beginner homebrewing question

My daughter's boyfriend received a 1 gallon American Pale Ale homebrew kit for Christmas and it's finishing up its brewing storage in my basement which has a near-constant 62 F air temperature (not sure if the cement floor is actually cooler).

He suggested a stout next and asked me to pick one.

I have no idea way to go logistically...presumably the hardware his brew kit came with is reusable...but so far I am only seeing 5 gallon scratch recipes...and maybe procuring raw ingredients for a 1 gallon effort should wait for more experience.

Local brewers' supply store has the gamut from boxed kits to choose your hops and grain milled to order. I think their kits tend toward dry ingredients with some kind of liquid/syrup and something about that makes me hesitant. We also don't need a whole new kit with hardware...or do we? That might mean two gallon batches next!

Is it practical to scrounge up a la carte ingredients for a 1 gallon batch? Is more experience advisable before going totally DIY? I could ask the store too, but might as well ask here...you guys are open at 11 PM, and the store is not.

Thanks

Hey, for anyone who cares, this site is cool for all the usual reasons but also for its handling of my animated gif avatar. Its animated on my profile page but not posts. That's still friendlier than any other site I've used it on as a still image. No sound, 'though...probably a good thing...

 

Thanks, all.

For once I can actually stay on topic & add questions...

I got a Brewer's Best Imperial Stout 1-gallon ingredient kit & add'l necessary hardware like the 2-gallon bucket fermenter, & a 5-gallon-capable longer auto-siphon...which is hard to sanitize due to it's length. I dipped both ends, then siphoned some sanitizer through it.

1) How do you dry the hose used with an autosiphon? After 3-1/2 days it was still very wet in the center. I swung it around over my head for a while (in the back yard so the neighbors wouldn't see me ducking to avoid hitting myself in the head). Didn't help much. Hairdryer seemed to work. Concerned about mold.

2) Recipe started with 6 qts H2O. Preheated during dinner and found it was too hot to steep grains...my assistant (with 1 brew more experience than my 0) managed the volumetric accounting (I thought) to remove measuring cups of too-hot water and replace with tap. We got it to 150-ish F & proceeded. I suspected we had more than 6 in the 8-qt. pot because adding the 2# of DME looked unlikely to me. Only one boilover and after cooling and transfer to the 2-gallon bucket fermenter, I still thought we had noticeably more than 1 gallon. Initially that seemed like a 'plus' until I began thinking about it.

Added 1 tsp (kitchen measuring spoon) of forgotten-name provided ale yeast with French instrux.

At 5-6 days (today) we are supposed to transfer to 1-gallon bottle fermenter.

Obviously 5+ qts will not fit. I stirred the wort the entire hour because I feared a 2nd boilover. Glass top stove was helpful with cleanup. Perhaps due to the aggressive stirring, there was no 'trub' to leave behind...of course too dark to see through during siphoning (at 70F), but the little bit that drained back into the pot looked the same as other random opportunities to compare.

So, through possibly starting with closer to 7 qts and not recognizing any unwanted precipitate, and not grasping at the time why I would need to mark a 1-gallon line on the 2-gallon fermenter exterior, I may have used a bit less yeast than necessary. Will the yeast breed with abandon to an equilibrium it's happy with, or will I have a slow fermentation & need to wait longer before 1-bottle fermenter transfer, or some other 'duh' class Option C?

How do I know if it's 'ready' to go to 2nd fermenter? I have seen no bubbles at all in the airlock (on basement cement floor; has been 62.5-64 F...well, the air temperature at the top of the fermenter, anyway).

When we do transfer to the 1-gallon fermenter, if there is a quart or more remaining, is it OK to keep in in the almost empty bucket fermenter for the remainder of the process?

What IS the purpose of the 2nd stage fermentation if nothing gets added until priming at bottling time? Is the 2nd-stage more anaerobic by virtue of being nearly filled, and the 'keeper' excess would then be hyper-aerobic? Did I just create an interesting experiment or a second detour on a bad road choice?

If all is fine or slight adjustments are needed, I assume that the residual quantity I can prime with sugar by weight after using the instructed method for the 1-gallon amount (boil 1/2 cup water & 1 oz provided sugar for 5 minutes). We did the pale ale kit with kitchen sugar (none provided) weighed for each bottle (2.7g?) on a digital scale in a sanitized bowl & added dry to the bottles).

Stage 4 Paranoia: I have had plenty of stouts made presumably by people who know what they are doing. Many I really enjoyed and some I disliked enough to wonder if the result was as-desired by the brewer. Maybe if my expectations of my own are on the low side I won't end up with a thumbs-down self-rating.

If you're still awake, thanks for reading.

M

Oh, one more question...someone told me he used to (decades ago) do 5-gallon brews as 2.5 and add water afterward to make 5 or 5.5 gallons in a carboy, then use what sounded like excessive or random amounts of yeast. He admits he cleaned up a lot of messes...

Seriously? The one element of this that does appeal to me is it appears to solve the question of how to fit a big enough pot between the stovetop and the microwave right above it (and have room to stir).

 

OK...I just talked to a shop owner I got my add'l equipment from, and he was of the opinion that the cement basement floor is likely much colder than the air temperature where my thermometer sits atop the bottle (62.5 F again today), and that I maybe slowing the yeast to some degree.

First attempt at warming it was to put it on top of the vanity in the adjacent bathroom...time is not critical under the circumstances thus far...wait a bit...

 

Hej:

Thank you. Sounds good...I read at a historical former firehouse that the building was very tall to
allow the fire truck hoses to hang vertically to drain & dry.

I think I was obsessing about the hose needing to be free of condensation. We are not getting much sunlight recently...or I missed an opportunity.

This should be a faster automatic process as summer approaches.

 

I used a USB-powered fan this AM...too impatient...

 

I am going to be at 1-gallon level for some time...

My first attempt (bottled this past Wednesday evening with the usual range of unexpected issues) was Brewers' Best Imperial Stout. 2-3 weeks to taste success or failure...

 

Looks like posting from a phone is not a good idea (for me)...

'You must be logged in' but I was (or got logged out for typing too long).,, I am only seeing a fraction of my post...which I copied before posting...after losing my entire previous attempt...

Here goes, Take 2...

I am going to be at 1-gallon level for some time...
----------------------

For a second attempt, I am considering altering what comes in the ingredient kit, or re-acquiring variations of the same things... like changing one of the two packets of DME or the quantity of smaller ingredients. I don't have the instrux sheet with me, but remember 2 x 1 pound bags of DME (Briess (light?)___Crystal?), 4 oz. roasted barley, 2 oz. Carapils and 12+7 g Brewers' Gold hop pellets.

I didn't expect such a dark wort from the name of the DME. Changing one to a variety with a darker name (quite the scientist, aren't I?) or other changes?

I just bought the Zainasheff/Palmer 80 recipes book, but other than gleaning recipe ingredients for ideas I don't think scaling a recipe from that book is practical yet...the stouts in there are intermediate skill level and procedurally far different than ingredient tweaking.

I'm wondering if anyone else has mutated this kit, or has suggestions...

Also curious about the super-sweet smell of the pre-fermented wort...smelled more like cola than beer...I'm hoping a LOT happens in the bottle to become more beer-like!

Thanks (for reading, too!).

How frustrating to learn at 11 PM when preparing to siphon 2nd-stage 1-gallon jug wort back to 2-gallon bucket fermenter to mix priming sugar, and realizing the 5-gallon size auto-siphon is too fat for the mouth of the jug!!!

Hand-poured through a funnel & coffee filter (almost a waste of effort).

Murray

 

Thanks, MG3.

Helped a little with daughter's boyfriend's APA.

Most confusion in communication with me appears to be due to the traps I inadvertently set for those who read each chapter. It's worse in conversation than in writing, I hear. I got rid of auto-correct on the phone...I couldn't understand some of my own ' corrected' posts in the past.

I may have been wrong about excessive water at the start...reading in 'Z&P 80 Classic Styles...' that one starts with ~7 gal.

I only ended up with 9 bottles & broke one capping it so I definitely lost some volume through the various steps.

Recipe mods- yes, I forgot about balance and the effort that went into creating a recipe-based ingredient kit...

So the really sweet smell may be related to that abundance of fermentable sugar...

I've got time to judge my brew...but the equipment is empty & clean...

I'll either scour the 'web for another interesting recipe, see what wisdom the local brewing supply guy offers (as opposed to blindfolded changes I was contemplating), or wait my turn for the equipment. The younger brewer is talking about a 1-gal. Belgian Trippel for his next effort.

I should rate my brew before my confidence. I have rhizome problems to occupy my spare time...removing Lilies-of-the-Valley...10-15 years of spreading.

I get the impression hops have rhizome roots, so that is something I will avoid getting into. They come in nice little envelopes for small hatches .

Thank you

 

Batches

Auto-correct...can't live with it...can't live without it...

 

Results:

Put only one bottle in refrigerator to avoid disrupting whatever additional aging might save potentially disappointing results.

Gingerly prying the cap off with a Founder's bottle opener, I hear that same disturbing >plink< sound and I'm holding a cap and bottle neck in my hand. Before I can utter the impolite thought that rushed toward my lips, my wife interjects, "No! Don't drink that! No Game of Thrones endings!"

I look at her in confusion and think of the trusty coffee filter that clogs with imperial stout.

Brewing associate (daughter's boyfriend) has a better solution...paper towels in a kitchen sieve...recalling a 'crazy girl from Argentina who opened a bottle of wine with a knife in college'...they didn't want to waste that either.

We each end up with about 0.4 bottle to try, and all tasters but myself think it's not bad.

I still think it smells super sweet and the sample isn't enough to feel the alcohol content...and the hydrometer was left at someone's home.

I'm optimistically thinking I still have 0% ABV wort that is just going to hasten my next restroom visit, nothing worse.

I debate who to share it with with a precautionary bottle disclaimer. DBF is eager to take home two more bottles I hand him...he has hands-on experience with the safe consumption recovery operation.

I'm thinking I'm ready to buy my next six-pack and open two Founder's Dirty Bastards...to wash down the bitterness of defeat at the hands of a brew kit.

To be continued...

Two days later I am off work and packed for a flight the following day...but only had about 4 hours of sleep. I drink another one of my Gimperial Stouts and think it's not terrible, just sweet, and I unsteadily wobble to the garage to put the empty bottle in the recycling bin. Maybe it has more ABV than a Bud Light after all, or 4 hours of sleep gets the credit for the wobbles.

On my way out of town I leave a bottle with someone who is a serious brewer to measure FG and taste it, at his own risk of bottle failure. It was his capper after all...

He admires my hack job label cobbled in Photoshop from a peeled label and a scanned image, commenting he puts an ink dot on his and makes a logbook entry.

I reply the quality is supposed to go in before the name goes on and make one more excuse for the sweetness.

He responds there IS such a thing as a Sweet Stout and maybe all will be cool with a simple 'reclassification'.

I head for Florida in June, recalling my last summer trip there finding a stout was tough, with many an excuse that stouts are winter beers. I tell myself it's never winter in Florida.

But things seem to have changed near Tampa.

Last weekend I visited Perrin and saw they did some joint projects with Cigar City Brewing...hmmm

 

I find two porters in Dunedin Florida, 7enth Sun I Am Your Creator Baltic Porter, at the brewery. There name is a bitch to spell and Google has been messing with me since I got here, forcing me to Google Ukraine and Google India...just more obstacles on my quest.

Oh, the other Porter was Coppertail Night Swim from Tampa.

Both were fine. Sorry for the lame review.

The next night I realize I can pay 5-6$ at a brewery that has only one beer that I show interest in (my problem, not theirs), or talk myself

 

Into tackling a 22 or 25 oz bottle if the Florida beer stores are as good as people are telling me.

I go on Google dot wherever and find Luekens Liquor(s?) and am impressed with the search tool findings.

I go there thinking myself to be a more sophisticated, albeit narrow-minded, connoisseur of stouts than I actually am, and begin looking for brands I recognize.

I am both impressed by the diversity of all kinds of beers from all over the planet and worried about the dust on some of the bottles. I look closer and while deciding I don't want a $30 750 ml bottle because I don't know what I'll do after opening it...I see vintages (or are they grainages?) on the bottles, 2012, 2013, etc.

I recall my interest in trying aged brews and after looking at the entire mind-boggling selection, decide I will not remember where some of the interesting ones were.

I take one last look at two variants of Marshal Zhukov's RIS from Florida but they are huge bottles, and opt for single serve sizes and older bottles because I have rationalized I can pay more for bottles if I am willing to pay for pints in a brewery. Don't get me wrong, 7enth Sun had some interesting conversations going on and it was a nice place.

I made some choices I didn't fully appreciate until I got them home & looked them up.

Adnam's Tally-Ho 2012 Reserve Barley Wine Style, likely a bargain at $1.99, not too dusty, 11.2 oz 9% ABV

Smisje Catherine the Great Imperial Stout, apparently discontinued in 2010 or 2008, but not dated, $4.99/11.2 oz. 10% ABV, IIRC

Accidentally left two of my third choice in my basket, unintentionally leaving a fourth on the shelf. At this point I don't remember anything about it. Choice 3 was Dieu du Ciel Peche Mortel Imperial Stout w/coffee. Despite Google Translate's deficiencies, it translates French better than me...I concluded it must be God of the Sky (or Heaven) Dead Fish. Google says Good Lord Mortal Sin. 9.5% ABV very rich, thick and leaves a syrupy residue on the countertop if you spill a single drop. Not sure that's in anyone's judging criteria, but I find it to be an interesting observation. I've seen it with Speedway Stout, Great Lakes Brewing Blackout Stout and Tri-Cities Giant Slayer. Others I might have not spilled and thus not observed.

That's my favorite, reminded me of Speedway Stout (non-BA), which is 12% and I don't know when I'll cross paths with it again.

The Smisje brew is Belgian, and the brewer supposedly has his own yeast strains, both not surprisingly leading to an Imperial Stout that smell and taste unlike any other I've tried. Considering it's allegedly 7-9 years old, I was amazed at the head...it easily was 3"/7.6 cm without pouring quickly. Settled down to something normal like 5/8" or someone's finger...

I haven't opened the Tally-Ho yet.

The beers that scared me away in the store were an Ohio stout with Ghost Peppers, and Coppertail Stone Crab Stout with #150 of stone crab claws in each batch (unknown size, presumably has crab meat, not empty claws). I don't think I have any shellfish allergies, but neither of these two sound like something for anyone who realizes they misplaced their cast iron stomach.

I'm not sure what this does to my beer shopping or brewing expectations when I get back.

An enlightening of sorts, I suppose...

 

FWIW in estimating the age of the Smisje Catherine the Great bottle, it did not have the cartoonish horse of Great notoriety, but a regal portrait of C.t.G.