{"id":73,"date":"2010-02-03T16:10:13","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T21:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/?page_id=73"},"modified":"2011-02-09T15:20:45","modified_gmt":"2011-02-09T19:20:45","slug":"batch-1-11-doppel-bock","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/?page_id=73","title":{"rendered":"Batch #1-11: Dry Stout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Style<\/td>\nDry Stout<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ingredients<\/td>\nView Here<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brewing Date:<\/td>\nSunday, December 5, 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Primary Fermentation:<\/td>\nSunday, December 5, 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original Gravity:<\/td>\n1.050 @ 60F\u00a0 (1.0502)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Secondary Fermentation:<\/td>\nn\/a<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bottling Date:<\/td>\nWednesday, December 15, 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Final Gravity:<\/td>\n1.034 @ 72F (1.0354)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Release Date:<\/td>\nFriday, January 8, 11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alcohol by volume:<\/td>\n2.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Final Release Name:<\/strong><\/td>\nHappy Birthday Robin
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The first batch of the year has a special purpose.\u00a0 It is for my oldest son’s 21st birthday.\u00a0 It compliments the full steak dinner he also gets.\u00a0 He chose this beer from the descriptions of beer styles, and it happens to be one of my favorites..so, like father, like son.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/p>\n

A fairly straight-forward brewing session. Added 1 cup of corn sugar to boost the alcohol.\u00a0 Fermentation is using the wick cooling method.<\/p>\n

Dec 7 @ 7:30AM — Bubbling bursts are at the expected 3-second interval, with strong bursts.<\/p>\n

Dec 13 @ 9:30PM — Got a real surprise.\u00a0 The bubbling quieted down on Saturday, but the hydrometer reading is 1.034 this evening.\u00a0 That’s high: only 2.1% ABV.\u00a0 The wort is a little sweet.\u00a0 I’m not quite sure what happened, especially since the temperature during fermentation was around 72F.\u00a0 I decided to seal up the bucket, replace the airlock, and give it a good swirl.\u00a0 After a few minutes, there was weak bubbling at consistent 1 minute intervals.\u00a0 I am going to let the bucket sit in the open (no wick cooling) for about 24-48 hours, and see if the hydrometer reading lowers any.\u00a0 Last year’s batch started at 1.046 (.004 lower) than this year’s batch, but ended up at 1.022 after a week–a full 0.0.12 lower than this.<\/p>\n

I will have to do some reading for others’ experience on this.\u00a0 This is the first time I have encountered a weak fermentation cycle.<\/p>\n

Dec 13th @ 11:30pm –After putting my equipment away for the night, I ran into this fine article<\/a> describing a similar problem to this.\u00a0 The article mentioned temperature fluctuation, which should not have been a problem.\u00a0 But one thing very different about this batch is that the yeast was pitched at 60F.\u00a0 That is about 15-20 degrees lower than normal.\u00a0 The yeast also did not get quickly engaged (1-3 seconds between bubbling bursts) for 48 hours, so that may have impacted the result.\u00a0 NOTE TO SELF: always pitch yeast above 70F in the future.<\/p>\n

I think the batch is just fine after comparing notes, although I will give it the 48 hours in the fermentation bucket I intended, just in case there is some stuck yeast, etc. While the wort was a little sweet, it was very smooth, tastes fine, and there is zero sign of infection or other problem.<\/p>\n

As a side note: reading this article reminded me that in between the 6th and 7th batches this year, I made an unscheduled batch of American Light from a Munton’s malt can (it had about 2 months before the expiration date was due, so it was a “use or it or lose it” batch). Ironically, while I don’t remember the exact OG and FG measurements, the alcohol content was only 2.7%–even after allowing a 0.5% gain during conditioning. And it was one of the smoothest, best tasting beers when it was ready–great for summer. So if this stout is similar, this should be a good batch. And the lower alcohol content may be just what is needed for a 21-year having his first alcoholic drink.<\/p>\n

Time will tell.<\/p>\n

15 Dec 10:30PM — The bubbling cycles were three minutes apart, so the yeast was doing something, however minor.\u00a0 The gravity, though, had not changed since Monday. For priming, I used 8oz of corn sugar boiled in water and poured into the bottling bucket before siphoning.\u00a0 The wort tastes very good, and looked just fine.\u00a0 Yield was 2x 34oz Ikea snap top clear bottles, one 16oz Grolsch snap top, and 49x 16oz brown bottles with crown caps.\u00a0 Overall, I am pleased with the outcome.<\/p>\n

19 Dec 9:30PM — Decided to crack open a bottle to see how the conditioning is progressing.\u00a0 The pour generated a large amount of head.\u00a0 It was about 3\/4th of the glass, with those “neat to watch” bubbles racing from the top of the head down into the liquid below.\u00a0 That is a lot of head for so early in the conditioning.\u00a0 The taste was good, but it is a a bit sweeter than last year’s batch.<\/p>\n

9 Jan — The feedback on this beer was that it was very thick: almost too hard to drink.\u00a0 Last year’s batch was definitely better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Style Dry Stout Ingredients View Here Brewing Date: Sunday, December 5, 10 Primary Fermentation: Sunday, December 5, 10 Original Gravity: 1.050 @ 60F\u00a0 (1.0502) Secondary Fermentation: n\/a Bottling Date: Wednesday, December 15, 10 Final Gravity: 1.034 @ 72F (1.0354) Release Date: Friday, January 8, 11 Alcohol by volume: 2.4% Final Release Name: Happy Birthday Robin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":19,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-73","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions\/126"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bitsofgenius.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}