Hopworks Urban Brewery Survival Stout Clone

SWMBO is a HUGE fan of the HUB Survival Stout and of course has been begging for me to brew something similar. Website lists:

Beer of the Ancients! Barley (Egyptian), Wheat (Mesopotamian), Oats (Egyptian), Amaranth (Aztec), Quinoa (Incan), Spelt (Mesopotamian), and Kamut (Egyptian)

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I've seen the Amaranth, Quinoa, Spelt, Kamut at local stores around town. Can I use these, or do they need to be malted?

You should be able to use them unmalted. You will have to conduct a cereal boil to gelatinize the starches and free them for the malt's enzymes. Just boil them according to their instructions and add the result to the main mash.

Cheers,

Bob

Thanks Bob. Anyone have any thoughts on quantities of these grains?

just had one last night (and several other great winter beers today at Amnesia). I was thinking of trying a stout like this as well. I'll bet Christian at HUB would probably tell you or at least point you in the right direction.

Nah, don't ask Christian. He's an elitist *******, only interested in himself. Anybody who knows him knows that.

I'm hoping the above was a joke, cause I actually did end up speaking with him about the stout. Though we didn't go into exact details, our conversation was helpful.

I was even able to swing by and grab some yeast from them as well.

that's interesting - all of my interactions with anyone at HUB have been no less than positive.

Did he give you any tips? I am interested in doing something along those lines. And the free yeast? That is pretty cool. Wonder what strain they use?

He said they use 1028 (london ale) for all their brews.

I'd have to go back and dig out my notes for the brew session, but he suggested starting out with the cereal mash being about 10% of your entire grain bill. Also they get an OG of about 1.060.

Dude.... I'm kidding guys. Christian is awesome. HE's one of the cooler brewers I've ever met.

good to know - I thought that sounded a bit strange.

BTW - how is the clone coming along?

Not so good to be honest. Came in with an OG of 1.045 or something crazy low like that. It was my first time doing a cereal step mash and had a heck of a time with hitting my temps. Then, I added way to much cold pressed coffee. It got dumped!

sorry to hear that. It sounds quite complicated - I may wait to get a few more under my belt before trying it.

Bumping an old thread here after tasting this stout again at HUB and wanting to alter the recipe for an oatmeal stout I was planning on brewing to lean a bit more towards the Survival Stout. Definitely not trying for a clone, just want some of that grainy goodness with oats and spelt, maybe quinoa. I'm going to skip the coffee.

I saw the info on 10% cereal grain and OG 1.060, but did Christian mention anything about hops? Website says 35 IBU, and it is firmly bitter but I think a lot of that is maybe perceived bitterness from the coffee. There is good hop flavor in there too and I want to try to get close to that.

I was thinking EKG and Willamette, what do you think?