Sweet Stout Journal - Wrap Up @7brewing

In this post, I'll wrap up the brew day with notes, recipe and final results.

After a somewhat turbulent brew day yesterday, I have a beer that is bubbling away this morning.

I encountered a few snags along the way.  First was the stuck or pinched filter in my mash tun.  Once I opened up the filter the wort was flowing quite nicely.  It may have been assisted by the high volume and temperature which increased the overall wort viscosity.  Once the filter was corrected, the wort start to flow freely.

While chilling, the exit hose from the copper chiller come loose from the fitting.  I then had to turn off the water and reattach the hose back to the fitting and then hook it all back up.  Once that was fixed, the temperature of the beer dropped pretty quickly.  It seems that the water temperatures from our city water are dropping with the shorter days and cooler temperatures.  I managed to cool the wort to about 68 degrees.  This was well within the range for pitching the yeast.

The recipe I brewed yesterday, originated from this Northern Brewer recipe.  The recipe was tailored to a brew house efficiency of 80%.

Mash Water (All City Water)

Total grain (lbs) : 8
Target Mash Water Volume: 2.5 gallons
Final Mash Water Volume: 3.75 gallons
Sparge Volume: 4 gallons
Mash Temperature: 152 degrees

Grain Ingredients
7 lbs Marris Otter (Pale Malt)
0.5 lb Carafa III
0.5 lb Chocolate Malt

Boil Additions
0.7 lb Milk Sugar (Lactose)
1 oz Willamette (hops)
Total Wort to Kettle: ~6.25 gallons
Total Wort to Fermenter: ~5+ gallons

Here are the original gravity (OG) and final gravity (FG) readings according to BeerSmith v1.4 and measurments.
OG estimated : 1.053
OG for style: 1.044 - 1.060
OG actual: 1.056
Actual brew house efficiency: 85%

FG estimated: 1.014
FG for style: 1.012 - 1.024
FG actual : TBD

If the FG comes in at 1.014 as estimated, this beer should have about 5.48% alcohol.  Not a very big beer, but still comes in above a session beer.  I anticipate it will be a very tasty beer.  I hope to introduce the milk stout for the first time to several people and spark some intrigue in this beer and style.

Thank you for reading along.
- Matt

Please follow any of the references throughout this series of posts for definitions to the terms and information that went into this brew.

• pitching the yeast - http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Pitching_the_Yeast
• session beer - http://beeradvocate.com/articles/653
• wort - https://www.google.com/search?q=define+wort
• Sweet Stout Journal - Mash @7brewingco - http://mhorner.blogspot.com/2012/09/sweet-stout-journal-mash-7brewingco.html
• Sweet Stout Journal - Post Mash @7brewingco - http://mhorner.blogspot.com/2012/09/sweet-stout-journal-post-mash-7brewingco.html
• Brewing with Denny - http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/
• BeerSmith.com - http://beersmith.com/
• BeerSmith.com Podcast # 39 - http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/05/31/advanced-home-brewing-with-gordon-strong-beersmith-podcast-39/
• Original Sweet Stout recipe from Northern Brewer - http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-SweetStout.pdf
• Wynkoop Brewing Company - http://www.wynkoop.com/

Sweet Stout Journal - Post Mash @7brewing

Next we'll move to the post mash step.  But first, a little nugget of information.

Earlier this week I listened to the BeerSmith.com podcast #39 with Gordon Strong.  Gordon discussed the water conditioning and addition of darker malts to the mash.  He pointed out the idea that darker malts do not require a mashing step as it does not require any enzymatic conversion and provides a charring or burnt flavor to the beer.  

Why do I mention this?  Well, as much as I would have liked to try this during this brew, I came to the realization that I need to understand first how to bring my water temps up for a mash out step.  I am using a cooler configuration like the one detailed by Denny here, BREWING WITH DENNY.  I suspect that I could use the sparge water to bring my total volumes up while increase the mash temps.  However, I didn't want to necessarily alter my brewing process this time without doing the necessary research.  I am detailing the idea here for future reference, more so than anything and potentially generate some conversation.

First before transferring the first runnings to the brew kettle, I have to heat 4 gallons of sparge water to complete the rinsing process of the mash.  

4 gallons of sparge water heating.

It's time to start transferring to the boil kettle after 60 minutes of mashing.  The color should be fairly dark.  

The drain and filter I have is beginning to slow down during run off.  It seems to be pinched or clogged with and requires a little finagling to move the wort from the mash tun.

I ended up pulling the filter out and jamming the end of a wooden spoon down the filter to re-expand it. This simple fix actual increased the flow considerably from a slow trickle to only being held up by the diameter of the valve and drain tube.

Before

After

Now the wort is on to boil.  I have added 1 ounce of Willamette and 0.70 pounds of lactose.  Another topic on the podcasts from BeerSmith.com discussed timing of hop addition.  The discussion lead to adding the hops pre-boil to give the beer a much smoother less harsh bittering taste.  I decided to give this a try and see what the results of that modification would be to my beer.

I'll complete the boil process, chill it, transfer to the fermentation and finally pitch the yeast.  My next post will detail the recipe, today's results and wrap up of the whole brew.  Thanks for reading along.

Sweet Stout Journal - Mash @7brewing

Today, I am brewing up a Sweet Stout or Milk Stout.  A Sweet Stout is a dark beer with a bit sweetness that is added by lactose or milk sugar. The lactose provides an amount of unfermentable sugar or sugar that is not metabolized by the yeast.  This sugar is left over at the end of the fermentation process and contributes to a unique sweetness in the beer.

The first milk stout I tasted was produced by Wynkoop Brewing Company during a business trip out to Denver in 2010 or 2011.  I was intrigued by the sweetness and immediately thought "I need to brew this".  I like varieties of hoppy and malty beers, but the sweetness of the milk stout is quite different and done right can have a very smooth flavor.

First tip of day:  Pay attention to the water temperatures.  For 3 out of the last 5 brews, I have started with overheating the mash water.  This not only requires returning the water to the target temperature but adds an unnecessary amount of time to the brewing process.

Working with small volumes of mash water makes it challenging to maintain temperature for mashing in.  Starting with 2.5 gallons of water heated to 164 degrees, I mashed in 8 pounds of grain.  After mashing in I took a temperature reading of the mash and found the mash was at 146 degrees.  A full 6 degrees below the target mash temperature of 152 degrees.

(Excuse the photo quality from my iPhone 3GS.  My iPhone 5 is on order.)

I made a first attempt to bring the temperature up by adding .5 gallons of water heated to about 190 degrees.  This raised the mash temperature to about 148 degrees.  Typically, I have not checked the mash temps before setting up for the 60 minute mash.  This could alter the flavors of the beers I generally brew and points to the idea that better control over the mashing process.

I added another .75 gallons of water heated over 180 degrees and got within my target.

Mash Water
Total grain (lbs) : 8
Target Mash Water Volume: 2.5 gallons
Final Mash Water Volume: 3.75 gallons
Mash Temperature: 152 degrees

To meet volumes to the boil kettle, the sparge water will be adjusted by 1.25 gallons.