Rule #1: Never brew in socks.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Olde Tubby (10/14/12)

I've been playing ultimate saturday mornings lately, and found Bob's Homebrew on the way home several times now. I've been going on Bob's advice for recipes, and so I've brewed this stout with an English ESB yeast. Prized for its flocculation, the 1968 is designed to keep your English beers malty. I'l add that three of my four last stouts were underattentuated.

I made the starter yesterday afternoon. Its pretty flocculant. I think I'm gonna need this beer on a shaker plate. Having already mastered the stout (See: Surly Sunday 11-06-12, and Mocha 4-15-12), I took the previous recipe and shrunk the base malt bill. I didn't budge on the specialty grains. Things are different now that Lee's no longer here, and I don't have a problem with a 1/6 of my grain bill dedicated to roasted barley. I also upped the IBUs from 44 to 65 to balance the maltiness.

Calculated O.G: 1.075
Measured F.G: 1.031
Expected Attenuation: 59%
Calculated ABV: 5.8%
Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 65
Pitching Temperature: 68 F
Starter: 2.6 L
Fermentation Vessel: Bucket

Malts Mashed Amount % Max Pts.
Chocolate 1.5 7% 28.00
Roast Barley 2.2 10% 25.00
Crystal 120 1.25 6% 33.00
Other Fermentables Amount % Max Pts.
DME 6.5 30% 42.00
Hops/Additions Amount Time AA%
Horizon 2 60 11.9%


Large, in frequent bubbles began four hours after pitching. Temperature rose to 76F, and I placed the fermenter in a bucket of water. 12 hours later the bucket was warm too, and I removed the beer, now at 74F. Bubbling mostly stopped by Tuesday, 10/16.

Update 10/19/12 - Gravity at 1.031, and it tastes pretty great.

Update 10/29/12 - Bottled. Gravity still at 1.031. Even with the large starter, attenuation is down at 59%. When they said this yeast don't eat much, they weren't kidding. Attenuation aside, its actually pretty delicious. Its a bit sweet, but that sweetness is well balanced by the dark malts and hops. Presuming the carbonation comes out right, it could have really excellent mouthfeel. Should be about 2.4 volumes of CO2 in it. I was aiming for 2.3, but there was a little less beer than I expected.