Help changing my stout recipe

[Shaika-Dzari]

Hey, I finally brewed it last weekend. The recipe has also changed a bit...
So I went with:

I made my usual 10L batch with:

Maris Otter - 2.2kg - 72%
Pale Chocolate Malt - 300g - 10%
Flaked Barley - 200g - 6%
Flaked Oat - 200g - 6%
Crystal 60 - 100g - 4%
Roasted Barley - 50g - 2%

22g of EKG at 60
13g of EKG at 15
For the yeast, I use Irish Ale yeast from Omega.

OG was 1.064
IBU 35

I made a 1L starter but pitch only 750ml (I kept the rest for something else).
I tasted the wort and ...wow. It's the best wort I ever made! ( only brewing since July )
I can't wait to taste it.

Not sure if it is normal for this yeast but I glad I use a blowup tube! The fermentation was crazy.
4hrs after pitching, I was already seeing some bubble. The morning after, this thing was going crazy with non-stop bubbling. The yeast was clearly having a feast.
48hrs later and it's now nearly calm. I can't really take a gravity reading without opening it so I will wait but I feel most of it has already fermented.

Anyway, tasting in ~3 weeks and I can post another update if you want to know

 

[jerrylotto]

Any problem with temperature spikes? Something that active must be cranking out the watts! Of course, it might be more easily controlled at your scale.

 

[Shaika-Dzari]

Any problem with temperature spikes? Something that active must be cranking out the watts! Of course, it might be more easily controlled at your scale.

My closet stay at 19C. I don't really have a good way to go lower than that...

 

[cactusgarrett]

The morning after, this thing was going crazy with non-stop bubbling. The yeast was clearly having a feast.
48hrs later and it's now nearly calm. I can't really take a gravity reading without opening it so I will wait but I feel most of it has already fermented.

Starters do amazing things for yeast and a healthy fermentation. Just because the airlock has slowed/stopped bubbling, that doesn't mean fermentation is done. It is more than likely it's still got some ways to go after only 48 hours. Give it more time and only bottle after getting consecutive gravity readings a couple days apart.

 

[Shaika-Dzari]

Starters do amazing things for yeast and a healthy fermentation. Just because the airlock has slowed/stopped bubbling, that doesn't mean fermentation is done. It is more than likely it's still got some ways to go after only 48 hours. Give it more time and only bottle after getting consecutive gravity readings a couple days apart.

I'm in no rush
I usually wait 2 weeks before bottling.

 

[jerrylotto]

Ah -ambient cooling might work at under a liter but an order of magnitude larger (10 l) you really should be monitoring the wort temperature, not the closet. Stick on thermometers are cheap enough but they aren't terribly accurate. If you have a way to get a probe into the liquid, a digital thermometer is your best bet.

 

[Shaika-Dzari]

Yeah, I need to upgrade my game

 

[Miraculix]

Yeah, I need to upgrade my game

An easy problem solver is to put the fermenter into a bigger tub of water. This increases the thermal mass and the temprerature swings will be kept low. I do this sometimes when I ferment with yeasts that don't like the extra 5 degrees that fermentation can provide sometimes.

 

[Beenym88]

Until you have better control of fermentation temperature you won’t really know if you like your recipe or not. Fermentation temperature is extremely important. This recipe does look much better than the first one for my tastes I would use a little more crystal and some Munich.

 

[Shaika-Dzari]

An easy problem solver is to put the fermenter into a bigger tub of water. This increases the thermal mass and the temprerature swings will be kept low. I do this sometimes when I ferment with yeasts that don't like the extra 5 degrees that fermentation can provide sometimes.

You know what ? I was exactly my intention, put my fermenter in a 5g bucket with water and drop a couple of ice cube from time to time to keep it low.
But.... I forgot

Next time! Anyway, I see this recipe as "my work in progress stout". I will brew it again (and again) and adjust thing to fit what I like.

 

[tracer bullet]

I will brew it again (and again) and adjust thing to fit what I like.

I think this is a good idea. After years (decades) of bouncing around I've finally decided on about 8 styles that I will alternate making, and keep tweaking the recipes until I think they have become great. So far it's been a good idea, I don't get tired of them and I really start to learn how small changes affect things.

 

[Shaika-Dzari]

Final update for this topic.

I'm very happy with the result! Taste is malty, chocolaty, a bit of roast and a kind of cherry/molasses fruity taste. The beer has a medium body but is still refreshing.
The bottle needs a bit more time to have a proper co2/head but generally it is a HUGE improvement compared to my first stout.

I'll brew it again with 2 modifications (next version ):
1. I don't think the oatmeal made a lot of difference. I think I will only use flaked barley next time.
2. I think the chocolate and roasted barley could be a bit more balanced. So I will lower a bit the chocolate malt and raise the roasted barley.

Apart from that, it was my first time using Irish Ale Yeast and surely not the last.
I need to work on a tasty red ale recipe and this yeast seems to be a good candidate