Lost Abbey's Serpent's Stout Clone (based off recipe from lead brewer)

[spam_and_eggs]

Hey everyone. I was looking around the internet and never really found a decent clone recipe for Lost Abbey's Serpent's Stout, my favorite of theirs. So I went ahead and emailed their customer service saying how I love the beer and would be interested in trying to brew it. Well two days later, I get the following email:

Hey Dennis,

My name is Matt Webster and I am the Lead Brewer at The Lost Abbey. Our Director of Production asked me to respond to your questions about Serpent Stout. This is one of my favorite beers that we brew, here is a quick run down on what goes into the brew.

OG: 24 Plato
FG: 4 Plato

60% 2-Row
6.5% Roasted Barley
6.5% Chocolate Malt
6.5% Crystal 120L
3.5% Extra Dark Crystal 165L
4% Flaked Barley
13% Dextrose (added to the boil)

We use Centennial as the bittering hop and some Magnum half way through the boil. We ferment it with our house yeast strain (similar to a British Ale yeast) at 67 degrees. One of the unique parts about this beer is we barrel ferment 10% in used bourbon barrels, to get the really charcoal and smoky notes.

Glad you enjoy the beer and happy brewing.

Cheers,

Matthew Webster
Lead Brewer
Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey

So I went ahead and plugged into beersmith for a 5.5 gallon batch

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.00 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.50 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.100 SG
Estimated Color: 65.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 86.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 70.9 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13.00 lb Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 58.6 %
1.50 lb Caramel Malt - 120L (Briess) (120.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.8 %
1.50 lb Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (508.0 S Grain 3 6.8 %
1.50 lb Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.8 %
0.90 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 5 4.1 %
0.80 lb *130L Crystal (Hugh Baird) (130.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.6 %
3.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 7 13.5 %
2.00 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 60.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Magnum [14.70 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 25.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) [35.49 Yeast 10 -

* This is the darkest crystal my LHS carries. This should be ok to substitute with, right?

Mash @ 152 for 60', batch sparge.

I haven't had any experience with WLP005 and was wondering if WLP007 could be a possible substitute. I'm worried about under attenuation. I was planning on throwing about an ounce or so of dark toast oak chips in to the fermenter to mimic their 10% barrel fermentation. I was also wondering if anyone could recommend a good fermentation schedule for this (how long to leave in primary, whether or not the oak affects primary, do I also rack the oak to secondary, etc.)

I probably won't be able to try this recipe for a little bit, I just brewed my first imperial stout and now don't have any open fermenters. Just figured I'd share the wealth and get a discussion going on brewing this great beer!

 

[buzzerj]

That looks about right. The 24 degrees Plato is 1.102 so that OG is close. I'd say the 63 SRM is a bit on the dark side so I'd actually suggest a 350 L Chocolate malt like a Briess Chocolate malt. I would also use the WLP 007 to assure you don't under attenuate. If you are supposed to reach a 4 Plato FG that's 1.016 which is a shade dry for an RIS. Make a real large healthy starter for the yeast so you can shoot for a 1.018 to 1.020 FG if you can get it that low. It's possible with a 68 degree F primary fermentation that I'd leave for 3 weeks. Sanitize an ounce of medium toast oak cubes in bourbon and add to the primary. Taste a sample when you transfer to the secondary and if want more toasted oak flavor repeat with an ounce in the secondary. But don't go overboard on it. You have a lot of roasty notes in there to begin with. Let this secondary for a long time like 6 weeks or longer. It'll only get better. If you want the Extra Dark Crystal Malt it's available from Simpsons through Northern Brewer. If you really want to clone it, consider ordering some. Good luck with the brew and let us know how it turned out. My daughter in Valley Center loves the Lost Abbey and would love to know how you did with this.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/03/treatise-on-oaking-homebrew.html

 

[blizzard]

I really like this beer. Thanks for sharing what you found.

 

[Almfamily]

I really like this beer. Thanks for sharing what you found.

+1 - older thread but would love to hear how it turned out if you made it.

 

[spam_and_eggs]

+1 - older thread but would love to hear how it turned out if you made it.

I'm planning on brewing this on Black Friday with slight modifications (I'll probably just do magnum for all hopping). I'll post an update post brew day



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[spam_and_eggs]

edit: double post (stupid HBT app)

 

[Almfamily]

I'm planning on brewing this on Black Friday with slight modifications (I'll probably just do magnum for all hopping). I'll post an update post brew day



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Awesome - looking forward to hearing how it goes!

 

[spam_and_eggs]

So I brewed this with slight modifications one week ago. Here are some notes:

5.5 gal
Based on 60% efficiency

13.75lbs 2 Row (Briess)
1.5lbs Crystal 120L (Briess)
1.5lbs Roasted Barley (Briess)
1.5lbs Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett)
0.9lbs Flaked Barley
0.8lbs Crystal 130L (Hugh Baird)
1.0lbs Rice Hulls

Mash for 60' @ 156F (Mash thickness = 1.43qt/lbs)
Boil for 90'

1.75oz Magnum (12.6%) - 60'
0.35oz Magnum (12.6%) - 30'
3.0lbs Sucrose - 30'
1 Whirlfloc - 30'
0.5tsp Yeast Nutrient - 15'

Pure O2 through stone full blast for 30 sec
1 oz medium toast American oak cubes soaked in Wild Turkey 81 for 8 months
2 Packets Wyeast 1098 (36 hour starter, pitch slurry)

Estimated OG = 1.103
Actual OG = 1.094

- My outdoor pipes were unexpectedly frozen when I started brewing so I had to use 10 gal of spring water. Fixed the problem in time to use my immersion chiller!

- I was a little low on my mash temp @ 155F, and after an hour it finished @ 150F.

- Undershot the target OG by 9 points due to over compensation while diluting after an initial gravithy reading of 1.120 with 30' still to go in the boil. Added an extra 0.5 gal water when I diluted.

- Set aside 0.25 gal of wort for a forced fermentation test but accidentally killed my yeast when my stir/hot plate got too hot without me knowing. (RIP yeast)

This is my first experience with Wyeast 1098 and WOW was it a fast starter! I pitched the yeast at 2pm @ 63 degrees. By 11pm there was already steady activity coming out of the blowoff tube. At 6am the next day 2 inches of krausen had formed, 2 bubbles/sec out the blowoff tube (would've loved to see what it would look like with a regular airlock), and full fermentation activity had begun (I call this stage lava lamp mode). 24 hours after pitching it reached its peak fermentation temp @ 72 degrees. Keep in mind I have no real temperature control for my fermentation.

The yeast got it down to 1.024 after 5 days. The sample smelled like dark and milk chocolate but tasted very bitter, roasty, and smokey with a touch of hot alcohol. Can't wait to see how it is in a month or so before I transfer to secondary.

 

[Almfamily]

Thanks for the update - I just got this one all set up in beersmith. Probably going to make it over the holiday break so it will be ready for next winter.

Let me know how it tastes!

 

[Biscuits]

So, I am very interested in brewing this. Why did this thread die off so long ago?