Extra Stout.

[Stouter]

Yesterday's effort, now sitting at pitching temp in a cube in the fridge -

21L BIAB batch.
5 kg - B.B malt,
350g - Roasted Barley,
200g - Caramalt,
100g - Choc malt,
500g - Cane sugar.

EKG - 50g @ 60,
EKG - 20g @ 40.

I'm getting an O.G at 1.070, which a guess is higher than I expected due to the cane sugar addition which I haven't done since playing about with cans and kits. Any suggestions for yeast? I usually have to go with dry yeast, but I'm making a trip to the big smoke tomorrow and visiting a store there for fresh supplies, so I've got better options than the US-04 I originally intended to use.

 

[Bribie G]

Either Wyeast Irish Ale 1084 or MJ New World Strong Ale.

I've been using the MJ for a lot of strong ales lately, does a brilliant clean job.

Good to see you aren't just relying entirely on the Roast Barley (a common fault) but adding in some "middle malts" in between the RB and the BB to add complexity.

 

[Stouter]

Cheers Bribie.
I'll suss out my supplier for the Wyeast. I haven't used that before. Not often I get to play with anything but dry supermarket bought yeast. Locally I'm limited to Safale 04/05, Coopers, and some dodgy HomeBrand looking S#!t.
The MJ New World is one that I'm already ordering today for weekend pickup anyway, so I might save that for next week's repeat performance on this brew.
I left out any CARAFA III in this, which I've used in previous Stout recipes (not even sure why other than it's black), and gone with Cara and Choc, not that I've any idea about substitutions at this stage, I'm just playing with different marbles.
I was hesitant to add in the cane sugar as I'm trying to stay very much 'all grain', but it seems to be what makes the Coopers version I enjoy so much. It definitely made a difference to the higher O.G, though my efficiency might also be improved slightly with a couple of new tricks I tried out with bag lifting and draining too.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Looks good and very similar to mine.

I've pitched mine on a 1/3rd cake of WLP004 Irish Ale yeast, leftover from a mild I've now kegged.

Same thing, a bit of dark crystal, black malt, choc malt and some roasted barley.

Tried a new stout malt that hoppy days are selling.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Cold steeping any of the dark grains or all in? .. I've started 50/50 .. cold steep/In mash.

 

[Stouter]

All in together. I'm not in steeping territory yet. Will this give me a head start on extracting colour?

Supplier hasn't any Irish Yeast until next week. Might call in at another place on the way.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Not sure, I was all in but thought I got too much atringency .. so I started cold steeping.

Then I opened a bottle 6 months later from an "astringent brew" and it tasted bloody good. So I'm thinking I'll go back to all in.

It's just a time thing .. how long are we prepared to wait to drink the beer I think.

 

[Stouter]

I'm the first to admit I'm very time poor, and a greedy ******* too.
I'm hoping to put some of this aside for the next 4 - 5 months and enter it in a local comp. But I'm also intending this recipe to be my mainstay drink if it comes off well. If I can pick up an Wyeast Irish Ale 1084 pack this weekend I'll pitch the MJ New World on Sunday, replicate the brew on Monday, and pitch the Wyeast on Tuesday.
By Aug/Sept hopefully there'll be a few bottles left of each and a chosen contestant for entering in the comp.

 

[Stouter]

Using the magic Oxy wand on this baby too.
Starting at 18C and I thought I'd try lifting that to 20C once I get about a 1.020 reading .

 

[Tex083]

I love Scottish Ale from Wyeast for my stouts, coopers stout yeast re cultured also works well.

 

[Mardoo]

The Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728 is an awesome all-around player. It excels at many styles. The White Labs 013 is the bomb for stouts.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728 is an awesome all-around player. It excels at many styles. The White Labs 013 is the bomb for stouts.

Have used w1728 for ages...got it when it first came out years ago...prob 8yrs ago I started using it

I would suggest doing the following

Pillar of Stout

Pillar of Red ( Cracking Scotish Ale )

W1728 works best at low ferm temps ( 13*c ), and also loves big beers

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/recipe/302-pillar-of-stout/

 

[Stouter]

The Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728 is an awesome all-around player. It excels at many styles. The White Labs 013 is the bomb for stouts.

The 1728 was the closest I could get to the recommendations on here. Not much selection in Wyeast, and I was worried about keeping it cold on the 4.5hr trip home, little esky worked ok though.
Pitching tomorrow, then looking toward the Pillar of Stout.

 

[Bribie G]

Stouter, I see you don't have your location in the side bar, if you are in a remote area it might flush out a couple of brewers that you can buy with.
Happened to me when I lived in Old Bar and very handy for Newcastle purchasing.

They are long time lurkers but came popping out of the woodwork and we ended up brew buddies.

 

[manticle]

Geraldton

 

[Stouter]

I've always has my location there. Dunno why it's not showing for you.
Did get a local response to my sodium percarb buy, and I'm told this new fangle thing called facebook is the go for finding fellow enthusiasts, but I don't want to get on it.

 

[manticle]

Facebook is the devil's armpit

 

[louistoo]

That link is dodgy.. not a recipe still worth a chuckle though Stu.

 

[Stouter]

My first time using a smackpak with the Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale, and I'm very impressed.
My O.G. was high at 1.070 and I set my FV temp at 18C for the first 5 days, took a sample and got 1.034, upped the temp to 22C and that was all she wrote after a total of 11 days, and finishing at 1.016.
Very happy with that, and after emptying the FV into bottles I noticed the sludge on the bottom was quite compact.
Tastes good, and I've split the batch, 12 bottles at least a couple of which I'll put in an upcoming comp, and 12 bottles I'll try my best to condition for longer

At $15 a pack, that's about half my usual budget/brew. I feel like it was worth it though compared to my usual pack of S-04/05 sprinkling efforts. I've still got a couple of dry MJ packs I'll rehydrate and build up into starters, which I've never tried doing before.
This has spurred me on to look further into yeasts now. I'm now going to try harvesting from some Coopers Stout bottles and give it a go.