Raspberry Stout Brewday 2/27/11

On Sunday we brewed the raspberry stout. This beer has characteristics of a Foreign Extra Stout, sweet stout, and brown ale, as well as including raspberries. It has more chocolate malt (2 varieties) and less roasted barley than a typical stout. The bitterness level is fairly low for the gravity, with 35 IBUs at an OG of 1.072 (not 100% sure on the gravity, since I'm not confident of my calculations with the raspberries).

Batch size: 5 gallons

Boil Volume: 3.5 gallons

Calculated OG: 1.072

Measured FG: 1.012

Calculated ABV: 7.9

Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 35

Vol. CO2: 2.5

Yeast: Nottingham

Measured pitching temp: 64F

Primary fermentation high: 72F

Fermentation vessel: Ale Pail

Lag time: Short

Days in primary: 11

9 lbs Extra Pale LME

0.5 lbs Chocolate malt

0.5 lbs Pale Chocolate malt

0.25 lbs Roasted Barley

0.75 lbs Crystal 75

3 lbs Raspberry Puree (added after primary fermentation)

1 oz Kent Goldings 7.2% AA at 60 minutes

0.5 oz Kent Goldings 7.2% AA at 30 minutes

0.5 oz Kent Goldings 7.2% AA at 15 minutes

We had a pretty major disaster early in the brewday. Since we were using so much steeping grains, we decided not to use bags and to strain the steeping water into the kettle. The colander ended up falling into the pot and splashing wort everywhere. While Jack was getting the stains out of his shirt, I managed to remove almost all of the grains that had fallen into the kettle. However, there was a small amount of grains that remained in the kettle throughout the boil. I expect no ill results because the amount was small, but it's something I worry about.

Other than that, the brewing went smoothly, and the beer is now fermenting vigorously. The fermentation has actually kicked up the temperature of the beer by 8 degrees, from 64 to 72. We had filled the airlock with sanitizer, but the beer ended up bubbling so much that it bubbled all of the sanitizer out of the airlock. We replaced it with water.

3/2/11: Three days after pitching. Fermentation slowed considerably, so we added the puree, which had the consistency of tomato soup and a strong raspberry smell. A couple hours later the fermentation has started to pick up again.

3/5/11: Specific gravity: 1.012. This beer seems to have dried out more than we thought it would. The hydrometer sample was very good, although the raspberry flavor overwhelmed the roasted grains a bit. I expect the raspberry to fade somewhat with time, and I'm also excited to experiment with blending this with other beers.

Bottled 3/10/11 with 4 oz of priming sugar.