#31 Export Stout - Brewday

Recipe     -     Brewday     -     Tasting

Yeast Starter 9/23/14:
For this batch I'm using Irish ale yeast harvested from the wheat ale on 8/24.  I mixed up 1.5 gal of starter with the end of the bag of malt extract (somewhere between 1 and 1.5 lbs) and half a teaspoon of yeast nutrient to split evenly between this batch and the wet hop IPA.  The Chico yeast took off as expected, but the Guinness yeast took 24 hrs to show any signs of carbonation when swirled.  Cold crashed the starters for the last day to settle the yeast.


Brewday 9/28/14:
The night before I brewed, I picked up the malts at the homebrew shop before going to pick hops for the wet hop IPA.  Unfortunately I forgot to pick up the flaked barley.  I was trying to brew the IPA at the same time, so after I mashed in on that beer, I made the trek back to the store to get the last ingredient.

The mash ended up going smoothly, but I somehow ended up with an extra gallon of water in the wort.  I had already planned for a 2 hr boil, so I didn't want to extend it any longer, but I turned up the heat just a bit to try to maximize the boil off.  I was able to get it down to just over 5.5 gal in the fermenter at SG 1.071.

Fermentation:
45 sec O2, yeast starter decanted and pitched at 66F, placed in fridge set to 66F.

2 Days:  We've had a bit of blowoff, as expected with the minimal headspace.  Temperature upped to 70F.

5 Days:  It looks like the heater hasn't been working, so the temp has dropped to 62F.  The IPA is still working but it looks like this one has dropped pretty clear.  Hopefully it's fermented out all the way.

13 Days:  Temp is still low, the heater never recovered.  I removed it from temperature control (so I can cold crash the IPA) and left it at ambient temps w the cider, about 58F.

5 Weeks:  Finally got this racked to secondary.  The SG is still at 1.020, so I think the low temperature really hurt it.  The high final pH (4.63) indicates a slow fermentation as well.  It tastes pretty good though, if still a little green.

9 Weeks: Bottled with priming sugar for 2.5 vol of carbonation.  It's dropped two more points to 1.018 which is a good sign.