Time to try a brew that I've not done before - Stout. And to make it special I'm going to make it a coffee stout using award winning coffee from our friend's at
Forsyth's.
Again we'll start with a Dave's Stove Top kit - Irish Stout. The kit came with both liquid and dry malt extracts, Crystal & Chocolate malts and roast barley. Hops are Target and East Kent Goldings with a Safale 04 yeast.
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| Out of the box |
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| Rogo's Stove Top setup |
Got the boil going, trying to get to 70C for steeping of the grains. Really didn't take too long and once it got to 70C I added 2L of water to a second pot to do some sparging of the grains after they were done. And the tool this time was using the floating themo - how easy.
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| Steeping with floating thermo |
As the steep was on, the 2L in the other pot was boiling so I turned it off to let it cool to 70C. On the steep the main burner even at low was a little too much so I kept turning it off and on to try and maintain the temp.
Once the steep was done it was time to sprage, and again the home setup was the best. Wound the grain sack above the stove and it was all good.
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| Grain sack floating above the stove |
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| Grains done |
With the grains done it was time to start the boil and add the extracts. Everything was good except with the extra sparge water the level was too high and after adding all the dry extract it boiled over! Had to shut the gas off. With the heat gone the boil came down and things settled enough to fire it back up and keep things in control. It was just the initial hit of the dry malt.
With things under control I got things ready for the cool down. Though this time I thought I'd try something different which was cooling the wort in the tub, rather then the wash basin. This worked great - the stock pot just floated in the tub! And although the water wasn't as cold as I wanted it, it was a much easier and cleaner way to cool the wort down.
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| Stock pot floating in the tub |
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| Notice the heat from the stock pot making waves |
Though I could never get it cooler than about 31C, and I got impatient cause the water from the tap was only about 25C, tub at 29C... it wasn't going to get any cooler anytime soon so it was time to add it to the carboy.
Added it to the carboy and temp came to 28C. Again impatient so I pitched the yeast, gave it a good minute shake and put the airlock on. All in all a good brew and the coffee to come in the secondary fermentation.
OG = 1.047. This was a little low for me but I attribute it to some of the dry extract not getting into the brew and also filtering most of the boil.
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| OG - 1.047 |
Captain's Log
230 - start
235 - 7 carafes to pot... looks to be about 2 fingers below handles ....49 cups = 11.59 l = 3 gallon
236 - cover on, waiting 100F
241 - 50C (120F)
242 - put 2l of water ready for 70C temp for sparge
244 - 60C, 140F
248 - 68C
250 - 73C, burner off start other pot on high
252 - grains in
254 - burner on again, up to 72, burner off...
257 - one for the doctor
302 - looking good. boil on other pot done... shut off heat
305 - burner on, burner off to keep the 70C
310 - on target, realized separating irish moss and hops didnt need to!
319 - sparge done.. awesome setup!
321 - burner on - wiating for boil
323 - 75C, got primary ready in bathroom
328 - 84C
331 - 90C
333 - 92C
336 - done adding LME
338 - 95C
343 - in, overflow!
350 - under control. rolling boil on low-mid
351 - cleaning grain bag
402 - all clean - going good
418 - add moss
421 - add hops, added 4 carafes to primary
426 - going good
429 - filling tub
436 - stop boil
439 - xfer to tub, stop tub fill
445 - 65C
449 - 50C
453 - 50C, Only 25C water from the tap
455 - 47C, 29C ambient
458 - 43C
501 - 40C
505 - 37C
510 - 35C
513 - 33C
515 - 32C
518 - 32C
528 - 31C
529 - no longer waiting, combining, became 28C.
535 - still 28 C - adding about 4 cups water - gets to about 1/3 up the way on the top rung
548 - sealed, claenup start
630 - claenup finished
631 - OG: 1047
665 g Grain A
1046 g Dry Malt
1500 g Liquid Malt
9g hops
Sadly the Stout placed 18th overall (out of 19). I would have expected the opposite result given the focus group testing that was done prior to the event. I suspect the carbonation in the Stout is what let the judges down - yet I still think it's one of the best I've brewed and it tastes great. Just means more bottles to enjoy with friends (if you're lucky)! 
