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Tonight is the night

Big Burruss

Travel Squad
5 Year Member
I'm finally going to make my barrel aged, imperial chocolate oatmeal stout. I got some oak chips soaking in bourbon, some high gravity yeast, and a ton of grain. I've been planning it for months, but I had an inconveniently timed move. I'm hoping it tastes something like Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout. I'll keep y 'all updated with pics as I go through the process.
 
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I'm finally going to make my barrel aged, imperial chocolate oatmeal stout. I got some oak chips soaking in bourbon, some high gravity yeast, and a ton of grain. I've been planning it for months, but I had an inconveniently timed move. I'm hoping it tastes something like Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout. I'll keep y 'all updated with pics as I go through the process.
Someday I hope to get to that level. I brew mainly all extract with seeping grains, along with tinkering other ingredients. One of these days I'll try a partial/full mash
 
Man, I gotta get into brewing my own.....that made my mouth water....I love Stouts, had a great one last night, along with a fantastic Porter. The Stout was from a local Micro-Brewery, and the Porter was the Stone Brewing Company's Smoked Porter with Chipotle Peppers.......great night. :Biggrin:

I'm finally going to make my barrel aged, imperial chocolate oatmeal stout. I got some oak chips soaking in bourbon, some high gravity yeast, and a ton of grain. I've been planning it for months, but I had an inconveniently timed move. I'm hoping it tastes something like Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout. I'll keep y 'all updated with pics as I go through the process.
 



I haven't been able to post pics from my phone.

Pic of the boil:

14%2B-%2B2


And the beginning of fermentation:

14%2B-%2B1
 
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I need to get working on one of these as I got two empty taps to fill and this one will probably take a bit of time to age. Do you have a recipe for it?

If anyone is interested in the recipe, I had a great beer I called "Big Red". The perfect blend between an IPA and an Amber. Sweet and malty with a nice head with a punch of an IPA. It's all gone now, so no photos. Can try to convert to extract, if needed.

grains for a 5 gal:
10 lb 2-row
1 lb Munich
1 lb 40L
8 oz biscuit
8 oz 120L
8 oz golden naked oats
2 oz chocolate

hops
1 oz magnum 60 min
1 oz centennial and 1 oz cascade 10 min
1 oz centennial and 1 oz cascade at flameout

Denny's Favorite 50 with a starter

OG 1.064
FG 1.016
IBU 58

Mash at 152F
 
Someday I hope to get to that level. I brew mainly all extract with seeping grains, along with tinkering other ingredients. One of these days I'll try a partial/full mash
There are two improvements you can do that will have a big effect that I would focus on first. Control your fermentation temperature and get set-up to make a starter.

For the fermentation chamber, there are many ways to do this. I bought some chest freezers on sale at Sears (could also use Craigslist) and a temperature controller to override the freezer control with a hot and cold plug. Plug the freezer into the cold side and a light bulb in a paint can to the heat size, and you have excellent temperature control to within a degree or so. This is the one I use http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=334.

You are now set up to do lagers and try different temperatures on your brews and there is a difference. For example, Nottingham on a blone ale at 72-75 degrees may pick up some off flavors and will taste different than fermenting at 62-65 degrees. Another advantage is it is real easy to just turn down the temp and cold crash if you want.

Getting the proper pitch rate is also a big improvement and is an absolute must for higher gravity beers (over 1.06) and/or lagers. I use a flask with a stir plate, but you can also grow yeast without the stir plate, just not as effective.

While all-grain can give you some flexibility and improvement and cut brewing costs, I think the two things above can have a bigger effect on quality.
 



Also, I wanted to mash around 153 F, but I couldn't get it down past 157 F, so...hope that doesn't come back to bite me. I'm going to transfer to secondary here pretty soon.
 
Also, I wanted to mash around 153 F, but I couldn't get it down past 157 F, so...hope that doesn't come back to bite me. I'm going to transfer to secondary here pretty soon.
I didn't have a log in to see it, so don't know what kind of attenuation the yeast you used. On the temp, make sure to check where your final gravity hits. That 157 is pushing the edge, but it still should finish pretty close. May be a bit sweeter. If FG is high, it may be a lot sweeter.
 
UPDATE:

Transferred to secondary and added a few spoonfuls of oak chips that have been soaking in whiskey for 2 weeks. I had about an ounce of chips ready, but all of my reading told me to go light on the oak, so I probably used less than one third of that ounce.

The beer is thick and black and angry looking. The yeast at the bottom was sludgy and deep brown (probably the cocoa powder) so I didn't bother trying to wash it.

I don't have a hygrometer so I didn't do any gravity checks. According to my online calculator, this thing should end up around 11% abv when all is said and done.

Bottle in about a month, drink the first one at X-mas.
 
Can anyone recommend to a rookie the best way to begin brewing your own? I have wanted to get into brewing my own, but I am not sure where to begin. TIA for any & all input. :cheers:
 



Can anyone recommend to a rookie the best way to begin brewing your own? I have wanted to get into brewing my own, but I am not sure where to begin. TIA for any & all input. :cheers:
The easiest was is to do extract and start with something like a blonde ale.

Get the extract recipe kit.
Get the biggest pot you can boil in.
Buy only a primary fermenter, cap and air lock.
Buy Sanitizer
Buy a siphon

This looks like a pretty good starter kit and it includes a recipe. http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...arter-kits/essential-brewing-starter-kit.html

Boil the extract and water and for duration it says and add hops when it says.
Cool to pitching temperature around 70F. (Ice bath, adding water if you couldn't boil whole volume, heat exchanger is best, but that can be brought later.)
As it is cooling, re hydrate dried yeast or if using liquid have it out at the beginning per directions.
Transfer to fermenter via siphon. If you can shake to oxygenate it.
Pitch in yeast and let ferment for 3 weeks. (With a good fermentation, this can be scaled back to as little a 4 days).

You are now ready for bottling or kegging a pretty good beer.

Full volume boiling, quick cooling, worflock or irish mosh, controlling fermentation temperature, cold crashing, and yeast fining are all additional ways of improvement for clarity and taste. All-grain is another step as well. But just doing the basics above will still produce a good beer.
 


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