The Stout is on the way...

I just transferred over my "Imperial" Stout (depending on final results) over to the secondary fermenter and out of the hall closet.


To review, lemme give you the breakdown:

12.0 Lbs of American 2-Row grains

2.25 Lbs of Chocolate Malt grains

2.75 Lbs of Roasted Barley grains

Plus 3.00 Lbs of Pale Dry Malt Extract (to substitute for approximately 5.00 Lbs of 2-Row, I like DME)

In Addition:

4.0 oz of Cascade leaf hops

3-6 Cinnamon Sticks (from the store)

2.0 oz of Magnum leaf hops

4.00 oz of American Dark Oak chips (optional at this point)

Wyeast No. 1098 British Ale

The recipe is straightforward: the grains were sparged and the DME added during boiling of the wort. The initial cook only used the 4.00 oz of Cascade for flavor and bitterness. After transferring from the pot to the primary fermenter (big thanks to Troy B. for use of his equipment, check it out if your ever in Bellingham), the intial batch sat right on the line at 6.00 gallons of wort. Pitched the yeast (from a starter wort of 1/2 gallon water to 2.00 cups DME over 36 hours at 85 degrees initial) at around 70 degrees. 

Initial Gravity reading: 1.086 

8 hours later, ridiculous activity.

The yeast is going full steam ahead, my blowoff tube is already crusty but holding, the water that it was draining into was like motor oil, and I was already noticing a sharp decrease in the volume of wort. The total beer lost to primary fermentation was .5 gallons give or take. Acceptable since I was confident that none of it had come back and contaminated the batch.

Well, here we are 9 days later and I am ready to get this stuff out of the hall closet and tucked away for at least 8 weeks of 'spa treatment'. 

Latest Gravity reading: 1.031

As of right now that comes out to an alcohol content of 7.22 (by volume). Nowhere near what I had originally intended for this batch. I was aiming up to 9 or perhaps 9.5 if I played my cards right. A taste of the motor oil (beer) was very tangy, definitely some unused sugars in there that are weighing this bad boy down. As of right now, the main thing that comes to mind when I taste is ....soy sauce.

Now, pump the brakes. Hear me out.

I know that's not a good beer flavor, but I say now comes the fun part. I know that it's going to continue to mellow out with time, and I also know that now is the time that I like to experiment with the most: the secondary! Here's where you get to try out new ingredients. Here's where you can tweak the environment that the beer will age in. Here's the art part of the biochemistry experiment. So I'll tell you what: some pictures will be posted shortly, and I'll keep you all posted on the end all final score for this game.

Continue to be fascinated by your surroundings....