipes 

I think the problem is that this a low gravity beer so if you were expecting something you could chew on it just won' t have the body that you were looking for. Try something with a 1.050 gravity or bigger. This one is designed to not get you hammered, it is more of a session beer.

lspr_mtu

Recipes 

Something else I should mention: This batch, like the previous two batches, was bubbling fairly aggressively the morning after brewday, and all have seemed to finish up within about 2-3 days. Is this okay, everything I read says it should be 5-7 days. However, I haven't heard anything yet that suggests a quick primary is any better or worse than a long, drawn-out primary - assuming full fermentation happens and the wait isn't so long that other "bugs" get first dibs on the wort.

Hell Brew

Recipes 

It was a fast fermentation because of the low gravity. There just isn' t as much sugar in the liquid so the yeast have a easier time of going through it. I would still leave it for at least a week just to let the yeast finish cleaning everything up.

Also on your kegged beer having less yeasty taste you probably pulled almost all the yeast and floaties off in you first couple pints. They tend to settle to the bottom.

Hell Brew

Recipes 

One more thing never trust the bubbles in the airlock for checking fermentation. Always use a hydrometer to check the gravity. That is the only way to be sure it is done fermenting.

lspr_mtu

Recipes 

If you are talking about viscosity, I really wasn't expecting anything too thick, like a guiness or something. I expected it to pour and feel like maybe a bock. I guess I can try to describe the taste that I think is missing as a strong coffee and a bit of smokiness, especially in the nose. The bear I ended up with had none of that, and had more of a "classic" taste with little/no distinguishing features - but still an appropriate balance of sweetness/biterness - maybe just a tad on the sweet side.

I didn't expect a lot of head, but I did expect the head that was there to be very tan, or even more towards brown - it was much lighter than expected.

Hell Brew

Recipes 

Oh, I thought you meant that it had no body to it. I' m not really sure maybe it does not have enough chocolate or black patent malt?? Maybe someone else could help out.
EDIT: Nevermind it has no chocolate or black patent malt. Maybe that is why it does not have the roastiness you wanted.

lspr_mtu

Recipes 

I've used a secondary on all my batches. This one I had sitting for a good 4 weeks after transferring it to the secondary. I figured as soon as there is no more danger of krausen clogging the airlock, it is ok to rack to secondary. Is that valid reasoning, or am I off?

Admittedly, I did forget to check the final gravity both a racking to secondary and prior to kegging. I assume it's too late no that the beer is carbonated to get a final reading.

Didn't know that yeast settled at bottom - for some reason I thought live floated and dead sunk. Good to know.

Hell Brew

Recipes 

You really don' t even need a secondary unless you are dryhopping or it is a huge beer that needs to age. You could even think of your keg as your secondary, and once you cold crash the keg everything will eventually drop to the bottom.

lspr_mtu

Recipes 

This is an example of my lack of ability to explain taste. Is body a physical characteristic (like viscosity) or is it taste. When I hear something described as having full body, I interpret it to mean a fullness of flavor profile (a little bitter, a little sweet, spicy, etc.) It sounds like you're describing body as a physical attribute like viscosity (hence the "beer you can chew" remark).

To summarize, the beer was about where I expected in terms of viscosity, but not in terms of color, flavor, and smell. It just didn't have that kick that I was looking for.

Looking at the ingredients list, I don't see any chocolate or black patent malt (unless that what the munich malt syrup is). I don't know, does this even look like a breakfast stout recipe to anyone out there - or do I need to try a different source?