I feel like a brewer now

[ski36t]

Last night I did my first AG. It wasn't the smoothest process ever and some of my little gadgets broke. Nothing critical though. I had a little bit of a problem my mash temp at 154. I used blankets and it helped a little, although not as much as I would have liked. Overall time it took me was about 6.5 hrs with cleanup. Probably could have sped that up if it wasn't so dern cold outside.

The one thing I didn't fully realize is how much water overall I would need to sparge. In total I used about 4.5 gallons to sparge, I guess that is not bad I just didn't really know this going in so I had to keep heating up water. My sparge lasted about 1.5 hrs, and didn't get stuck, which I am happy about. One of the things that broke was my sparge system. I guess the combination of the heat and the weight of the water caused it to fall off the lid of my cooler. That's ok though, it will give me something to reconstruct for next time.

The numbers:
Total water- 8g
total extracted - 6.5g
final volume - 5.5g

Palmer's stout recipe:
8 lbs british pale
.5lbs black barley
.5lbs crystal 60L
.5lbs barley flakes

The starting gravity was 1.044... a little lower than the recipe called for, but the calculations say I got a ~70% efficiency. Hey that's not bad right? The wort tasted alright, although not as "stout" as I was expecting. It had real nice bitterness though. I am looking forward to seeing what those yeasties can do!
Thanks for the help along the way everyone.

 

[cweston]

Excellent.

70% efficiency is not bad at all. Grain is not very expensive: once you know your typical efficiency, it's easy to just adjust the amount of grain to get the target OG you're after.

.5 roasted barley seems like about the minimum amount to me for a stout--that's why it tasted not so "stout."

 

[ski36t]

.5 roasted barley seems like about the minimum amount to me for a stout--that's why it tasted not so "stout."

Depending on how this comes out and if it is indeed less stout than I wanted, what would be the maximam amount of roasted barley for a recipe like this? 1...1.5...lbs?

 

[cweston]

I think classic recipes in which roasted barley is the only dark grain usually have about .5 to 1 lb. Some stouts use 2 or more dark grains, maybe totalling up to about 1.5 lbs.

 

[ski36t]

I think classic recipes in which roasted barley is the only dark grain usually have about .5 to 1 lb. Some stouts use 2 or more dark grains, maybe totalling up to about 1.5 lbs.

Thanks, I have been doing different recipes each time I brew trying to do a few different styles, but I think I may try optimizing this recipe until I nail done one that really turns out well.

I see that you have a tripel coming up. My previous brew season I did a tripel. I was still using extract but I think it is going to come out really good...from the tasting right before bottling. It should be ready this weekend. Good luck with yours.

 

[cweston]

I see that you have a tripel coming up. My previous brew season I did a tripel. I was still using extract but I think it is going to come out really good...from the tasting right before bottling. It should be ready this weekend. Good luck with yours.

Thanks--I recently built a temp-controlled fermentation box out of an old freezer that sits in basement. I'm really psyched about my two belgian brews coming up: I'm going to ferment the Saison at about 75-76 (Saison Dupont is allegedly fermented at 80+!), and the tripel at about 72. I think being able to hold those warm temps steady is going to really help with bringing out the esters and "funk" flavors from the yeast.

I plan to leave the tripel alone until fall as much as possible.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

MY next stout has 1lb roasted barley and 1lb chocolate rye... I like my stouts <<<STOUT>>>

 

[Evan!]

It's not about static weight, it's about relative percentage. I've found that roasted barley works in a stout best at around 8-10% of the total bill.

 

[ski36t]

I plan to leave the tripel alone until fall as much as possible.

You have more patients than I do! And a really nice temp control system. I have tried to so something similar for a pilsner that I am doing. I took a non-working "dorm" refrigerator and ripped out all the guts and I am using ice packs and a wireless temp monitoring system to keep the temp down.

 

[cweston]

You have more patients than I do! And a really nice temp control system. I have tried to so something similar for a pilsner that I am doing. I took a non-working "dorm" refrigerator and ripped out all the guts and I am using ice packs and a wireless temp monitoring system to keep the temp down.

Well, I did say "as much as possible."

It's really, really hot here in the summer, so the list of beer style that appeals to me get's a lot shorter. Tripel's not really a summer beer to me, so hopefully that will help in keeping my paws off it for a while.