G&G R.I. Stout In the Carboy...Snifter

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Hi,
Thank you John for your help, recipies, and the kit all made for a great brew day.

I deviated from the Recipe in a couple ways. I locked down the PH of the boil water to 5.2 with"5" while I mini-mashed the grain with my 7.1 ph hard water.
I also took a tip from a pal about using DME and the residual that attaches itself to the sides of the Kettle when using DME....well I grabbed the trusty Handheld blender wand and thorougly mixed and declumped the DME in some warm soon to be boiled water. This worked NICELY as no DME clumps or residue stuck to the sides of the Kettle!

I also added some Yeast Nutrient to the boil.

I could not resist adding some Irish Moss...stuff is so dark you will Never even notice if it is cloudy.

I added FRESH cascade hops at 2 min. before the boil completion for aroma.

The rest of the brew was pretty much by the instructions.

What I found interesting was the Water bill for the ingredients. I marked a 5 gallon mark on the Stir Spoon and went with that. After boiling and emptying the boil kettle, I was about 1 gallon shy of a full Carboy...and I was counting my P's and Q's very closely.

So had to boil up some add water to top off carboy. Before the addition the O.G. was 1.124...after the additional gallon, the O.G. came out to 1.093 which was great for target.

I then after wort chilling to 60deg I observed a Great looking Cold Break in the carboy...and adding 1 gal of make up water boiling hot to cooled wort estimated 70 deg after that. I then thorougly aeriated the wort with a stirrer made from stiff wire that was powered by my battery powered drill.

I have been building a Yeast starter from White Labs WLP0007 since Wednesday it was pitched Liquor, Stir Bar (oops) and all...into the Wort. High Krausen has now happened at about 4-5 hours after pitching.

Please give some guidance on when to rack to secondary and when to rack to bottles. I think It will be a great brew.

Thanks G&G!

[grapeadmin]

Sounds like a really good brew day. I would keep an eye on the airlock in the primary. Once it slows to only 1 bubble per minute, I would rack the batch into the secondary fermenter. Allow the beer to sit in the secondary until it is clear and stable. Once clear and stable, rack, prime and bottle.

john
g and g

[Nilboglin]

Cool I just didi A Russian Imperial Stout too.
Helpful thread!

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Informational additional tidbit:

I think I Got ALL the trub into the primary..ewwwww..that had me worried. I smelled the C02 coming out the blow off tube and it smelled so bitter. More ewwwww.....Was hard to believe that anything that smelled so bad could ever get past your tonsils.

Well I saw all the chunkies swirling around in the carboy and decided to go ahead and rack to secondary as I feel I need to start working on the clarity now. I also realize that I need to get a 6 to 6.5 gal primary as I have lost approx 1 gallon of beer thru the blow off tube.

Off to the store I went to get a Copper Choreboy scrubber to tie onto the end of the racking tube for filtration.....ha ha ha....That plugged up after about 1 quart of siphoning.....off came the choreboy....just raised the rack tube up and continued...still have a bit of trub in the secondary but the larger swirling chunks are mostly gone and the green beer....well I could bottle it now and get by drinking it....

IT TASTED GOOD!....really reminded me of the Samuel Smith RIS commercial version and it is still fermenting....I was amazed.

The gravity had dropped from 1.093 to 1.044 almost 5% abv according to my imprecise calculations.

Back to check the secondary carboy....it has a nice 1/2 inch layer of bubbles on the surface which I hope will continue to seperate the beer from the Oxygen...yes There may be an advantage to siphoning into secondary at the 3 day mark.

I plan to rack at least one more time...trying to leave behind the trub... one note on this batch. I am using White Labs 0007 Strain of Highly flocculent yeast. It is my hope that this stuff will fall out and make a gelatanous layer on top of the trub thereby making seperation simple.
If it behaves in the beer as it did in the starter, It will be a great advantage in the clarification process.

One possible disadvantage I can see to this strain is that it all falls out of the beer and leaves little to carbonate and bottle condition with....only time will tell....guess I could get some eau de vie in a smack pack and put a couple eyedroppers in each bottle at capping time along with my coopers carbonation drops.

I am now reading up and trying to decide what is the best fining agent for beer. I have some sparkalloid left over from some wine making but I cannot locate any positive comments about using sparkalloid for fining beer....does it work for beer or only wine?

Thanks in advance for any commentary and for reading.

P.S. I recovered my magnetic Stir Bar

[Nilboglin]

I started out putting my RI Stout in my 6.5 gallon carboy using the standard airlock. I have two colanders, one has large screen mesh and the next finer. They both plugged up whilst straining the wort. But a few pauses to clean them out and have a homebrew and it was done. After the second full day it was slowly creeping out of the airlock and I slipped on the blow-off tube setup. I might have lost a few ounces.

I considered transferring it sooner but there was sooo much foam built up. It has finally started to recede in the last 5 days.

It has been in my primary for almost 14 days now. I will transfer it to the secondary tonight and bottle this weekend if stable. I typically watch the bubble, if it is slower then one a minute then I take a gravity reading. Based on that I then bottle, but I only use the priming sugar that comes with the G&G Kits, I have had wonderful success with thier kits.

It is so dark and lucious looking. I can't wait to drink it. I figure I will crack one about the second or third week of november, then sit on the rest till new years. I have only ever tried one commercial RI Stout, Thisrty Dog's. You guys suggest any others?

[grapeadmin]

One that I recommend is Old Rasputin.

john
g and g

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Samuel Smith gets good ratings in lots of taste reviews and I do admit I like the stuff!

Progress info...The brew is now bubbling about 1 every 3-4 seconds that ole yeast is grazing happily.

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Progress update,
The foamy layer on the carboy contents has gone away. Now there is only visible a small row of bubbles around the edge of the glass/beer boundary. Air lock is bubbling about 1 every 8-10 seconds.

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Racked to Secondary yesterday ...Sunday...bubble rate was one every 34 seconds. Beer still tastes and smells good...hopefully that is a reflection of my sanitization methods. There is now ...Monday.... very little airlock activity but still an occasional bubble ...and near the glass/liquid boundary you can see the occasional bubble rising to the surface. There was about an inch or More yeast cake in the old primary bottom.

Now I will wait for conditions....clarity...stability....no airlock activity...then I will recheck gravity hopefully it will be finished dry enough.

With my choice of yeast being White Labs WLP0007 HIGHLY flocculent variety, I am wondering if I may need to add a small amount of some Yeast back into suspension to properly bottle condition this batch. It is almost as if someone threw a switch and turned off the ferment. In the formation of my starter culture, it flocculated to the bottom like a layer of tofu.

Can you share any knowledge on this John?


Thanks again for the read

[grapeadmin]

Sounds like all is going well. I have rarely found it necessary to add yeast back at bottling time. Even if the beer appears exceedingly clear, there will be enough yeast for natural carbonation.

john

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Will this Stout Clarify in the Secondary?

Should I bottle it and let it settle/clarify in the bottle?

Should I maintain the same temperature for secondary as I did for primary?

So many Questions....

The Airlock has completely ceased activity.

There are a few small roundish white patches of bubbles on the surface at first I thought maybe an infection but upon close examination and magnification they are bubbles.

Thanks for your input!

[grapeadmin]

Yes, allow it to clarify in the secondary, not in the bottle (you'll have too much yeast sediment in the bottle and possible overcarbonation).

Maintain the same temp in the secondary as the primary until you are sure all fermentation is complete and the beer is clear and stable.

If it will be in the secondary for more than a couple of weeks, top it up to elliminate any air space. Use boiled water or a similar beer.

john
g and g

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Ok...patience is My virtue...well one of em...

I got my order of Super Kleer today....I wondered if addition of this to the process will assist clarification?

I did use Irish moss in the last 15 min of the boil. I am going to hold off
on the addition of any other fining agent until 2 weeks pass.

Dang I lost 1 to 1.5 gallons of beer in the blow off process...That is a lot of Samuel Smith to buy at $3.70 per 16 oz bottle.....just to top off the carboy....

[grapeadmin]

Super Kleer will definately assist in clearing cloudiness do to yeast and other particulate matter. Irish moss prevents haze when the beer is chilled prior to bottling. Give it another week and if not clear naturally, add the super kleer.

john
g and g

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R.I.S. update...

Well, I got a reading of 1.093 for O.G. I checked the Specific Gravity Today. It read at 1.030....Airlock is quiet.

1.093
- 1.030
-----------
.063.....X 100%= 6.3 ABV

Should a different variety of yeast be added to carry this farther to dryness or was this a Sweeter Stout recipe?

When viewing this beer in the Hydrometer Tube, It is not bad for clarity...nice deep reddish brown color. May be clear enough and at any rate I do NOT believe I will add the Super Kleer after all.

Not as BIG as I had hoped... but...for first attempt at a beer...may be acceptable.

Nose is somewhat fruity...nice like black cherry..
Palate is going to be ok as far as I can tell....nothing horrible in the flavor...just a bit harsh (Hoppy bitterish) which will probably mellow with some aging as the instructions say....

John can you advise about some possible addition of a dryer fermenting strain of yeast at this point?....or...Just let her be...

Here is 1-2 inches in a glass with a small flashlight shining up from below