American Black Ale - Cascadian

[RobboMC]

Tried my hand at making this little known style as it seems attractive to a dark beer lover.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/175/

My recipe looked like this:

Volume 21 litres, abv about 7.25%

1 can Thomas Coopers IPA
1 can Morgans Ironbark Dark Ale
1 can Liquid dark malt extract

500g Dark Crystal grain steeped 45 min 65/68 deg C
500g Light Crystal grain steeped 45 min 65/68 deg C

75g Cascade Hops ( 25g @ 20 min, 25g @ 10 min. 25g at 0 min )
25 g Amarillo at 5 min

Yeast - American Ale

Anyway did the steeping on the stove top, boiled up the hops and started adding a can to the fermenter. Went to the freezer to get the
2 kg block of ice and found - SH&T NO ICE. I had forgotten to prepare the necessary ice blocks I usually use to get the boiled wort cool.

Too late to back out now, looks like I'm no chilling in the fermenter. And with only 10 litres of cold water to add to the 10 litres of boiling wort I was never going to get it anywhere near pitching temp. Maths told me it would end up closer to 60 deg then 20. Then I had a great idea, so I mixed the cans with some boiling water in a boil pot, not the fermenter, and did this.





What looked like a round sink became a batch wort cooling device. I managed to get the wort down to 25 deg C to add to the fermenter, done in 2 batches.
So what started as a big mistake ended up improving the result as I had no ice in the recipe. All well that ends well I hope. it's now bubbling away nicely at
19 deg C, and the weather here is nice and cold to keep it that way.

 

[clauddr]

HAHA, you should do stand-up with improv skills like that! Sounds like a good beer, let us know how it turns out.

BTW - I see you made a batch of the Old Brown Dog, have you tried it yet? How long are you conditioning for (if its bottle conditioning)?

 

[RobboMC]

Yes it's bottle conditioning.

I bottled on July 21st, took me a while to get time to brew it.
I tried one last weekend but it was still way too early to enjoy.

I reckon 2 months minimum.

 

[chromakey]

Hi Robbo

I will be really interested to see how this bad boy turns out.

My predictions are showing 8.4% with 88IBU

That is a big beer. I hope you pitched plenty of yeast

 

[RobboMC]

I use the famous Kit & Extract Beer designer spread sheet made available on this forum.

It shows 7.4% but I it depends how much sugar is removed from the grains, depends if it's a rough steep or a proper mash.
My OG was about 6 points less than the spread sheet predicts so my abv should be lower than your prediction.

I used the Imperial IPA beer style which lists 60-100 IBU and 7.5-10% abv. and just ignore the colour warning.
But yes, this thing is really off the chart and will be very hoppy for a dark beer indeed.

The attenuation is also important, the spread sheet seems to be set at about 70%. My brews tend to run at
pretty close to that.

Either way I'll be labelling these with my 'trademark' blue stickers - which mean NO DRIVING.
I have an empty of a Polish Porter that was 9%, and on the back label is printed a set of car keys within a red circle
with the red line through the keys. The label is in Polish, but the symbol says it all.

I think it's critical to get an accurate abv when making around 3-4% as someone is likely to drive after a couple. Measuring OG is essential.
I was actually tested at a random breath test station coming home in June, fortunately I'd been a good fella and only taken
3.5% abv beer with me that night, and only drank one longneck. Who cares if this is 7,8 or 9%, no-ones driving after drinking it.
I also tend not to drink this strong stuff when my teenagers are about - bad example and all that.


With the yeast, 21 litres at 7% is the same about of sugar as 30 litres of 5% beer, so no I just pitched a single sachet. Pitched at
about 23 deg C though so the yeast got a good chance to get started and I've managed too cool it through the first week of ferment
to 18 deg C. It's going beautifully now without looking like a boilover.