Black beer and Stout separation

[sp0rk]

I guess not all eskies are created equal.

One brew shop is currently advertising a double skin insulated stainless steel mash tun at the moment .. looks good. They reckon it drops less temp than an esky .. but at the price they'd want to.

Is there much headspace between the top of your mash and the lid of your esky?
If so, you're losing heat to the air in your esky
Get a foam broccoli box lid and cut it to the shape of your esky, float on top of the mash to help insulate

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Thanks for the tip - naH the esky is chokkers.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

For the record, it's ~3-4*C drop for me, with 5-6kg grain in 20-22L water. (I do ~55:45 mash:sparge ratio).
Targeting 55*C. So my strike temp is generally 58-59*C, depending on ambient temps.
2c

Edit: that's for heating to strike temp in my mash tun Urn (so there's no heat loss to equipment -maybe that's where DS needs an extra few degrees?)

Ah yes, but you are only wanting to mash at 55*c, which is a lot different to 68*c

The smaller the temp diff between your water and grain,the less it will drop the temp

 

[yankinoz]

I'd call it a stout if the abv is high enough, but what's in a name?

FYI: Schwarzbier and cerveza negra mean black beer and are generally lagers, not ales like stout. Trouble is, they're generally more dark brown than black. Once upon a time the Brazilians brewed really black and very roasty lagers under the brand names Caracú and Xingu. Today's Xingu seems to be less black and roasty than what I remembered, whilst Beer Advocate now describes Caracú as a milk stout. BJCP says many Baltic "porters" are actually lagers.

Go ahead and use your insane 12% roast barley and play away. If you also throw in so much crystal it pours like syrup, call it a London stout. If the OG is up in the 1.08 range, say Baltic porter. Or use a lager yeast, make the IBUs 15-20, the abv @ 4.5, lager it and invite all the elderly North Coast Brazilian expats over for a taste of cerveja negra autentico. Seriously, those old black beers were damn good.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Just noticed your post yankinoz (4 months later sorry!).

Sounds like those Brazilians know how to brew some great beers.

I'm still loving mucking around with the black beers (probably every second brew a.t.m). Lately I'm up around 17% dark grains, but taking the edge off by cold steeping at least half of it.

Absolutely loving it, they are so nice you could have one for breakfast. I never use crystal as a rule.. these are sweet enough without. Rarely enjoy a bought stout nowadays, they are always too bitter and over -complicated in flavour for my liking I just don't enjoy them.

Anyway, must build myself a bigger set up as the 10L batches just wet the throat, but at least you get some good variety with a new batch regularly.