Yesterday while shoveling 20+ inches of snow here in New England, I let my mind drift to brewing to keep myself entertained.  I reminded myself of a warming little beverage that Ray Daniels of Designing Great Beers fame has talked about on occasion.  Its called a Hot Scotchie.  The Hot Scotchie is made by combining your favorite Scotch with some warm fresh wort from your first runnings of the lauter tun during a brew session.  Now don’t get your snow pants in a bunch if you don’t do all grain.  You can simply pull a mug full of wort from your extract brew pre boil.  Try 160-170F or so, like during a mash out. Pre-hopped I’d imagine would be best too.

Sounded like a perfect cure for a cold and over used back after shoveling.  Hot Scotchies are the perfect reason to plan an outdoor brew session in the cold of winter.  I’ll have to remember to give it a try on my next outdoor brew day.  

Now to go pick an adequate Scotch for the occasion.  

BREW ON!

Classic.  Dry Stout is often the first stout style most people encounter on the path to dark beer-dom.  This is style is best exemplified by Guinness Draught Stout. (Don’t confuse your varieties of Guinness.  There is a Guinness Porter and Foreign Extra on the market and they are easily confused).

One online beer write I know likens dry stout to white sauce for a chef; every good home-brewer should be able to whip up a classic dry stout.

Here is a most classic example of a dry stout.  Ah… the basics.  Brew often and enjoy:

8lbs Maris Otter (English pale malt)
2lbs Flaked Barley
1lb   Roasted Barley
2.0 oz EKG (5AA) 60min
WLP004 Irish Ale yeast.

OG ~1.043
IBU~41
FG~1.010
Mash 120F for 15min, Raise to 150F for 60min.

(You could make this same recipe with extract subbing 3.6lbs LME of English variety.  And partial mashing the two grains with 2lbs of any base malt.  The flaked barley must be converted with a mash, so don’t skip that step and try and steep 2lbs of flaked barley.  You will release too much raw starch in the beer leading to under-attenuation and a sticky mouthfeel.)

BREW ON! (and on with this one)

Here is my latest recipe for an English Best Bitter.  I brewed this back on November 11th and I’ll be transferring it to a keg soon.  Look for a brew log discussion about the carastan flavor.

9.5lb English Pale Malt (Maris Otter)
0.75lb Carastan (35L)
0.5lb Crystal 60L
1.0 oz Fuggles (60min)
0.5 oz EKG (60min)
0.5 oz EKG (20min)
12 gram Gypsum (added to the mash/sparge water)
WLP013 London Ale yeast

OG: 1045
FG: ~1.008-1.010
IBUs: 31

Continuing with publishing all of our Stout recipes, here is the American Stout Recipe. Looking for a strong stout with American hops and a clean yeast profile.

Ingredients:

13 lbs. American 2-Row Malt
1 lbs. Chocolate Malt
1 lbs. Roasted Barley
.75 lbs. Caramel Malt 60°L
1 oz. Magnum Hop Pellets – boiled 60 min.
1 oz. Amarillo Hop Pellets – boiled 5 min.

Yeast: White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Predictions:
Original Gravity: 1.071
Terminal Gravity: 1.017
Color:30.97 °SRM
Bitterness: 65.3 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 7.1%

The cold weather is seaping in and it time to get all out stout recipes out there.  You may have seen other stout recipes on the site such as:

Milk Stout Recipe

Russian Imperial Stout Recipe

Oatmeal Stout Recipe

This is the Foreign Extra Stout Recipe. Looking for a hour long boil, starting with a 6.5 gallon volume and hopefully ending up with 5.5 gallons. Mashing for an hour at 152°F.

Ingredients:

13 lbs. Maris Otter Pale Malt
1 lbs. Caramel Malt 60°L
.5 lbs.Caramel 90°L
.75 lbs. Chocolate Malt
1 lbs. Roasted Barley
2.25 oz. East Kent Goldings 5.00 %AA – boiled 60 min.

Yeast: White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Outcomes:

Original Gravity: 1.074
Terminal Gravity: 1.015
Color : 30.98 °SRM
Bitterness: 48.2 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 7.7%

Big and bold, an Russian Imperial Stout is an intense beer with complex flavors and strong alcohol warming. I developed this all grain recipe to be brew some time in the Spring so that it can be enjoyed the following Winter.

My plans for this one:

• 6.5 gallons of wort for an hour long boil – targeting 5.5 gallons of wort at the end of the boil.
• Create a large starter for this one. Maybe I can brew an American Amber two weeks before the Russian Imperial Stout, rack the Amber, and pitch the RIS wort right on top of the yeast used for the Amber.  That could work…
• Plan for a long aging period. Once primary fermentation is done, prime and bottle it and let it sit somewhere out of the way for at least 6 months.

Ingredients:

17 lbs. English 2-row Pale Malt
1 lbs. Belgian Special B
1.5 lbs. Black Roasted Barley
.5 lbs. Crystal Malt 60°L
.75 lbs. 2-Row Chocolate Malt
1.25 oz. Magnum Pellets – boiled 60 min.
2 oz. Fuggle Pellets – boiled 10 min.
2 oz. Fuggle Pellets – boiled 1 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Predictions:

Original Gravity: 1.094
Terminal Gravity: 1.025
Color: 40.05 °SRM
Bitterness: 79.5 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 9.1 %

With a Rauchbier bubbling away in the fridge and the prospects of it being ready for drinking looking like the last week of December (boo), I have need to get something going for a couple of reasons.

• I’d like to have something fresh for T-giving
• I’d like to brew with the hops I grew this year

Since I don’t have a ton of hop cones or a ton of time, I thought I would brew a simple blonde ale.

Ingredients

10 lbs. 2-Row Brewers Malt
.5 lbs. Honey Malt
.5 lbs. Dextrine Malt
1 oz. Willamette Pellets 5.00 %AA (Boiled 60 minutes)
Yeast: White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Note: The cones that I grew are Magnum hops and I am not sure of the alpha acid content, but I think throwing them all in at the start of the boil will make for some nice clean bittering. I put Willamette hops in the recipe in case you want to brew it or when I want to brew it again.

Predictions

Original Gravity: 1.050
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 5.66 °SRM
Bitterness: 23.1 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.1 %

I anticipate a 60 minute boil with a 6.5 gallon pre-boil volume and leaving a half gallon in the kettle (break material and what not).

Ferment at 65°F for 2 weeks. Bottle condition for 2 weeks. I should be good to go for Thanksgiving 2010.