Milk Stout Kit - success?

[Joe61]

I wasn't too happy with my first attempt at home-brew. Followed the directions for a BB Dunkelweizen extract kit. OG was within recipe limits, but I couldn't get FG down below about 1.020. Tried raising temp, stirring yeast. Finally gave up and bottled. It's only been the in bottles for two weeks, so I will eventually find out how things turn out.

Meanwhile, I decided to try a BB Milk Stout recipe. Based on what I read here and other sources I decided to deviate from the instructions a bit.

- Instructions called for adding all LME at start of 60min boil. I added 25% at start and remainder at 15min from end. I did add other ingredients (maltodextrin and lactose) at start of boil.

- Instructions specifically noted to NOT hydrate yeast. Yeast was Nottingham. I followed instructions on packet to Hydrate yeast.

- Instructions didn't really address aeration prior to pitching. I stirred, poured and shook the heck out of the stuff for a good 5+ minutes. I know this is not a substitute for mechanical aeration, but it is better than I knew to do the first time.

Between cooling the 2.5 gallons of partial boil wort in an ice bath and using chilled water to get to my 5 gallons, I was able to get the wort to about 65 degrees. The hydrated yeast was also cooled to this temp. Yeast was pitched at 65F.

BB claims optimum pitch temp is 64-72F. Yeast company show 57-70F for this strain. My pitch temp was within both guides, but seemingly in a better part of the range based on the manufacturer.

Fermenter was placed in my basement (finished) where I kept the team at 65F.

Airlock activity was visible at about 18 hours. At 24-36 hours there was heavy airlock activity and fermenter temperature was up to 70F.

Airlock activity slowed at 48 hours and continued to slow from that point. By 72 hours there was no activity and fermenter temperature came back down to about 65F.

At that point, I raised the room heat to 68F. There fermenter eventually stabilized at 68F and I decided I did what I can do. I left it alone.

Total of two weeks in the fermenter. OG was 1.061 (BB expected range of 1.057-1.061).

FG stabilized at 1.024 (BB expected range of 1.020-1.024). I am thrilled that I hit the expected number.

The hydrometer sample tasted really good. Not that I have much experience testing uncarbonated beer at room temperature. Racking from the fermenter, the stream in the siphon looked very clear.

I am really looking forward to drinking this when it is finished.


One thing I did learn in this process.... kegging is much easier than bottling.

My first attempt was bottled. This batch is now in a keg. (I did sanitize the keg prior to racking and purge the air after the beer was in there).

My LHBS turned me off the idea of the quick force-carb process I have read about. He asked me if I really wanted to shake a pressurized metal canister while it sat on my legs over my lap. I didn't like the visual.

Mostly this is just "wow, looks like it worked how it was supposed to" post. I would certainly be open to ideas on improving my process.

Also have a question...

My keg is in a kegerator at 40F with 18lbs of pressure. In a few days I will turn the pressure down to 10lbs. From what I understand, it should be carbonated in a week or two. Does this sound correct?

Thanks!

 

[RM-MN]

It looks like you have your process down pretty well. Here's just a few suggestions for next time.
Rehydrating the yeast probably got you twice as much viable yeast as you would have gotten from just dumping the yeast into the wort. Good move!

Aerating helps yeast grow more cells, which is especially needed with liquid yeast. Your dehydrated yeast has the necessary components in the packet to take care of this so aerating isn't necessary... but as far as I can tell it is not detrimental either.

Nottingham is known to produce off flavors if fermented warm. You may not notice them in this batch...unless you make another batch that is fermented cooler and compare the two. Nottingham will ferment very clean if you keep it in the mid to upper 50's for the first week before letting the beer warm to room temp. The warmer temp in the later part of the ferment will encourage the yeast to eat the intermediate compounds (clean up) and may get you a lower FG. I like to leave my beer in the fermenter a bit longer as it allows more of the yeast to settle out there instead of in my bottles or in the bottom of your keg. Your first few pulls will likely contain a bunch of yeast and are best discarded, same as the dregs in your bottles. Once the beer clears up it will stay that way unless you disturb the yeast by moving the keg around.

Force carbing should be no problem with a keg, they should be designed to handle much more than the 30lbs but with a stout it won't matter much because stouts need time to mature. It will mature faster at room temp so you might want to take the keg out of the kegerator for some time. While you may like the taste of the stout in 3 weeks, I'll bet that it will be better in 3 months and keep on improving for at least a year. I really liked the last bottle of a stout that I had made when I opened it 2 years from brewing.

 

[Joe61]

It looks like you have your process down pretty well. Here's just a few suggestions for next time.
Rehydrating the yeast probably got you twice as much viable yeast as you would have gotten from just dumping the yeast into the wort. Good move!

Aerating helps yeast grow more cells, which is especially needed with liquid yeast. Your dehydrated yeast has the necessary components in the packet to take care of this so aerating isn't necessary... but as far as I can tell it is not detrimental either.

Nottingham is known to produce off flavors if fermented warm. You may not notice them in this batch...unless you make another batch that is fermented cooler and compare the two. Nottingham will ferment very clean if you keep it in the mid to upper 50's for the first week before letting the beer warm to room temp. The warmer temp in the later part of the ferment will encourage the yeast to eat the intermediate compounds (clean up) and may get you a lower FG. I like to leave my beer in the fermenter a bit longer as it allows more of the yeast to settle out there instead of in my bottles or in the bottom of your keg. Your first few pulls will likely contain a bunch of yeast and are best discarded, same as the dregs in your bottles. Once the beer clears up it will stay that way unless you disturb the yeast by moving the keg around.

Didn't realize that about aeration and dry yeast. As long as it doesn't hurt I wanted to take every step to avoid my previous problem with reaching expected FG.

I did notice that Nottingham showed a much lower temp range than the BB instructions. I was torn on that issue. I kept room temp in the low 60s and fermentation brought the wort temp up (as expected). When fermenter temp started to drop, I raised the room temp for the reasons you mentioned. My original thought was to start fermentation down around 60F, but I was gun shy from the problems with my first batch.

Force carbing should be no problem with a keg, they should be designed to handle much more than the 30lbs but with a stout it won't matter much because stouts need time to mature. It will mature faster at room temp so you might want to take the keg out of the kegerator for some time. While you may like the taste of the stout in 3 weeks, I'll bet that it will be better in 3 months and keep on improving for at least a year. I really liked the last bottle of a stout that I had made when I opened it 2 years from brewing.

Can you provide some more detail. This is a process I am still working on.

I understand aging concept. Beer is in the keg. Do I leave it at room temp for an extended period and then force carb (slow method)? Or do I force carb in the high 30s and then pull it out of the fridge and off the CO2 line to age at room temp? Of is there some other correct way?

 

[RM-MN]

Didn't realize that about aeration and dry yeast. As long as it doesn't hurt I wanted to take every step to avoid my previous problem with reaching expected FG.

I did notice that Nottingham showed a much lower temp range than the BB instructions. I was torn on that issue. I kept room temp in the low 60s and fermentation brought the wort temp up (as expected). When fermenter temp started to drop, I raised the room temp for the reasons you mentioned. My original thought was to start fermentation down around 60F, but I was gun shy from the problems with my first batch.




Can you provide some more detail. This is a process I am still working on.

I understand aging concept. Beer is in the keg. Do I leave it at room temp for an extended period and then force carb (slow method)? Or do I force carb in the high 30s and then pull it out of the fridge and off the CO2 line to age at room temp? Of is there some other correct way?

I'd probably do neither. I'd put a little CO2 pressure to it now, partly to keep air out of the top of the keg, partly to start the carbonation (actually, you beer still has CO2 in in from when it was fermenting) and keep the keg sealed, then let it set at room temp. You might have to put a little CO2 pressure to it from time to time in case there is a tiny leak.