Stout-Brewing Tips

Is this your first all grain beer, or your first all grain stout? If the former, my advice would be to make a smaller beer for your first AG.

 

I agree with @VikeMan if this is your first all grain beer/stout, I would start with a basic dry stout first. This also has the advantage of building up a nice quantity of yeast so you don't underpitch for something big like a RIS.

Tell us more about your brewing experience.

 

Mash high between 154-158. 90 minute boil. 5% Roasted barley. 5% chocolate. 5% flaked oats. 2.5% crystal 120. 2.5% black patent.

 

My go to stout yeast strain is Wyeast West Yorkshire.

 

Mash high. 155 at least. 158 preferably. I mashed mine in at 150 and got a 12.5% beast with a really watery mouthfeel.

 

Yea... I made the mistake of mashing too low on a RIS 2 weeks ago. (didn't compensate for the heat lost because my mash cooler was sitting outside in the cold) so I mashed around 148, instead of my intended 154. So, like they said above, mash higher. You can always check the temp of the grain bed, and add a little more hot water if needed to bring the temp up.

I used a 18.5 lb grain bill for a 5-gal batch. 90 min boil. 2.5 oz Cluster @ 90 min, 1 oz Centennial and 1 oz. Northern brewer @ 2 min.

Also, make a huge yeast starter. I used WLP001, which will ferment like a beast.

 

My advice would be to ferment on the low end of your strain's comfort zone. How long...until it's done and any off flavors have been cleaned up. Then package and age.

 

Depends on how carbonated you want it to be. Stouts aren't usually overflowing with carbonation especially high gravity ones.

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Follow the drop downs and enjoy.

 

For a big beer, you also need to make sure that you aerate the wort very well, and then do it again the next day, but no more after that. Also make sure that you don't under pitch your yeast. Then be patient.

 

Black unmalted barley...the only real prerequisite

 

Aerate your beer right after pitching and 18-24 hours after. A healthy yeast pitch and cool yeast temps are also important. I think that one thing I do wrong is I try to make 6 gal batches in a 6.5 gal fermenter. Expect a vigorous fermentation.

 

When I bottle a high ABV beer I'll add fresh yeast to the bottling bucket. This is every time. It's insurance, because I promise you that it really sucks to try to recarbonate your beers when you botch it.

 

What's your procedure when you do this? Specifially how much yeast do you add and how do you know how much to add? Do you rack the beer to the bucket then the yeast?

I'm interested because I just bottled my first high gravity stout (8.7ish fermented with 2 properly rehydrated packs of S-05) and I'm hoping it all comes out ok. I usually keg but I thought the bottling would give this batch some time to mature without taking up my one and only keg (I'm new to kegging hence the one keg only for now)

 

8.7 ABV, you might ok without additional yeast. But if you want to play it safe- rehydrated about half a pack of S-05. Add this to your bottling bucket along with priming sugar, and give it a gentle stir. A whole pack is fine, just have more sediment.

 

I did a 30G batch of RIS and used 12 packs of Rehydrated US-05 and it came out perfect at 10% ABV.

I suggest you do whatever you want and go as big as you want even if it is your first all grain or your 50th, its yours!!

 

For me, I've had 2 batches that didn't prime. One was a braggot (mead/beer) that weighed in at about $3 a bottle. The other was a chocolate porter that was about 8%. I've learned the hard way that it's worth using a little extra yeast to make sure that you have healthy yeast go into the bottle at bottling time. The procedure for me:

I think about what yeast I used to brew with. If it's a low attenuating yeast, I don't want to prime with a high attenuating yeast at bottling time. The high attenuating yeast would do more than just eat the priming sugar and would over carb the beers.

I typically just take more of the same yeast that I brewed with and I would make a starter, or properly rehydrate it. I think some of the pros say that you don't need a lot. I use a lot anyway. I'd rather have too much than not enough. The consequence would be a little more sediment on the bottom of each bottle. No biggie. This will be added to the bottom of the bottling bucket with a gentle stir, after I'm done racking the beer into the bottling bucket. NO SPLASHING.

On a high ABV beer, I'll check the carbonation level at about 6 weeks to make sure the yeast is active. They drink a little rough, but it's for the sake of science. Big beers carb slowly and it wouldn't be a bad idea keeping them at around 70F during the carbonating process. You can cool them off later for cellaring.

If you're worried about using a different yeast towards bottling, you can always add this directly to your beer a week or so before you rack over to your bottling bucket. A gentle stir probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Suspend the yeast in the beer and it will hang out until you go over to bottling. A week should give plenty of time to let the new yeast decide if it wants to eat away at anything. Take a few gravity readings a few days apart. If the numbers are the same, then you're golden to bottle. If I were to add a new yeast it would be something like a dry champagne yeast. Cheap, neutral in flavor, easy to deal with because it's a dry yeast, and it can tear through anything up to ~15-18% ABV. I look at it this way: I either spend a few extra bucks on yeast or I spend a few extra hours on reyeasting 50 bottles. I'm a pretty cheap bastard when it comes to brewing, but this is an area that I don't cut corners on anymore. I hope this helps a little.


As for your beer, you have a few things going for you. US 05 is a beast (like most of the dry satchels of yeast). It's not a 13% beer that would make most yeasts squeamish to prime, and you had a proper pitch rate going into your primary.

If you're within a month your pitch date, you're probably fine. Insurance is not a bad thing. On a beer like this, I wouldn't hesitate to open another satchel of US 05 and add half of the packet. The other half of the packet will do fine for a 1.050-something session ale. It's an incredibly forgiving yeast--especially if you're going to make a hop-forward beer.