Recipe: #59 Dark World (Beer Advocate Crowd Sourced American Stout)

I really wanted to get a Stout on for St. Patrick's Day.  I've wanted to do this every year and this year was looking like another, "maybe next year" kinda year again.  I had a brew day on the calendar for a Pilsner and a Saison, but saw that I had the chance to make a Stout instead, and still have it ready in time for St Patrick's Day if I used the right yeast, plus I don't really want a Pils right now, I want a Stout.  I had to have it fermented and carbed up in 2 weeks and 2 days.  Using 1968 would give me a quick fermentation and even quicker clearing.  Now I just needed to work up a recipe.

Awhile back Vikeman, a Beer Advocate homebrew forum member, put together a poll to do a crowd sourced Stout recipe.  The popular votes fell on American Stout, and a string of new polls ensued to decide the OG, FG, ABV, IBU, grist composition, yeast, mash temps, hops, etc.  In the end the recipe was compiled and released with multiple brewers around the country brewing the recipe for themselves.  I really enjoyed being a part of the polls, and wanted to brew this beer, so I figured I had my recipe.  This recipe included toasted oatmeal so a few days before brewing I put the oatmeal into the oven set at 350*F for about 40 minutes giving it a couple stirs and letting the kitchen smell like cookies, then I placed it in a paper bag to cool for a few days.

Some people, including myself, made a few changes based on their systems or availability of ingredients.  Because of my time frame I swapped the yeast strain as I had originally voted for (but lost) London ESB, and didn't have the time to do a starter (I can get brewery fresh pitches of this yeast for free).  I also opted to use the NW Pale Ale Malt from Great Western (that I voted for) instead of the less flavorful standard pale malt because this is the base malt I use on all my beers and it actually costs less than the other stuff.

Per the norm, I like to get as much out of a brewday as possible, so I wanted to brew something else alongside this beer from the same mash.  To do this I opted to keep the dark grains out of the mash and steep them in the hot wort after running off 14 gallons and splitting it up into 2 separate kettles.  After steeping the chocolate and roast the boil commenced with the hops for the recipe at their given times.

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Stats:

Gallons: 5.20

OG: 1.068

FG: 1.020

ABV: 6.3%

IBUs: 53

SRM: 43

Efficiency: 81%

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Fermentables:

 7.75# Pale Malt (Great Western) (62.2%)

 1.85# Munich I (Weyermann) (14.9%)

 0.90# Oatmeal, Toasted (7.2%)

 0.65# British Dark Crystal - 75/85L (5.2%)

 0.65# Chocolate Malt (Crisp) (5.2%) Steeped only

 0.65# Roasted Barley (Crisp) (5.2%) Steeped only

Mash 10 hours @ 154

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Boil 75 mins

50 2.20 oz Chinook 12.00% AA

10 1.40 oz Willamette 5.60% AA

WP 25 0.80 oz Chinook 12.00% AA

WP 25 1.00 oz Willamette 5.60% AA

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Kettle Additions:

Gypsum - Mash 1/2 tsp, Boil 3/8 tsp

Epsom Salts - Mash 3/8 tsp, Boil 1/4 tsp

Calcium Chloride - Mash 7/16 tsp, Boil 3/8 tsp

Pickling Lime - Mash 1/4 tsp

Yeast Nutrient 2 taps

Whirfloc 1 each

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Fermentation:

Cooled to: 58*F

WY 1968 Londond ESB (Ninkasi Slurry - 1/2 Cup)

70*F 3 days

72*F 5 days

76*F 4 days

40*F 2 days

40*F 7 days

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Notes:

2/25 Toasted oatmeal at 350*F for 40 minutes stirring a few times. Came out golden brown.

2/28 Mashed in all the grains for both batches together (less the dark grains for the stout) at 154*F with 38qts of water. Wrapped in heating blanket set on high and a sleeping bag for the night.

3/1 Mash had dropped to 144*F by 7:30am. Ran off entire first runnings together then sparged to a total of 14.5 gallons. Split runnings equally. Steeped grains for nearly 45 minutes since my propane tank kicked and I had to run get it filled. Removed grains and sparged with final runnings from he mash. Proceeded with the boil per recipe. Chilled to 54*F and transferred to fermentation fridge at 12:30pm, pitched 1/2 cup of thick slurry. Little too much boil off, ended up with 4.9 gallons of 1.072 wort, diluted back to 5.20 gallons of 1.068. Set fridge to 70*F and wrapped both fermenters with heating blanket. Krausen forming by 7pm.

3/4-3/5 Krausen dropped. Increased temp to 72*F to keep it rocking.

3/8 Took sample, FG at 1.023, much higher than the 1.018 we were looking for. Roasty, hints of earth and citrus, chocolate, first sample tastes like Chinook, a little too sweet on the finish. Roused Better Bottle to get the yeast back into suspension and increased the temp to 76*F.

3/11 Another sample, 1.022.

3/13 Kegged and set to 10 psi in beer fridge to carb.

5/31 Took 2nd place of 12 entries in BJCP Sasquatch Hoembrew Competition.