Great results to my first stout!

[JoeSTL]

So I've brewed 3 5-gallon batches so far. First was a brown ale, which turned out well, except the final gravity was pretty high at 1.020. Second was a pale ale, which the original gravity was a little low at 1.044 (was supposed to be 1.052). The pale ale is still bottle conditioning, but I tried it and it's okay, but not great. Hoping it gets better as it carbonates more and sits a bit. My third batch was a stout extract kit from midwest supplies, out of their 'beer simply beer kits'. I wanted to experiment a little, so I added 1 pound of dark DME to the last 15 minutes of the boil and didn't add extra water at the end. I ended up with 4.5 gallons and an original gravity of 1.060.

My first 2 batches fermented like crazy and a blow off tube was definitely necessary. I wasn't sure what was going on with this stout batch, because I never got more than 2 inches of krausen. I'm total beginner, so I figured I messed up something. I also decided to forget about the secondary and only use the primary. It's been 16 days in the primary and there has been no airlock activity for about 4 days. I took a gravity reading tonight and got a 1.012! The yeast used was Safale us-05. No starter either. I was definitely surprised how low it got considering how little the krausen was during fermentation. I tasted the sample I took and it tastes very similar to Guinness Extra Stout, which I absolutely love!

I'll take another reading over the weekend and if it doesn't change, then I'll bottle. Any suggestions to the amount of corn sugar to use per gallon?For my other 2 batches, I used 1 ounce per gallon, but bottled beers like Guinness Extra Stout do not have that much carbonation.

I will definitely have to brew this one again. I think those kits are priced great at only $20 for us beginners. Next time I'll probably reduce the DME addition and add some cocoa nibs. Hmm... that already sounds good!

 

[Pappers_]

Congratulations, Joe! At our home, we're drinking a dry Irish stout on tap now and really enjoying it, sometimes a simple stout is just the best.

Regarding bottle carbonation, if you want to calculate things, I usually go to mrmalty.com and use his (Jamil Z.'s) calculator. Otherwise, John Palmer suggests 2/3's cup of table sugar for a five gallon batch in How to Brew, if I recall correctly. That book is available for free online, if you want to take a look at what he says about bottle carbing.

 

[JoeSTL]

Thank you! Northern brewer has a calculator as well. I just wanted to see what other brewer's personal experiences have been with bottling stouts.

 

[Rush]

I personally shoot for 2.0 volumes of CO2 in my stouts and porters. This equates to roughly 3oz of corn sugar in a 5g batch.