Zul'jin Trolls An Irish Stout Extract

[Zul'jin]

I'm so excited, I'm itching! :rockin:

My kit came in today. It's the "Everything" kit from Midwest with Irish Stout extract.

Here's what I got.

Equipment
*4 gallon stainless Steel brew kettle with vented lid. Kinda thin, but that may be OK since I'm using an old electric stove. I won't use the lid for brewing.
*Pale Ale fermenter, lid with grommeted hole and 3 piece air lock
*Tube
*Racking cane
*Dispenser
*Clip
*Bottling bucket, drilled, with valve
*2 cases of brown glass bottles, minus 1 that came broken. Can't blame Midwest. The box was packaged to a T.
*Caps
*Triple scale hydrometer
*Hey, where's my thermometer? Oh, here it is. It's one of those stick on types.
*Wing bottle caper
*Brush
*8 oz LD Carlson no rinse easy clean, dry
*Books and DVDs

Extract Ingredients
*Midwest liquid 100% barley malt extract, dark, 1/2 gallon
*1 package (about a pound or so) of dry oat meal and bird seed. No feathers. Crushed grains is what this is. Man, this looks like something I would eat.
*1 clean sock, uni-sex. It's a grain bag.
*A few lines of Columbian Marching Powder. It's gypsum. Do I need this if my water is not hard?
*5 oz LD Carlson priming sugar. That's all it says. It's stark white and almost as fine as confectioners sugar.
*1 oz Midwest Willamette pellet hops, alpha acid 4.8%
*1 oz LD Carlson nugget pellet hops, alpha acid 12.5%.
All the hops are vacuum sealed in a bag like what circuit boards come in.
*6 grams Muntons active brewing yeast, dry (E491)?

The ingredients were not packaged in ice but were in the ss kettle and ice cold. They must keep the extract refrigerated.

OK, OK, OK! I gotta get brewin'. Well, start my starter.

 

[Zul'jin]

Starter

*1 fifth sized empty glass bottle with cap. It's a Jagermeister bottle. I don't have a stopper for that so I poked two small holes in the cap and twist tied a plastic baggy over it. The foam pad from the cap has been removed. Crude, yet hopefully effective.
*Sauce pot
*Pyrex measuring cup
*Roughly 2 cups water
*1 cup of the LME the kit came with
*2 TBS brown sugar. Hey, why not?
*6 oz yeast from the kit

Once the water was boiling, I took it off the heat. The LME was so thick that I sat the Pyrex cup of it in the boiled water so it would pour easier. That worked great. 1 TBS of brown sugar added. Then, I stirred it some and put the pot back on medium heat. I didn't want to burn it. I stirred like I was making a rue and slowly increased the heat to medium high. After 15 minutes of boiling, I took it off the heat.

The pot was placed into the sink with cold water and ice until luke warm/sorta coolish to the touch. Another TBS of brown sugar was added and stirred. My pot has a pour easy lip so I poured it into the measuring cup, 2 1/2 cups, there about.

That was poured into the bottle, 6 oz of yeast added, caped and shaken like mad. Like "This is Sparta!" mad! After that, I twist tied the plastic baggy over the cap with some room for off gassing. The starter in now in the brew closet away from light.

Looka that foam! 2 inches and it's held for 20 minutes.

 

[shunoshi]

Congrats on your first brewing adventure!! A couple things to take note of:

- If you don't know the make up of your water supply, don't mess with it. a.k.a no gypsum.

- You don't need to make a starter with dry yeast. Just rehydrate it in some water. In the future I'd skip the Munton's yeast and buy either a good dry yeast (SafAle, Nottingham, etc.) or a nice liquid yeast from Wyeast or White Labs (then you can make a starter).

- One of my buddies made Midwest's Irish Stout extract kit and it made a really great beer!

- Hope your ready for one hell of a hobby!

 

[Zul'jin]

OK, since I can't get the pic to load up from Photobucket in any size other than GIGANTIC, even after resizing, here it is.

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[Zul'jin]

I gots teh fermentations! After about 2 hours, the plastic baggy was inflated and I still have foam I took off the baggy, shook out the carbon dioxide and put it back on. There will be a stopper and air lock on the next starter.

 

[Silviakitty]

So will it be Troll Stout?

 

[Zul'jin]

I've already violated the ingredients and instructions, so yeah, I guess I could call it my own thing. Troll Stout

According to this book I just read, Home Beer Making by William Moore, I got it wrong on gypsum. The book says gypsum is to increase water hardness, not decrease water hardness. I'll call the water department in the morning and see what the hardness is around here.

Oh look, you're going to do an Irish Stout. Stay tuned.

 

[sause]

Hard water is a must for Irish stouts. I would use it since most cities soften the water so you don't get spots on you dishs and your soap will lather.

Also is that a War Craft 2 name?

 

[Zul'jin]

World of, actually. Blizzard built in a lot of cross over, so it could be from WC2, too. Starcraft was the last Blizzard strategy game I played.

I poured some of that LME on a spoon and ate it. It's not for eating.

 

[oms1981]

I poured some of that LME on a spoon and ate it. It's not for eating.

That thought would have never even crossed my mind, but you do realize that now my morbid curiosity will require me to test this for myself

 

[Chaos_Being]

Heh, I tried some LME the first time I brewed beer Syrupy goodness!

I take it you play WoW, huh?

 

[Yooper]

That thought would have never even crossed my mind, but you do realize that now my morbid curiosity will require me to test this for myself

One other thing to keep in mind- hops smell really really good. I mean really good. They do not taste good. Trust me on this.

 

[Revvy]

One other thing to keep in mind- hops smell really really good. I mean really good. They do not taste good. Trust me on this.

Maybe they do if you're a bunny....

Hey that's a thought with the hops shortage and all. Just WHAT is in them there rabbit pellets?

 

[Silviakitty]

The stout's in the fermenter, actually...and it's gorgeous.

I hadn't gotten a solid name for it yet, but now you're gonna make me pick a WoW-oriented name.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Trolls are from Norway...do they have stouts there? (I didn't see one stout while I was there...lots of trolls...some of them got better looking after a couple of shots of Aquavit... ).

 

[shunoshi]

Trolls are from Norway...do they have stouts there? (I didn't see one stout while I was there...lots of trolls...some of them got better looking after a couple of shots of Aquavit... ).

Mmmm...Aquavit.... :cross:

The stout's in the fermenter, actually...and it's gorgeous.

I hadn't gotten a solid name for it yet, but now you're gonna make me pick a WoW-oriented name.

How about Stratholme Stout? Actually that'd be even better as a Black & Tan. Then you have your Human and Undead sides!

 

[Jonnio]

and just when I thought WoW couldn't invade anywhere else

 

[Zul'jin]

Can't nobody stop the Horde :rockin:

My fermenter is fermenting. I siphoned into it at 6 pm and by 9:30 pm the air lock was going 1 bubble per second. By 10:30 pm it was on 3 round burst. I'll post up about the boil later. Right now I'm gonna have some secks. If SWMBO's lucky, I'll let her get in on some too.

 

[Silviakitty]

*snort* Horde.










Just kiddin'.

a little. *grin*

 

[Zul'jin]

OK, so here's how the brewing went. It went well.

Long version.

I'm a little disappointed in the pot. I was figuring that 4 gallons meant 4 gallons plus room to work in. No. This pot is 4 gallons to the rim. Faced with that, the plan was to do 3 gallons in one pot and 2 gallons in another pot with the ingredients divided up accordingly. I know I could top off, but didn't want to. Not more than I had to anyway, to account for evaporation during boiling. Luckily, my buddy bailed my out with his 5 gallon turkey fryer pot. That bad daddy is 5 gallons plus room to work in. I gotta get one o them. Don't get me wrong now, the pot from Midwest is a nice pot. I just was hoping for some plus room, like a turkey fryer has. He also lent me his thermometer that goes in the pot.

I rolled my grain with an empty beer bottle. Shiner Bock for good luck. I socked up my grains and steeped them for 30 minutes at 155F in 2 1/2 gallons of water, bobbing the sock the whole time. This old electric stove did well with that. I then added the other 2 1/2 gallons of water and went toward boiling with the grain sock hung over the edge of the pot right up to boiling.

Once boiling, I took the grain sock out and added my first hops and the gypsum. The water department never called me back, so I just went with it. The old stove was still kickin' ass.

Right after that, I began to slowly pour in the LME. My starter experience taught me to have that LME near room temperature for easier pouring. Pouring from directly over the pot helped warm it further. All the while, I'm stirring like a witch at a cauldron. I even cackled a little.

With everything mixed in, I went to boiling for an hour. And stirring. Lots of stirring.

At the last five minutes I added the second hops. And stirred. All this stirring prevented a boil over which surely would have happened other wise. This stuff was frothy. Max and maintained boil temp was 227F. Good old stove. Good old stove.

Somewhere in here I realized my buddy was a bit off. He recommenced stirring the brew with the racking cane since my whisk was not going to reach the bottom of his pot. He does it this way. Yeah, well, his cane is more tuffer'n mine. Mine came out crooked like a candy cane. At least it didn't melt apart into globs of molten plastic. Thinking quick, I grabbed the hot ass cane with a wet paper towel and bent it back straight... ish. I moved to a big honking spatula as a stirrer after that.

After boiling the pot went into the sink with cold water and ice. Cooling to about 80F took an hour. My buddy's pot is marked at five gallons, so I topped off right into it to help with cooling. There was also more stirring. This is like exercise, man.

To go from pot to primary, I used the gnarled staff of the racking cane (-7 to stirring +6 to "Oh crap!") and tube. Starting the siphon with some water in the tube worked perfect.

Now it's time to add my starter. Hmm, lemme shake this a time or 5 to make sure it's mixed up real good. I did that and took my finger off the cap with the 2 holes in it and was blasted 5 feet across the kitchen by the twin fermentation jets that shot out of that baby. Weeeeeeeeee! Dat's good stuff, yeah.

OK, so the brew is in the bucket, the lid is on, the air lock is in. To the closet with you! 3 hours later and it's bubbling like mad. A little while after that it's bubbling like crazy mad. Some time yesterday, it quit bubbling. The temp from start to now has ranged from 78F to right now 68F. Oh, I also let about a 1/2 teaspoon of the sanitizer solution from the air lock slip into the fermenter, but it had quit bubbling before that happened. Really, it just happened. I wasn't messing with stuff. Honest. The good folks at HBT (ever heard of it?) told me not to worry. So I ain't. Much. Would it be of any use to pitch more yeast?

 

[Zul'jin]

Doh! Forgot 2 things.

Sanitize. Every thing was sanitized. You could have surgery with this equipment. Any body need some surgery?

Starting Gravity, with temp figured in, was 1.044. The recipe says 1.042 to 1.046. Nice!

 

[Silviakitty]

Sounds like you had fun...*grin* It also sounds like it's gonna be awesome.

 

[Brakeman_Brewing]

Sounds like youll have a nice brew to enjoy on your next raid.

 

[Zul'jin]

I was just sniffing my airlock. Proof that I am like a dog and will if I can. My beer smells like, in this order-
Sharp, nose burning sharp until I got used to it.
Sweet.
Bananas, there ain't no bananas in my beer.
Beer, a little like beer there at the end, but definitely like beer.

What's up with that?

 

[Brakeman_Brewing]

The banana usually comes from high fermentation temps 68-70º+ I believe

 

[Zul'jin]

68F is my temperature right now! Funny, I didn't see you in the brew closet. Are you behind the boxes of bottles?

 

[Chaos_Being]

I've been planning on some WoW inspired brews too... as well as some Everquest ones (my first MMO) and some other gamer inspired names

 

[Zul'jin]

If on 12-12-12 there is some great global change, it will be because every last person on Earth is playing WoW that day and doesn't do anything else.

Todays gravity is 1020.7, ABV 2.4%. 1044 - 1020.7 = 23.3 point change in gravity. Final gravity is predicted at 1010 - 1012, ABV 3.3% - 3.5%.

Is that right or is it, 1.044 - 1.0207 = 0.0233 point change in gravity? I think it's more accurately expressed this way.

Fermenting now for 5 days. It's not done. The sharp, nose burning smell is much less as is the banana smell. It smells more like beer. I'll read again tomorrow. Then, it's off to the secondary.

Shiner Bock, my current beer of choice, is 4.4% ABV.

 

[PseudoChef]

If on 12-12-12 there is some great global change, it will be because every last person on Earth is playing WoW that day and doesn't do anything else.

Todays gravity is 1020.7, ABV 2.4%. 1044 - 1020.7 = 23.3 point change in gravity. Final gravity is predicted at 1010 - 1012, ABV 3.3% - 3.5%.

Is that right or is it, 1.044 - 1.0207 = 0.0233 point change in gravity? I think it's more accurately expressed this way.

Fermenting now for 5 days. It's not done. The sharp, nose burning smell is much less as is the banana smell. It smells more like beer. I'll read again tomorrow. Then, it's off to the secondary.

Shiner Bock, my current beer of choice, is 4.4% ABV.

How are you reading a decimal on a hydrometer?

Anyway, if your O.G. was 1.044 and right now you're around 1.021 then,

1.044-1.021 = 0.023

abv % = 0.023 * 131 = ~3%

 

[Zul'jin]

1.044-1.021 = 0.023

I'll accept that as fact since the scientific type sites say the specific gravity of water is 1.000, not 1,000 or 1000. It's just that in some beer calculators it is put in as 1000 and they give results like 1020.7. You see the confusion, I'm sure. Maybe this is just lackadaisical math.

I also read that specific gravity is not a measure of units. It isn't 1.000 of anything. It's just 1.000.

 

[PseudoChef]

I'm just wondering where that 7 is coming from...as in, how are you getting that precise with a hydrometer?

 

[Zul'jin]

I have really good eyes, like a cave fish or maybe a mole :cross:

No, really, the online calculator gives me a 5 digit number when I calculate for temperature. My temp is 67 instead of the 60 the hydrometer is calibrated for. I'm not all too concerned about knowing ABV to the thousandth. It's not like this is a level 4 lab. Tenths will do fine.

In other news, I got me a 5 gallon Better Bottle at the local home brew/general store. I had a glass carboy on the counter and the owner suggested a Better Bottle because it's the same price (I wonder if the profit margin is a little higher, but anyway...) is lighter, nearly unbreakable and has a larger mouth. The glass took a #7 stopper. The Better Bottle takes a #10.

 

[Zul'jin]

Today, 1 week in primary, and the gravity has been 1.020 for 3 days. I went to secondary.

That sharp smell is gone as is the banana smell. It smells like beer. It even tastes like beer. Flat beer. It has a more hoppy taste than I was wanting it to. Next time maybe I'll only add finishing hops to an Irish Stout instead of two hop additions. It has a coffee after taste. Pretty OK, so far.

I also added another table spoon of brown sugar. 1 tbs to 5 gallons may not make much difference, but I'd like it a little sweeter. If it starts to ferment again, that's OK. The secondary has an air lock on it.

Here's a pic of what was at the bottom of the primary. It's trub. This is yeast, hops, bits of grain and stuff that settled out of the LME during primary fermentation.

That link goes to my photobucket album. File name DCP_0005 is the trub ring near the top of the primary from during the most active fermentation.

 

[GloHoppa]

GG zul'jin this is one of the funniest play by play brewing experiences i have ever read. it was straight up roflcopter.

 

[Zul'jin]

roflcopter was the screwed up face, head shaking, sneezing fit the cat had when she went to inspect the uncleaned primary equipment in the kitchen while I was carrying the carboy to the closet. She looked at me like, "WTF are you doing!? That's not cat food!"

It's been a few hours and all is quiet in there. The beer looks like a big jug of used motor oil drained from a late model Dodge truck.

 

[Zul'jin]

Gravity is still 1.020 and I have some sediment. Patience is running out the windows and doors. I'll bottle this Friday. 1 week in primary. 1 week in secondary.

Super secret special bonus track!

After reading so much about this Apfelwein, (by the way, if you Google Apfelwein, HBT is second on the list of returns), and SWMBO wanting "something sweet and fruity, but not too sweet, maybe appley", I now have one going.

The Apfelwein is 1 gallon of Tree Top apple juice, 1 cup of brown sugar and about half+ pack of dry ale yeast in a 2 gallon cheap-o plastic jug with spout and screw top I got from Wally World. I used a Dremel (ugh! ugh! ugh!) to cut out a hole in the screw cap and insert a stopper and air lock. I cooked nothing. Poured in ingredients, shook, let sit. In a few hours, I had bubbly fermentation that is still going 24 hours later. Sweet!

 

[Zul'jin]

Bottled it is! Final gravity was 1.018. My hydrometer is marked in increments of .020, so that's a straight reading at 60F, 3.4% ABV. The recipe says 3% to 3.5%. The yield is 4.3 gallons. 1 week in primary. 1 week in secondary. The taste right out the bottling bucket is definitely beer with a hint of coffee and not overly hopped. 1 beer is chilling now for further taste analysis.



Here's how I doed it. I took 1.5 quarts of beer and put it in a sauce pan with 5oz corn sugar and brought to a light simmer. Cooled that. Poured into bottling bucket. Siphoned the rest of the beer onto it. My bottling bucket has a spigot, so I used that to fill the bottles. With the bucket on the table, I filled each 12oz bottle until foam reached the neck. Once the foam settled in a few bottles, I added more beer up to the shoulder to mid neck of each one. Capped. Repeated. As the level of beer in the bucket got below the spigot, I tilted the bucket toward me using odds and ends as wedges on the far side. The whole process took maybe 2 hours, including sanitizing. I planned my work. I worked my plan.

The Apflewein is still bubbling and smelling all appley My buddy is doing one too. He used dextrose and some sort of wine yeast instead of brown sugar and ale yeast. His is more EdWort. Mine is more The_Bird.

 

[PseudoChef]

Bottled it is! Final gravity was 1.018. My hydrometer is marked in increments of .020, so that's a straight reading at 60F, 3.4% ABV. The recipe says 3% to 3.5%. The yield is 4.3 gallons. 1 week in primary. 1 week in secondary. The taste right out the bottling bucket is definitely beer with a hint of coffee and not overly hopped. 1 beer is chilling now for further taste analysis.



Here's how I doed it. I took 1.5 quarts of beer and put it in a sauce pan with 5oz corn sugar and brought to a light simmer. Cooled that. Poured into bottling bucket. Siphoned the rest of the beer onto it. My bottling bucket has a spigot, so I used that to fill the bottles. With the bucket on the table, I filled each 12oz bottle until foam reached the neck. Once the foam settled in a few bottles, I added more beer up to the shoulder to mid neck of each one. Capped. Repeated. As the level of beer in the bucket got below the spigot, I tilted the bucket toward me using odds and ends as wedges on the far side. The whole process took maybe 2 hours, including sanitizing. I planned my work. I worked my plan.

The Apflewein is still bubbling and smelling all appley My buddy is doing one too. He used dextrose and some sort of wine yeast instead of brown sugar and ale yeast. His is more EdWort. Mine is more The_Bird.

Not to scare you, because the bottles should be fine, but 5 oz corn sugar in 4.3 gallons of beer may equal overcarbonation.

 

[Zul'jin]

I ARE DRINKING ONE RIGHT NOW!

Honestly, I've drank several since bottling. This one is the best. I must've made this bottle better than the rest or something. Something like maybe it really does get better with age. Yeah, that's probably it.

The first one tasted like stale coffee, flat Coke and flat beer. This one tastes like a coffee flavored stout. It's pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. And I do.

I am surprised at how much sediment there is in some of the bottles. Maybe those are the ones from near the end of bottling. Some have very little. I siphoned out of the secondary using a racking cane with the foot on the end that's supposed to keep it out of the trub. I did have some trub in the secondary, as I should, I believe, but not too much. A 1/4" at the most.

to HBT

Oh, noes! Can't load pics now! afk bbl.

 

[Zul'jin]

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/Zuljins/DCP_0022.jpg

Look at it's beeriness!