First time Off the Reservation (No Kit Recipie!)

[BrewinWalruss]

Hey all,

I've been brewing for about two years now (with a break. Stupid moving house), and am settling into a serious production line now... I bottled a dark ale today, and having got that behind me, I feel it's time to make the jump away from pre-hopped kit + kilo, and go for my own extract recipie all by my onsies

With that in mind, a slight bonus announcement; I am transitioning to glass bottles! Bought 100 longnecks off ebay the other day for $40.00. Saves me collecting them (especially as I now have 25 litres of ale mostly in PET to drink anyway!)

Anyways, looking for some feedback/tips on a potential recipie. I discovered brewmate and have had enormous fun 'simulating' beer to see what I can do. Have since made the trip to the brewshop, altered some on the owner's reccomendations and this is the current iteration.

It's an Imperial Russian Stout (hopefully)

5 kg Dark LME
0.5 Kg Dark Molasses sugar (used some in the dark ale, seems to work nicely!)
0.5 kg Chocolate Malt (I ADORE this stuff. Been using it in anything dark since!)
0.5 Kg Roasted Barley
50g Pride of RIngwood for 60 mins (Based on Brewmate IBU predictions)
15 grams (or some there of) Fuggles at finishing (around the 10 min mark)

Brewmate stats: PRediced OG: 1.081 FG: 1.021 IBU: 45.3 ABV: 7.85% (without bottle carbonaton)

Planning on using good ol S-04 as yeast. My brewshop owner recomends this for practically anything.

Thoughts? Also: Being a kit man (and a mead maker) I am totally unfamiliar with the boiling process- I don't have a huge (20 litre) pot to play with, so can I add water to the LME in say, a 10 litre pot, and boil it that way (Then top it off as needed?). Also do I add the steeped 'tea' to the boil, or straight to the fermenter? Other tips? I also considered adding some oats to this- good idea? Or not? And if added, are they steeped or boiled?

Cheers,
al.

Oh, as a PS and thanks for reading: My current K&K dark ale recipie (Made once before and loved it, teaked slightly)

1 Morgans amber ale kit
1.7 kg Dark LME
0.5kg Dark DME (Had it at the time, used it, liked it)
0.5 kg Dark Molasses sugar
0.5 kg Chocolate Malt

S-04 Ale Yeast

Comes out with a deep coffee/java taste at the back of the mouth, some choocy overtones... very tasty, very malty.

 

[indica86]

I have a deep seated dislike for S-04 yeast.
Never shall that set foot in my house again.

Boil the steep water from the grain.
Apparently a gravity of 1040 is ideal for hop boils.
Akin to 100g DME per litre of water.

No idea re the stout.

Good luck.

 

[BrewinWalruss]

Why the hating on the S-04? It seems pretty widely popular...

 

[pist]

While im an ag brewer...ive found s-04 to be quite acceptable providing you properly control your fermentation temp within the right range (stable at around 18oC). Its actually quite widely used for english and darker style ales...being a stout this one should be fine.

 

[pat86]

I never used s-04, had quite a few people recommend distinctly not to bother and use Danstar Nottingham instead as a good all purpose Ale yeast. Maybe give it a try, it should be the same price or less and you might find it better.

For hoppier pale ales Bry 97 has done pretty well.

RE. process, yes - when you steep the grains, boil that liquid (adjusting the volume to give you a decent amount and then as Indica said - adjust with DME to aim for 1040 -1050 SG). Use the software or IanH's spreadsheet to figure out roughly the amounts to do this. the amount is usually about 100-110gms of DME / L for 1040, so since you have some sugar from the steep, if you can't be bothered calculating it, just add maybe 80 grams / L.

Aim to have >4L for your total volume for the boil. The reason for the above is hop utilisation. Not the end of the world if you are off by much, but if the gravity is too high, you can't extract enough bitterness essentially.

I haven't used oats myself but make sure you can use them without doing a proper mash, I think it may be questionable / depend on the oats you use but less common with an extract beer for sure.

 

[wereprawn]

Drinking a dark beer atm using s-04. Delicious . Think it works particularly well with dark brews. Really brings out the malty flavours.

 

[Yob]

Not a fan of S04 either, stalled ferment both times I used it, I much prefer Windsor, or as mentioned, notto is a beast. You'll need a couple of packs whichever way you go but especially the RIS

 

[pat86]

I forgot about Windsor, have used it as well in a dark ale although it was one of my first brews so probably not the best to compare with!