Dark Cherry Stout form NB.

This kit will be my first experience with crushed grains and a full 5 gal boil. Should I steep at 150 f or just put them into my pot and heat it until 170 f and remove them? I use an outside burner (30K BTU) and it heats much faster than my stove.

Suggetions are welcome.

Specialty Grains

* 0.5 lbs. Simpsons Dark Crystal
* 0.5 lbs. Simpson's Roasted Barley
* 0.5 lbs. Simpson's Black Malt

Fermentables

* 3.3 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup
* 3 lbs. Dark Dry Malt Extract

Boil Additions

* 1 oz. Northern Brewer (60 min)
* 1 oz. Willamette (1 min)

Special Ingredients

* Cherry Extract (add at bottling)

Yeast

* Wyeast #1028 London Ale Yeast.

Usually you would add the crushed grains to the water when you turn on the stove (or heat). You would leave it till just about the water starts to boil. I'm not sure how fast your setup takes to boil. I'll have the grain in the pot for 30 or so minutes. My guess is you should keep the pot from boiling too quickly. You want to make sure you get your money's worth in the grain you know....

Jwedel said:

This kit will be my first experience with crushed grains and a full 5 gal boil. Should I steep at 150 f or just put them into my pot and heat it until 170 f and remove them? I use an outside burner (30K BTU) and it heats much faster than my stove.

Suggetions are welcome.

Specialty Grains

* 0.5 lbs. Simpsons Dark Crystal
* 0.5 lbs. Simpson's Roasted Barley
* 0.5 lbs. Simpson's Black Malt

Fermentables

* 3.3 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup
* 3 lbs. Dark Dry Malt Extract

Boil Additions

* 1 oz. Northern Brewer (60 min)
* 1 oz. Willamette (1 min)

Special Ingredients

* Cherry Extract (add at bottling)

Yeast

* Wyeast #1028 London Ale Yeast.

Click to expand...

If you have the patients, I would recommend mashing the grains in about 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain at 152-155 F (2 quarts of water should be close enough and do fine for this amount of grain)...

Raise the temp of the water to about 164 F and add the 1.5 lbs of grain (this should hit around 153 F if your grains are 74 F)...hold for 1 hour (can place in oven set at 150 F to help keep temp up) then remove/strain out the grains and add them to another 2 quarts of 168 F water for a few minutes to batch sparge... collect all this wort (just under 1 gallon for this batch) in your boil kettle, top up to your pre-boil volume, then continue on with your normal extract procedure... this will help get you started on mashing, and help prevent too much tannin extraction from the grain husks... I noticed that the "add all your grains to way too much water and leave in until they are way too hot" method that most beginning instructions tell people to use tends to leave a grainy flavor that isn't good for many styles of beer... however, it WILL still make a drinkable beer, so, no matter what, do NOT worry!!!

hope this helps a bit, but again RDWHAHB and make it the way you want!!!

later,
mikey

Oh, and this assumes you have a grain bag or some way of straining out the grain from the water... again, I think this will make a better beer, it may not, and YMMV etc.

let us know what you decide to do and how it turns out for you!!!

Thanks Mykel. I'll try the mini mash method. I have a grain bag so the procedure you mentioned sounds easy enough. BTW I am looking forward to AG brewing in the future.

I made the extract version of this NB kit a couple of times. My guests loved it. I thought it was ok, but something about the cherry flavoring didn't sit well with me. When it's young I thought it had a un-authentic medicinal flavor. On the other hand after about twelve weeks of aging, it was almost went unnoticed. If I was to do it again, I might spring for a cherry puree from Oregon.

Thanks for the info. I had planned on using the cherry flavor with caution.

I do not want five gal of cough syrup.


I brewed this beer tonight. I used the mini mash suggestion above now the wait is on.