CS 9 Session Stout

[paul m]

Extract Brew with speciality malts based loosely on John Palmers -Porto Palmer.

Brew day was 20 April 2013

2.7kg of muntons pale liquid extract

1kg of crystal malt

0.8kg of roasted barley

0.8kg of black patent malt

0.3kg of chocolate malt

1kg of dark crystal malt

0.8kg of dextrose

5g of Gypsum

Steeped grain at 70 deg. for an hour

Hops

60min  10g target

30min 20g fuggles 20g northdown

20min 10g challenger

Added Kopperfloc at 15min before end.

Chilled with immersion chiller to 25 deg after 1 hour. Wort tasted like burnt toast so thats pretty promising!

In fermenter 1.050 26L

Hydrated Nottingham Yeast at 38-40 deg. may have been a tad high for the poor yeast. 19degrees Bubbling at airlock after 48 hours Fairly sluggish . I upped temp by 0.3 deg per day until 21 deg

checked gravity on day 12 - 2 May 1.022. had to take it out of fermentation chamber so fluctauted around 20 to 22 deg after that using a loosely fitted heated belt overnight. Checked again on 13th still 1.022. Added 1 Litre of highly active US05 around 1.045. Got some action on the airlock but then remained at 1.022 until 22 May. So almost  a month in the fermenter! Alcohol is  3.8%. But i think its a bit stiffer than that for some reason.

Bottled with dextrose for 130g for 26 L of beer 22nd May. 

Sorry guys when you receive the beer It may need to be  kept warm for a week 21 deg just to finish carbonation. And after store in the fridge for a week or two before drinking. Pour at around 7 degrees. Looking forward to your feedback.

[Dan]

Appearance Nice little espresso coffee head - -rich brown. Colour was deep black. Poured like milk - thick.

 

Aroma Lots of roasty/coffee/choc on the nose.

 

Flavour Sweet, lots of roast, choc. Not a large amount of bitterness - maybe the under attenuation??

 

Mouthfeel Not as thick as the pour suggested. Nice amount of carbonation.

 

Overall Despite the flaws you already know about - I don't think this is a bad beer. I take my hat off to you for the amount of crystal - it shows balls!! I think with the few tweaks suggested by Tom and replacing the LME with a base malt for all-grain + healthy yeast - this would be a great beer. Cheers!

[paul m]

Post Script on this one- With 19L in the keg left over I've found this goes pretty well as a 20 :80 mix with some ordinary bitter. Hey presto-Black and Tan. I'm finding that I'm drinking more overall in experimenting with the ratio. Whoops too much solid stout- I'll add a bit more bitter... Bingo a 2L jug of beer for a supposedly quiet midweek night!!