Yeast/temp Advice

[waggastew]

Just about to begin my second brew and have been rapidly inhaling as much knowledge from this awesome forum as possible!

Plan is to make a 'Toohey's Old'ish on the way to Stout'ish' brew to consume in the chillier winter months. After some research I had decided on the following recipe:

Muntons Old Kit
500g DDME
500g LDME
100g Brown Sugar
Muntons Kit Yeast
15g Fuggles hops (tea bag)

I went to the LHBS and they did not have the Muntons Kit or LDME in a 500g bag (I know I could of used the rest later but I am trying to keep things relatively simple till I get a few brews under my belt). So the plan changed and I now have purchased:

Morgans Australian Old Kit
Brewcraft Stout Improver (#74 I think?)
12g Goldings hops (tea bag)

Sooooooo I have the following questions:

1. Should I use the kit yeast? If so at what temp (I am just finishing the primary of a CPA at about 16degC with US05 so temp control is not a prob). If not the kit yeast what else? (US04?)
2. With dark ales in general do you want to brew at a higher temp to purposefully get some of those richer flavours? I realise with lighter ales you keep the temp low to keep it clean.
3. The stout improver has a fair wack of brown sugar in it. Is this going to make it a bit too sweet? Should I cut back a bit? (and if so do I need to add a bit more dex?)

Any other suggestions (apart from maybe 'chuck it out and start again :huh: ) would be appreciated!

Cheers!

 

[rclemmett]

Whats in the stout improver?

 

[waggastew]

Don't know the exact proportions but:

500g Dark Brown Sugar
500g Dry Malt Powder
500g (mix of Dextrose and Maltodextrin, don't know the ratio)
Hop Pellets (apparently floor sweepings, not much impact)

 

[rclemmett]

I'd go us-05 and ferment around 18C... This should give you a drier stout and will probably get you closer to Old.

 

[roverfj1200]

I'd use about 200ml of the yeast cake off your CPA and ferment at 18 to 20...

And put it down as it stands.

A small boil with say 10 min with your malt and hops would be OK to add some aroma and flavour..

Trying stuff is how you find what works for you....

Cheers

 

[manticle]

Just about to begin my second brew and have been rapidly inhaling as much knowledge from this awesome forum as possible!

Plan is to make a 'Toohey's Old'ish on the way to Stout'ish' brew to consume in the chillier winter months. After some research I had decided on the following recipe:

Muntons Old Kit
500g DDME
500g LDME
100g Brown Sugar
Muntons Kit Yeast
15g Fuggles hops (tea bag)

I went to the LHBS and they did not have the Muntons Kit or LDME in a 500g bag (I know I could of used the rest later but I am trying to keep things relatively simple till I get a few brews under my belt). So the plan changed and I now have purchased:

Morgans Australian Old Kit
Brewcraft Stout Improver (#74 I think?)
12g Goldings hops (tea bag)

Sooooooo I have the following questions:

1. Should I use the kit yeast? If so at what temp (I am just finishing the primary of a CPA at about 16degC with US05 so temp control is not a prob). If not the kit yeast what else? (US04?)
2. With dark ales in general do you want to brew at a higher temp to purposefully get some of those richer flavours? I realise with lighter ales you keep the temp low to keep it clean.
3. The stout improver has a fair wack of brown sugar in it. Is this going to make it a bit too sweet? Should I cut back a bit? (and if so do I need to add a bit more dex?)

Any other suggestions (apart from maybe 'chuck it out and start again :huh: ) would be appreciated!

Cheers!

Brown sugar will ferment out. The rate might vary slightly from dex (I can't remember) but certainly not enough to concern you.

I'd ferment at 18 whether you use the kit yeast or not. Obviously you can go higher - I find generally that cooler, longer fermentations make nice brews. Some styles will be exceptions like saisons but stout is heavily reliant on malt character rather than yeast character. I brew my dark ales at the same temp I brew my paler ones.


As for whether or not you should use the kit yeast - that's up to you. I reckon if it's reasonably fresh it's probably ok. The main problem with kit yeast is not that it's necessarily crap. It's that mostly the amount is minimal (around 7g) and it's been stored badly (under a lid in the shop rather than in the fridge). I still got ok ferments when I used them as they are designed to be hardy and cope with noobish errors (often unfortunatley encouraged by bad instructions on the kit).

 

[waggastew]

Thanks guys, all great advice. Will mix it up Sunday, keep the temp cooler, and maybe use the kit yeast (I am bit concerned that if I use the CPA yeast from the end of the current batch I will need to brew the CPA/Old combo for evermore). I plan to keep it in the bottle for at least 3-4 months so I will report in after that.

Thanks again

 

[Hatchy]

Plan is to make a 'Toohey's Old'ish on the way to Stout'ish' brew to consume in the chillier winter months. After some research I had decided on the following recipe:

Muntons Old Kit
500g DDME
500g LDME
100g Brown Sugar
Muntons Kit Yeast
15g Fuggles hops (tea bag)

I went to the LHBS and they did not have the Muntons Kit or LDME in a 500g bag (I know I could of used the rest later but I am trying to keep things relatively simple till I get a few brews under my belt). So the plan changed and I now have purchased:

Morgans Australian Old Kit
Brewcraft Stout Improver (#74 I think?)
12g Goldings hops (tea bag)

Has anyone else had this experience with brewcraft? I've been in there with a shopping list a couple of times which includes items they don't sell, the dude either tells me about something roughly similar or seems to lose interest in serving me. I went to berrbelly for the 1st time last weekend & they also didn't have all of the things I was after. Instead of trying to sell me stuff they did have or losing interest in talking to me about brewing they called a shop I could go past on my way home to see if they had the things I was after in stock. I'd now prefer to drive 1/2 an hour to get to beerbelly when brewcraft is walking distance from my place.

Edit: Sorry, off topic (& possibly slanderous)