First Chocolate Stout

[EZCyclone]

I just brewed my first stout on Saturday! Why did yours take so long to start fermenting? Is five days right? Mine started fermenting in like 5 hours or something, well started bubbling. The problem I'm having is that it stopped like two days later. this also was my first all grain batch, and I was just thinking I didn't have much efficiency to speak of. Now I'm hoping it's tricking me and it will fire back up in a few days! Also This is my first post!

Here's what I did.

2 gallon batch

1# chocolate malt
1# Caramel malt
1# honey malt
3oz (by weight) of coco powder.

In one gallon of water I had grains in a bag, and rested at 95-103 for an acid rest. Then rested at 150 for 1 hour. Next I drained the bag and moved it to a gallon of water in a another pot at 160deg. Stirred around and let drain. (This was my I think failed attempt to batch sparge) Next time I will put the grain over a colender and drain water over the grains and see how that goes.

OG was 1.040 brought it to a boil and added .25oz of Liberty hops for 60 min and added the 3oz of coco with 4 minutes left in that hour boil.

Cooled to 76.1deg and pitched a hole pack of US-05 which I had dissolved into 1/3 cup warm water.

I'm telling you my house smelled like I was brewing brownies! I just hop it's not done fermenting already, but fear it is.

Thoughts?

 

[EZCyclone]

Is this thing on?

Echo... echo... echo...

 

[chickypad]

Well I can't figure out why you seem to have started your thread in the middle of a conversation, however I will give my thoughts. You appear to have done a "mash" with 33% honey malt, 33% chocolate, and 33% crystal, but no base malt (I think honey malt actually has a little diastatic power but I certainly wouldn't consider it a base malt). Hate to say it but I think this is going to be a roasty sweet mess. It's probably done fermenting, and probably has a large amount of residual unfermentables.

May I ask how you are getting your recipes?

 

[Hackwood]

I just hop it's not done fermenting already,

Subliminally, I am digging the "hop" here.

 

[SloppyGriffin]

I have not done an all grain just yet but i agree with chickypad. There is no base malt and what Caramel malt are you using?Not to mention the fact that in a typical 5 gallon batch for a stout you see recipes ranging anywhere from 12lbs to 15lbs. That's about 2.4lbs/gallon to 3lbs/gallon if you use that math. So if you were using a 2 gallon batch you would want anywhere from like 4.8lbs to 9lbs on grain, the majority of which should be a nice base malt. preferably i would choose Marris otter or 2-row for conversion and versatility (from what i have read) then add a decent amount of chocolate.In your case use like 1.25lb base malt, 8oz chocolate malt,4oz caramel, and then if you want to use the honey malt just put in about 4oz or adjust the levels throughout those. The hop portion is fine in the sense of the flavour of the hop. In my opinion though, because Liberty is a low AA hop, you could probably up it to 1oz or a little lower then dry hop with it later for a nice spicy aroma. The again this is a stout and I understand the hesitation to up the amount of hops in it.

That's my look on it. could be useful knowledge from an avid learner or plain BS in the eyes of someone who is upset by constructive criticism. Either way, just remember, homebrew is a science and no one ever made the atom bomb without trial and error.

 

[C-Rider]

I just brewed my first stout on Saturday! Why did yours take so long to start fermenting? Is five days right? Mine started fermenting in like 5 hours or something, well started bubbling. The problem I'm having is that it stopped like two days later. this also was my first all grain batch, and I was just thinking I didn't have much efficiency to speak of. Now I'm hoping it's tricking me and it will fire back up in a few days! Also This is my first post!

Here's what I did.

2 gallon batch

1# chocolate malt
1# Caramel malt
1# honey malt
3oz (by weight) of coco powder.

In one gallon of water I had grains in a bag, and rested at 95-103 for an acid rest. Then rested at 150 for 1 hour. Next I drained the bag and moved it to a gallon of water in a another pot at 160deg. Stirred around and let drain. (This was my I think failed attempt to batch sparge) Next time I will put the grain over a colender and drain water over the grains and see how that goes.

OG was 1.040 brought it to a boil and added .25oz of Liberty hops for 60 min and added the 3oz of coco with 4 minutes left in that hour boil.

Cooled to 76.1deg and pitched a hole pack of US-05 which I had dissolved into 1/3 cup warm water.

I'm telling you my house smelled like I was brewing brownies! I just hop it's not done fermenting already, but fear it is.

Thoughts?

Like the other guys said, "Where is your base malt, like 2 Row?"
If you have a boil kettle that can hold say 4 gallons of water you can BIAB all the grain in a paint strainer bag and do not have to sparge.

I do 1.75 galon batches and mash in a 5 gallon cooler, in a bag, using about 2.75 gallons of water average.

Down load the trial version of Beer Smith and build your recipe w/it, but don't forget to do some research first. Matter of fact forget building your own recipes until you understand mashing. You can take any recipe and reduce the amts. BS will do it for you.

 

[EZCyclone]

First I have a question...
What do you mean I started it in the middle of a conversation, is this not it's own thread?

Well I can't figure out why you seem to have started your thread in the middle of a conversation, however I will give my thoughts.

May I ask how you are getting your recipes?

Now onto the other stuff. I got my recipe from the local "homebrew shop" Let me explain that this "homebrew shop" actually is a gift shop that sells homebrew on the side. I was back the other day to get some stuff and asked the guy there what brews he has done. His response "I have had some home brew and think that @#$% is nasty, I don't do it for that reason". Yet he is the shop owner...


I have to admit, the not having any base malts didn't even come to mind. I've brewed other beers, and even written my own recipes, and they all have base malts. I guess I was just excited to get this going and trusted the guy in the store to know his stuff. There is a good homebrew store an hour away and will only go there from here on out. Those three pounds of grains ended up costing me $21 anyway, he's a bit over priced.

Yesterday I took a SG and it came out to be 2.6% abv. I added lactose,maltodextrin and amylase. I figured what the hell, well see what happens. It was kinda tasty.

 

[chickypad]

I just brewed my first stout on Saturday! Why did yours take so long to start fermenting? Is five days right?

I just meant you started your thread with this sentence, I didn't know who you were talking to.

I think your plan to go to a legit homebrew store is a good one - those grains should have been about 1.75 per lb each, and as we established that is a horrid recipe. No wonder the guy thinks homebrew is nasty. A real store should have some kits/recipes and can help you scale to any size batch.

I think the lactose and maltodextrin are just going to compound the problem unfortunately. Buy hey, if you can drink it more power to you!

 

[EZCyclone]

Yeah, the guy in town clearly has no idea. The worst part is that I didn't catch it! Oh well that's the fun of this hobby! Live and learn. It's drinkable, although not what I wanted so ill try again later.

 

[EZCyclone]

Well, look at what we have here...

Looks like something snuck in during racking to secondary. Oh well, this batch was a damn mess from the get go. It's gone now, time to back up and punt. Maybe with some 2-row this time! lol. This was my first infection, so I guess now I can stop fearing my first.

 

[SloppyGriffin]

Looks pretty

 

[Houseoffubar]

If you have to get stuck with an infection, at least you have a symmetrical, pretty one!

 

[EZCyclone]

Yeah no kidding! Like I said the batch was crap anyway, so what the hell. It was a pretty infection. I even made a video of it, call me geeky...