Historical Beers 1956 Amstel Stout

[kevin58]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

Kveiking Imperial Yeast #A44

Yeast Starter

none

Batch Size (Gallons)

6

Original Gravity

1.071

Final Gravity

1.018

Boiling Time (Minutes)

90

IBU

35

Color

30

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

5 days @ 89° F

Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

none

Tasting Notes

Soft chocolate and coffee notes akin to an iced mocha. Flavors build with time.

I found this recipe on Ron Pattinson's blog, Shut Up About Barclay Perkins. Amstel is not a beer I know anything about except that they brew lagers. So it came as a surprise to see the word Stout attached to the Amstel name. I brewed this as soon as I read Ron's article which states that Stouts predated lager brewing in Holland. The recipe as posted in the blog used WLP830 German Lager yeast but it was warm out and I had some Kveik on hand and used that instead.

Grain Bill
93.3% Pilsner 2.0 SRM
6.7% Carafa III 525.0 SRM

Hops
1oz Hallertau Boil 90 min (13.5 IBUs)
1oz Hallertau Boil 60 min (12.6 IBUs)
1oz Hallertau Boil 30 min (9.7 IBUs)

Yeast
Kveiking Imperial Yeast #A44

Mash
Single Infusion 152° for 60 minutes

Packaging
Kegged and burst carbed and ready to drink within about a week but this beer gets better with 2 to 3 weeks of extra conditioning.

Simple grain bill. Simple hop schedule. Simple brew day but a beer that surprised me with a complexity of flavors that it really shouldn't have considering how... well, simple it is.

 

[BreakingBarley]

I’ve not used carafa before, does it lend a pale chocolate malt flavor?

Is the finished beer like a porter or something else?

 

[kevin58]

The first pour about a week after it was kegged was porter-like but as it aged it developed more chocolate and mild coffee flavors. The chocolate is a milk-chocolate character and the coffee is a coffee with cream added character. Nothing is harsh. The malt character is not in your face the way some Stouts might be and the hops are there but not overly bitter. At this point the porter comparison is out the window and even with all the milk and cream references I used it is not like a sweet stout either.