Evolution of a Stout

Confessions of an Extract Brewer

It all started with a pot of coffee.  It is brew day and my friend Frank and I are invading my wife’s kitchen, brewing a dry Irish stout.  I had recently brewed a Bass clone and at this point, I've got black and tan’s on the brain.  But on this day, in exchange for allowing the intrusion, I am asked to brew a pot of coffee for my wife.

As the wonderful scents from the coffee pot intermingle with the aromas of the steeping grains, Frank and I look at each other with the same idea.  As we plan on when and how to add the coffee, I have a revelation.

My favorite coffee drink by far is an Iced Mocha from Peet’s.  Chocolate, milk and espresso.  I’ve had Young’s Double Chocolate Stout.  I’ve enjoyed Samuel Adams Cream Stout.  In my younger years I started a few camping mornings with Red Hook’s Espresso Stout, brewed with Starbucks coffee.  But I’ve never had all three together.  I realize it is now incumbent upon me to create it.

Iced Mocha Stout is born.

Using the dry Irish stout as a base, I add lactose powder for the milk, double strength coffee and cacao nibs for the chocolate.  It isn’t bad, but you don’t get much chocolate.  Cacao nibs impart the bitterness of pure chocolate, but no sweetness.

Any sugar I add would be consumed by the yeast during fermentation.  My wife is a pastry chef.  So I appoint her my in-house food consultant and inquire how much vanilla would highlight the chocolate without upstaging it.  She is conservative, so we start with a tablespoon of vanilla extract.

I try another batch with two tablespoons.  I am also interested in increasing the mouthfeel.  Lactose is milk sugar.  It is mildly sweet, but viewed by yeast much like my 8-year old son views cauliflower.  It is meant to add thickness and a slight creaminess.  I start with 4 oz of Lactose powder because that is the package size sold by the brew supply shop.  Or why not use 2 packages?

Around the same time, I catch wind of the Samuel Adams Longshot competition.  So I decide to send off some bottles.   When they were ready, I popped one open and discovered why not.  The lactose washes out both the chocolate and the coffee and leaves it totally unbalanced.

While one judge likes the direction and scores me a 34 out of 50 (which I later came to understand wasn’t such a bad score), my overall was a disappointing 31.

The next batch I drop the lactose back to 6 oz.  As I measure out the coffee grounds to brew my coffee  for the fermenter, I have the idea of skipping Mr. Coffee and just putting the grounds in a hop bag.  I am no barista, but I know enough about coffee to know that boiling the grounds scorches them and makes them bitter.  Bitter coffee not good.

But I want to give steeping a try.  Putting them into the fermenter means they go in cold.  Not optimal.  Putting them into the carboy also presents concerns.  The thought of the beer sitting on week-old coffee grounds does not sound appealing.  That kind of bitter is not better.  There is but one solution.  I know the risks, but I decide to go for it.  185 degrees is safe enough not to ruin the coffee, but that means opening the kettle lid to whatever happens to be floating in the air.

My in-house food consultant (IHFC) has told me many a time that the danger zone for food is 40 – 140 degrees.  Anything colder or hotter is inhospitable to bacteria.  My main adversary, lactobacillus, happens to be bacteria.  So with 45 degrees of cushion, I decide to go for it.  I make my little Arabica tea bag, wait for 185, drop it in, and give it a prod with a sanitized spoon to get it into the soup. 

This turns out not to be as easy as I thought, because of the wort chiller taking up all that space in there.  But I get it done.  The result is not bad.  What else can I tweak?

I start playing with the grain bill.  Some of the feedback from the 2010 competition was a desire for something roastier.  I try a variation with rauch malt, which is smokey.  I try a batch toasting some 2-row at home.  Then the beer shop decides not to sell dark malt in ½ pound packages anymore and is clearing them out.  I buy a few and decide to swap out some of the liquid malt.  I first try half a pound and then a pound.  Each half pound of dry replaces ¾ pound of liquid.  I hate math.  It ruined my aspirations of becoming a theoretical physicist (that and having only an average intelligence).  So I decide to use a pound and ditch the small amount of extra “roasty” malts and call it even.  I decide to get the roasty flavor from the coffee, now that the lactose is down to 4oz.

The Longshot competition comes around again.  This time I know going into the brew that this will be competition beer.  I boost up the coffee weight.  The contamination risk is weighing on me though.  I open the lid just enough to drop the coffee bag in, give it a prod, and then close it to limit exposure.

After I have transferred to the fermenter, I discover to my horror that the bag had been caught between the wort chiller and the side of the kettle.  While most of the bag is wet, there are dry grounds in the middle as I empty the bag.  What to do?

I can’t put grounds into the carboy.  Adding the extra coffee at bottling strikes me a bit like unwrapping your presents before Christmas, like it’s cheating somehow.  The beer’s true flavor can only be unveiled after a full fermenting period and you sink or swim with that.  I did increase the grounds, but there was a lot of dry in that bag.  Guilt wins; I go with what I got.

The scores come back.  Average is 30.5.  At the conclusion of my pitty party, partially exacerbated by the fact that the free tee shirt was not as cool as last years, I steel myself and decide to continue on.  I will build it better, faster, stronger!  Well, better and stronger anyway.

Costco has a sale on Madagascar vanilla around the holidays.  Same sale they had last year.  I had bought some to experiment with and liked the results.  But after the holidays were gone, so was the vanilla. Buying it elsewhere was muy expensive, so I had gone back to extract.  I see it back in Costco’s baking aisle, in all it’s glory.  I stock up.  I look over at the wife.  She approves.  Maybe I’ll grab one more package then.

I try using the bean like a flavoring or aroma hop, in the last 5 minutes of the boil.  Almost no flavor impact.  Next batch, I think about transferring the bean from kettle to carboy.  But my adversary, lactobacillus, would want me to do that.  And I did buy that extra package at Costco…

Since dropping back the lactose powder, I find myself missing the mouthfeel, that cream in my coffee feel that should come with an Iced Mocha Stout.  As I read through a brewing book that I scored from Santa, I come across a recipe for Oatmeal Stout.  Something has to be done.  Maltodextrin is cheating, but Oatmeal is insane, isn’t it?  Or is it deliciously insane?

I decide to go for it.  As an extract brewer I don’t get much practice at trying to hold a mash temperature at precisely 158 degrees for an hour.  A previous experience mashing pumpkins yielded good results.  I muse on how Mashing Pumpkins might be a good name for a pumpkin ale, then I realize I don’t have a good lawyer for that.  So I set to mash oatmeal.  The first batch, my second most recent to date, turns out pretty good.  There is a nice flavor that oatmeal imparts to a stout.  It turns out to play nicely with others, and gives that mouthfeel I was looking for.

But that damn coffee is off again!!

I dread subjecting myself and my friends to another 5 gallons of off-balanced stout.  I decide to sac-up and….coffee directly to the keg.  I am able to re-balance it, and it is great.  I decide that more important than being macho is making beer that tastes great.

And here comes Longshot 2012.  I have no misgivings about winning anything but a free tee shirt, but I damn well want better than a 31/50.

So my last changes for the competition beer:

Change to Espresso instead of coffee and add 2 vanilla beans to the fermenter.

These two changes really pull everything together.  Espresso has that roasty flavor, more so than coffee.  It tends to have a stronger finish, which is why most people prefer it with sugar or sweetness.  I typically don’t transfer to a secondary fermenting vessel.  And in this case, I leave the beans (sanitized in vodka, cut longways and scraped with a sanitized knife.  Yes, on a sanitized cutting board!) in the fermenter for 3 weeks.

After, I transfer the whole contents to a keg.   I pull a measured sample, and then add a measured sample of espresso.  I play around with the ratio until I have the right mix.  For an impatient person with a hobby that requires great patience, I feel a certain catharsis about getting instant gratification.

I pull enough Espresso shots to reach the desired volume (math, don’t let me down again!), and then pour it in.  I have to bottle for the competition, so I prepare my bottling bucket and transfer a couple gallons directly from the keggerator.

By now it has been judged.  I simply await the results.  I wonder how I would react to a 30, or something close to that.  At worst I know I will receive feedback from the judges.  The interesting thing about these competitions is that judges are judging taste, smell and color,  but in comparison to a specific “classic style” category.  What if I want to make my own category!! 

I can take a 30 if guys and gals that like beer…. like my beer.

New Brews

My Brewed is back.

It has been a while, but not to worry, i have not slowed brewing, just gotten too busy to post. I've been putting in a lot of work on the Iced Mocha Stout, discovered a brewery has pilfered the Evil Twin from my Evil Twin IPA, and got my Liquid Amber to taste a bit like Boddingtons (wait til I get the faucet and nitro mix!).

I did a pretty decent Pumpkin Ale that I will add to the holiday docket, although i did not do a Holiday Ale this year. I have two bottles left from last year, one of which I'd like to open and try some time soon. The initial offering, which included ginger, orange peel and cinnamon, came out a bit heavy on the ginger flavor due to the use of fresh ginger. Next time the orange peel will be fresh too. Curious too see what happens after a year in the bottle. Will the ginger mellow out, or will it become more dominant?

I am taking advantage of the colder weather to lager. I have an East Coast style (think Boston) Lager going in the garage getting ready to go into secondary. I also have the latest versions of the Evil Twin IPA and Iced Mocha Stout going.

Evil Twin

The ET is based on a modest quantity of strong bittering hops, with the nice flavor combination of Cascade and Amarillo. I had upped the quantity by an ounce each (in a 5 gallon batch) and a bit more malt to balance things out, and the outcome was solid- the best batch yet.

So the batch in the carboy now has another ounce of a different hop, which i believe will add a bit more depth of hop flavor.

I've also been experimenting with roasting my own grains. For this batch I have increased the roast by 1/4 lb of English 2-row, that i roast lightly toasted for 10 minutes.

Brewing operations were improved by the acquisition of a small electric drill-powered mill that i got for a steal. It was returned to the store because the user couldn't get it to work. The free roller has a tendency to loose traction with the grain and stop spinning. With the help of an allen wrench to start the motion again, all is good.

The IPA will transfer to Keg around Jan 20th, and be ready to go by the 27th (in time for the Superbowl!!)

As i mentioned earlier, I've been putting in a lot of work on the Iced Mocha Stout. I actually was working on posts the last two batches, but never managed to finish them. So for the next post I will add some of those notes, along with notes from the most recent batch. I will drop one hint: Oatmeal may be involved!

Yes, I know it has been a while. Lest ye think I have lost the taste for the habit, i have been so busy that I have not had time to post. I have 3 on tap, 2 in wait, a Belgian in the carboy, and an Amber just waiting to be brewed.

I have upgraded from a canning pot to a proper brew pot, with a fancy thermometer that screws into place.

I even crafted some 1/4" copper tubing into a home made wort chiller.

Most importantly, the head shakes and the "oh, not again" look from the wife has developed into irritation at the impact crater I supposedly leave in my wake as I brew. To rectify this, I purchased a Brinkmann outdoor cooker. Now the birds and squirrels will exhale loudly as they think "does it ever end?"

I have also come up with some lists to remind me of what tools and buckets, etc, I need for different tasks (i.e. brew day, yeast starter, kegging and/or bottling day). I will post some of these because I periodically lose track of the binder I keep those in.

So let's start with the freezer. It turns out I was never in any risk of having the beer freeze. After lagering, I thought I would turn the cold up a little, so I turned down the temp on the thermostat. After a week or two, I thought I should probably make it colder. Another turn of the thermostat. Still not cold enough. Screw it, it's going down into the high 20's. No change.

Turns out there is some sort of freon link, and as freon has this nasty habit of dispersing the ozone layer, you cannot get it at the neighborhood hardware store. So I am evaluating options. For now I will have to deal with beer at 47 degrees. And get back into bottling.

That's all for now. Next time I'll cover what's in production and consumption phases.

Lager's Run

I've brewed many an ale in the 14 months or so that i have been brewing. I even brewed a Common. But a lager? Thanks to new technological advances (my neighbor Chris, a home brewer himself, gave me his old converted chest freezer in exchange for a regular supply of beer) I am now able to brew a true Lager.

But what to choose for the sentimental first? A lot of lagers are either too light or one dimensional. This is actually preferable on a hot summer day, but it is still cold outside and I want some flavor and complexity. I want my first time to be special, okay?

So where else would you go for inspiration but a bowling alley?

On a recent trip bowling, my friend Myron bought a pitcher of beer. The taste was crisp and light, yet had a sweetness to it. And I picked up some spices, too. When pressed, Myron gave up that it was Samuel Adams' Winter Lager. I was actually surprised to hear it was a lager from the complexity of flavors.

So when I ran out of my Iced Mocha Stout, my Smokehouse IPA and ran low on my Irish Red, there was plenty of space in the keggerator to lager.

I got this one off the web and had to modify it, due to some of the hops not being available. The recipe is at the end, if you are interested.

I have run across others on similar beer quests. My friend Jim is a more advanced brewer than I, and after a visit he sent me home with a stir plate and beaker to borrow. He gave detailed instructions on how to actually prepare the yeast starter right there in the beaker. However, I was able to find a way to have it boil over every time and extinguish my gas stove flame. Finally I resolved to prepare it in a saucepan and transfer it afterwards.

After 24 hours of spinning around in a pyrex beaker, i let the yeasties rest a bit. Then I figured that since these were lager yeast bound for a winter brew, they might like a cooler climate. So in the fridge they went.

I took them out the next day for brewing and mused that they probably would have done better just sitting out. I was left with a cake of yeast on the bottom, and some starter wort on top, wondering if I blew it or just had a dead batch of yeast.

Jim came by and confirmed that this was how it was supposed to look. He also advised pouring off most of the wort and just using the cake with a little of the remaining liquid to pitch with. Otherwise the full contents might alter the flavor a bit.

So it is sitting in the very freezer you saw abo.... what's that? freezer? no.... don't worry. I'm not freezing it. I picked up an analog regulator that the freezer plugs into. The regulator can be set to fridge temperatures by shutting off juice to the freezer when the temperature probe senses it's getting too cold. Likewise when it gets too warm, it turns back on. In this case, I have turned it up from mid 30's to mid to high 40's (there is a temperature variance of 4- 8 degrees) for the initial fermentation period.

Okay, so let's take a step back and talk about all this lager stuff. What the heck is the difference between an ale and a lager, and why would a freezer be involved? For the most part, it is the yeast. Ale yeast strains tend to strive for the top, so they can look down with self-importance and savor their hard work. And they should be proud! They are considered top fermenting. Lager yeast strains are bottom dwellers, cellar creatures, no ambition but to congregate at the bottom of the carboy and do that thing they do. They are bottom fermenting.

The difference is, that while ale yeast like warm weather (but NOT sunshine), the lager yeast like it when it's cold and dark. And they are lazy. And slow. They take longer to finish their jobs. But you know, if you leave them alone and don't nag them too much, they actually amount to something. Such as a Winter Lager.

Jim also sent me home with two more carboys. So after the first week when fermentation dies down, I will transfer the beer to one of the new carboys. The method to that madness is to get my precious lager away from the sediment for it's long journey. Unlike ale, which is ready for kegging or bottling in two weeks, the lager will require another 4- 6 weeks to maximize the crispness that sets it apart from it's ale bretheren. That sediment could otherwise eventually contribute off flavors, and we simply cannot have that.

Now I am still using the same airlock on the carboy that I always do, rather than a tube that extends out of the top and into another container to filter out C02. So I've felt almost obsessed about going out to the garage and opening the freezer door to keep pressure from building up. I have these visions of the freezer exploding from all the built up gas coming from the air lock.

And since we're having this private conversation, I even found myself huffing and puffing, trying to blow the C02 out of the freezer compartment to alleviate pressure build up. I know, it's kinda silly, huh? But let's just keep that to ourselves. Hate to have something like that show up on the internet.

Anyways, I'll let you know how it comes out. In the meantime, I am going to have another run at the Iced Mocha Stout. This time I'll add an extra Tbsp of vanilla just to see what happens. Maybe next time I will play around with the malts to see how that changes the flavors.

The first batch turned out great. The coffee was strong but not overpowering. It went really well with the stout flavors. The lactose contributed a nice mouth feel, a certain smoothness. I may consider adding another 2 oz on a future batch to see what changes. I was worried about the vanilla taking over, but it wasn't detectable. I did pick up some of the chocolate, which was the purpose of the vanilla. I am hoping my tweak brings out a bit more of the chocolate, and if not I will play with the grain mix. Heck, I'll probably do that anyways.

Without further ado, the Winter Lager recipe:

2.75lbs Light Dried Malt Extract
4lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract
1 lb Wheat malt
1.5 lbs Munich malt
1.5 lbs Crystal malt 60L

Bittering- 2 oz. Kent Goldings (60 minutes)
Flavorings added in last 15 mins:
1 oz Curaco Orange (bitter orange peel)
0.5 oz Freshly grated ginger root
1/2 tsp Powdered cinnamon
Finishing/Aroma (2 mins):
1 oz Liberty
1 oz Saaz

White labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast.

Iced Mocha Stout

As mentioned last time, I have had a cream stout, a chocolate stout and an espresso stout. But I have never had all three. In a few short weeks that will all change.



To make the Iced Mocha Stout work I wanted to make sure special attention was paid to the ingredients. I started with a dry irish stout kit from the local beer supply store.


To mocha-tize it, I examined the contents of an Iced Mocha. Ice. Chocolate. Milk. And of course, coffee.



The ice would be supplied from the outside.



The chocolate had some scientific challenges. We couldn’t just drop a chocolate bar into the boil. Chocolate has fat (I know, it turns out those rumors are true), and that does not play well with the yeast. I had tried Hershey’s special dark cocoa during conditioning on the last stout, but it added just a hint to the aroma and was lost in the other flavors.


So this time I decided on 2 Tbps that would be added towards the end of the boil. I’ve also been curious about using cacao nibs. So I decided to add 4 oz.



Neither chocolate is sweet, and I’m not trying to rot anyone’s teeth, but I did want to try to enhance the flavor a little bit. I was going to add ¼ tsp of vanilla extract, however after consulting with the resident pastry chef, I bumped it up to 1Tbps.



For the milk, you can’t just open a quart of Berkeley farms 2% and dump it in, but you can get lactose powder. So I got 4 oz of that for the milk component.



I would need to go all out for the coffee. But what to use? There are so many different varieties of coffee and so many ways to roast it to get so many flavors.



So I made a field trip to the Peet’s Coffee & Tea store in San Ramon, CA. I announced my intentions, and was enthusiastically directed to the barista, who himself was a one-time brewer. The challenge is that you don’t want a coffee that will lend a nutty, fruity, spicy, chocolatey or really any other flavor. The other ingredients will capture other flavors. This coffee should be a straight forward dark roast, and taste like….. well, coffee. The barista recommended either French or Italian roast, and I went for French. Whole bean, of course, so I can grind it right before use.



So I added twice the recommended daily allowance of fresh grinds for a pot of coffee and took 1 liter of the yield for the brew (about 32 oz).



Here’s how I put it all together: I added the lactose and cocoa powder to the last 5 minutes of the brew. I added the Peet’s French roast and the vanilla extract to the carboy, just prior to pitching the yeast.



Then when the brew had fermented for a week, I added my cacao nibs. I did a taste test just prior and so far the results are good. We’ll see what the nibs bring to the party.



This brew will go into the keg on Sunday, and I will give it a week or two to carbonate. I’ll post some pictures and the results of the taste test when it is ready to go.

Next Up: Iced Mocha Stout

There's always that dude that orders iced beverages in the dead of winter so the coffee shops have to keep the ice maker plugged in, damn the blizzard outside. That dude is yours truly.

My favorite coffee beverage is the Iced Mocha at Peet's.

As chronicled earlier, I ran an Espresso Stout and it turned out pretty good (if not a bit too strong on the coffee). That one was done on the fly, so this time i did a little research and pondering, and now I am ready to give it a go.

The premise: I've had a cream stout (Sam Adams has a nice one). I've had an Espresso Stout (Red Hook used to make one. Breakfast on camping trips when i was single and much younger). I've had Chocolate Stouts (Young's is my favorite). But I've never had all three in one beer. With all the brewers out there I'm sure it has been done, but since I've never heard of one, yet alone tried one, I'm on it.

The gist: I am starting with an extract version of a dry Irish stout. To that, I am adding lactose at the end of the boil, double strength Peet's coffee and a touch of vanilla extract to the cooling wort (before pitching the yeast), and cacao nibs in the second week of fermenting.

The plan: I will brew it this weekend, and keg it two weeks later. If it tastes as good as it sounds, I'll brew another batch and bottle it.

More to follow on brew day, including some pics.

45 Million Year Old Beer?

Bottle Washer called my bluff, and as it was near his birthday, and since he made the road trip (with brand new baby in tow, no less) I let him pick the beer we'd brew. His choice, dunkelweisen. Drunken-what? It's like at Hefeweisen, but a bit darker. It's meant to have a sort of banana flavor and be a bit richer than a Hefe.

And so it did. I was a bit worried with the amount of dried malt extract that the recipe called for, and it is a bit sweet, but it actually has a nice rich flavor with a hint of banana.

In fact, my friend David, who fancies himself a beer conniseur proved his mettle and picked out the banana without coaching.

The Espresso Stout turned out pretty good. I had added a liter of strong coffee plus about 5 Tablespoons of coffee grounds as detailed in an earlier post. I would either decrease or leave out the grounds, but otherwise I fully intend to do this one again. Some stouts have a heavy feel to them, but this one was nice and light. The coffee went hand in glove with the dry stout. At this point I find myself craving it, and I'm nearly out.

The chocolate was not dominant. My wife, the resident chocolate expert, said it had a chocolate nose. I had to explain to her that beer does not have facial features. No laughs but I did get the eye roll and almost a smile.

I may try to introduce chocolate next time to the boil, but again, the end result was quite good as it was, so I may just leave it out altogether.

******
More Beer sent me a postcard to notify me of a big event with tastings and discounts, etc. My wife intercepted it, which turned out to be a good thing, as it was handed to me with that look of resignation "I guess I know where you're going on Saturday". No groveling required. Just ingenious marketing right there.

So under the pressure of a 15% off sale, I finally broke, and came home with a Cornelius keg, a CO2 tank, and all the fittings.

However this presented yet another problem. What do I fill it with?

So my friend Rene has been living out of town, and has just moved back to the San Francisco area. We go way back, so I figured I would honor her return by letting her select the next beer to go in the pot.

"I don't know," she says. "I like ales". "And Lagers".

If you are not laughing (or at least chuckling) let me explain...

All beers are either Ales or Lagers. This is largely deliniated by the type of yeast used and fermenting/conditioning temperature. Ales use yeast that ferments on the top and brews at 65-75 degrees. Lager yeasts prefer the bottom of the bottle or bucket for fermenting, as well as a chillier temp- about 55- 65 degrees.

So I have a few options here. Then I think of a smart ass way to fill the request. A steam beer, or California Common is a lager brewed at Ale temeratures. I could give her both an Ale AND a Lager!!!

So I had a brew day this past weekend, and it is still nice and active. So next weekend, no bottles to wash (I might bottle a gallon or two to share- I am told that if kept cold and under pressure, the beer should keep about a month. i can't drain 5 gallons myself and the wife will tolerate only so many social gatherings in a week).

*******

Earlier this week I came across an article claiming someone in Northern California is brewing beer with 45 MILLION year old yeast. Turns out it's true- Jurassic Park style, found preserved in Amber. And out of 150 types of yeast, 149 would not be brewers yeast, but this one actually was!

So here is a link to the story from the Contra Costa Times. Check it out!
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12924553?source=most_emailed