Can You Brew It recipe for Deschutes Obsidian Stout

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Brewed this today, woo hoo! I hit all my numbers spot on. Mashed at 150, ended up with SG of 1.072 for about 66.7% efficiency. I'm pretty excited about it. It's in my fridge now and I'm starting fermentation temp at 65 as Jamil stated, although that seems a little low for 002. I'll watch it close and ramp up as I need to. Any thoughts on that?

Overall it looks and tastes good so far. It's definitely black!
 
Here's an update on the brew. WLP002 is a silent MONSTER! I made a 2 liter starter, decanted and pitched Wednesday afternoon. By the next morning (Thursday) it was going pretty good. By the time I got home Thursday evening there was almost zero activity. Friday it had slowed even more. I was afraid I had a stuck fermentation. I check it Saturday and the krausen had already dropped and the top was almost clear. I'm a very patient brewer and trust my yeast but I have to admit I was getting a little worried even to the point where I was looking into how to rouse the yeast up and all kinds of other stuff. This morning I did what I was supposed to do and took a gravity reading. It was 1.016! Wow that thing fermented fast! My sample was very good also so I think this beer will turn out very well. I was surprised that this yeast would ferm out so fast. I started my temperature at 65 and by by Saturday had it to 68. I checked my sample temperature and it was right at 68 degrees. I went ahead and cranked the temp up to 70 now so if the yeast neeed to clean up anything they will.

I'm very pleased with how this beer is going. I'll leave it on the yeast for a couple more weeks and then keg it. We'll see how it goes!
 
Yea, it just kinda leaves you hanging! The White Labs website says that the optimal fermentation temperature range for 002 is 65 to 68 degrees. So I just ramped it up through that range. Not that I'm pretty sure I've hit terminal gravity I wanted to let it go up to70-72 for a week or two for the yeast to "clean up".
 
I kept hearing from people how great this was the first time I brewed it, so I am going to do another batch--this time with an 007 cake (instead of a Safale-04 cake). Sunday I am going to brew an English Brown for wifey to make that cake--then going to have at this one for the second time.
 
Wow, it's been 3 weeks on the gas and I just tried it. Wow! It's really good! A little drier than I thought it would be but not too dry. It finished at about 7.1 ABV. I've never had the real thing so I don't have anything to compare to. The roastiness is great, and the color is BLACK! The head is a nice light chocolate brown. Like I said, I can't compare it to the real Obsidian stout but I tell you what, I like it WAAYYY better that the Sierra Nevada stout I just had.
I've been drinking a lot of Imerial Stouts lately so I know my tastebuds are still thinking "Imperial Stout", so I'm trying to think NOT AS RICH.

I know the pictures not the greatest but it gives you a good idea. I really like it so far. Look like I'll do this one a second time for sure!

IMG_0736.jpg
 
Just brewed this as my first stout last night... Quick question - would this benefit at all from carbing it with beer gas. I have an extra cylinder that I came across... Would I need a special faucet or would a standard be ok?
 
Brewed this two nights ago. The only recipe mods were to use Nugget instead of Galena for bittering, and my homegrown Columbus instead of Northern Brewer for finishing hops. I had to post here because I'm excited about how well the 1968 strain performed. 1.060 -> 1.017 in less than 48 hours.

It was my first time ever repitching yeast; I've propagated multiple pitches from one smack pack before, but I'd never repitched. I have to say that the fermentation performance from repitched yeast is awesome. This Obsidian Stout fermentation is slowing down considerably--hopefully for good, since I don't want it to go much lower than 1.017.
 
Put in an order from Williams brewing and used this recipe as an excuse to pick some willamette, galena and W1968 ;). It will be my 3rd time brewing this recipe. Gonna put it on nitro again when finished.
 
Just brewed a modified version of this last night. I kept the same grain bill but changed the hops. I used an ounce of Magnum @ 90min, and then an ounce of Simcoe at 30 and 5 min. I pitched S-04 onto it, as I have been predominately using dry yeasts as of late. Hit my OG target at 1.067. Excited to see how it turns out. Cheers
 
Just brewed 10 gallons of this and I'm thinking about adding some american oak cubes to half of it.

Anyone ever do that with this beer? I'm also considering adding a little bourbon.

thoughts?
 
Make sure you steam the oak cubes first.

I soaked some in bourbon for a few weeks once and I am assuming mircrobes in the wood took my porter down further after bottling. It didn't gush, but was so overcarbed it was practically undrinkable until the bottle was left to sit for about an hour. With the the bourbon it was tasty though.

I would say use a little bourbon: say 1/4-1/3 cup at bottling. If you are too heavy handed with it, its going to be "too bourbon-y." Adjust to taste....some people really want the bourbon to stick out, others want it to be a subtle background note.
 
On another note,

Would anyone recommend any other yeasts for this beer? I am brewing this up this weekend and last year did it with S-04. I was thinking if I went with a dry yeast this time I may go with Nottingham.

If I went the liquid route, should I go with something like Wyeast 1318 (I have heard 1968 can be fickle)?
Also, I have a vial of ECY Scottish Heavy (Fruity esters, and some oaky notes) that may also be interesting to try.
 
Just brewed a 5 gallon extract batch of this...
This is a little more ashy and bitter than I remember with the Debittered Black. Had to sub Magnum for the bittering and Chinook for the 30 min and late addition. (1.067 O.G. 63 IBU's. Pitched ECY07 Scottish Heavy, which should make this super nice.
 
I just bottled this today. I hit the O.G. a little bit high at 1.069, but the F.G. was only 1.010. It tasted good, but I don't understand why the gravity is so low. I mashed at 149°F., pitched two packages of Nottingham (one of them had expired), and the yeast blew a huge amount of krausen into the blowoff bucket. It fermented at 62°F for a week and a half. The only variation from the C.Y.B.I. recipe was using Nugget for bittering. Does anyone know why this would have attenuated so much?
 
2nd batch of this-- the flavor of this beer is really nice--however, with Black Malt and 63IBU's it initially tastes a touch high on bitterness (last time I subbed debittered black and it seemed perfect that regard).

Deschutes says 55 IBU's for Obsidian and after tasting this rendition, I will lower it just a little to 55ish IBU's on the rebrew or maybe do a 50%black malt/50%debittered black malt version to compensate....

For now? I am going to enjoy this!
 
Hey,

First time brewing this recipe, probably tonight. I am planning to brew it straight up, with the following changes:

1. No wheat malt
2. Bitter with Columbus. Or Horizon or Magnum.

I am not too worried about the wheat malt. However, will the Columbus bittering mess up the beer?
 
All those will be fine - if a small amount of dank comes through it'll be tasty. I like Columbus, Chinook, and other dank hops in dark beers.
 
Thanks for the input. I realized those hops were about 5-6 years in the freezer(!), so I went with 1 ounce of Simcoe for bitters. I guess that should work, but I was saving those for an IPA....

I am excited...I added some clarity ferm to make it gluten reduced. Hopefully can share the goodness with my GF family members.
 
Brewed this yesterday with a couple mod's:

Wyeast 1335, mashed at 152 (started there), 0.6 lb roasted barley & only 1 lb. of plack patent.

Ended up with about 4.75 gallons at 1.078. I have to get a kettle with volume markings on it! I could dilute, but usually I regret doing that, so I'm just going to leave it go & end up more of an Imperial stout.
 
Bottled Saturday--unfortunately got an FG of 1.030! I'm guessing I didn't stir it up well enough when I mashed in. Got a new system (cooler-type) & not used to it--used to mash on the stove top. Fermented around 64-65F most of the time, maybe it was too cold for the Wyeast 1335?
 
I used a 1 qt. starter, although didn't add yeast nutrient. started up within 3-4 hrs.
 
Hmm, that's probably enough yeast, unless the pack was really old. Were you able to warm the fermentation as it wrapped up? They might've gotten lazy.

Even if your instruments were really off, it's still be surprised if mash temp was the problem. I also doubt dough balls were. How about your hydrometer/refractometer? Trustworthy enough?
 
I probably didn't let it warm enough for long enough. I let it ferment for 20 days, so I think it should have been done. Hydro Sample didn't taste buttery.

I'm going to check them (hydrometer & refractometer) tonight. Have both, so I doubt if that's the problem. I've had the hydrometer for many years. The refractometer does run about 6% high on wort vs. the hydrometer.
 
I see a lot of ppl are brewing this with black patent when the original post says black barley. I'm pretty sure these are not the same.

Black barley is unmalted. Where black patent is malted barley.

Am i missing something from the original post.
 
It does call for black barley "malt" which I take to be black patent malt, and not "roasted barley" which is unmalted
 
I think I read somewhere that Jamil clarified that it was supposed to be black malt and not roasted barley. There is also a small amount of roast barley in the recipe. Although if you listen to the podcast, the brewer called it "black barley".
 
I think I read somewhere that Jamil clarified that it was supposed to be black malt and not roasted barley. There is also a small amount of roast barley in the recipe. Although if you listen to the podcast, the brewer called it "black barley".


Thanks for the clarification.
 
It's drinkable, but not close to the original. Substitutions are partly to blame, but the high FG makes it too sweet. Oddly, the head retention is not that great (although my carb level was purposely less). I'm going to let it sit for a while & see how it develops.

The only cause I can think of for the high (1.030) FG was a high mash temp, possibly due to maldistribution. Unless water chemistry could be to blame (my water is low in Ca & Mg, about 100 ppm HCO3-).
 
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