The first question I asked myself, “Am I ready to take the next step in home brewing and go all grain?” While the answer wasn’t a resounding, “Yes!” I wanted to move away from extract, as the flavor of the previous four batches were similar in flavor because of the malt extract I used.
While I bought this Old Bearded Stout recipe kit from More Beer as an extract, the purchase of a mash lauter tun the week prior to brewing made me change my tune and decided all grain would be the way to go. I’d watched You Tube videos and read up on the process of going all grain, but with all new processes, there was some hesitation that I was doing things right. I will say that home brewing involves a learning curve and this brew day was no different.
An early problem occurred that was not completely caught until hours after I had concluded brewing. While I calculated the strike water properly for the amount of grains I was using, I failed to include the specialty grains in the mash. This meant there was an extra gallon of water in the mash. I forgot to prime the lauter tun, with hot hater, prior to adding the grains, which made the water temperature lower than expected for the mash.
Video 1: Brew Day #5
Video 2: Clean Equipment & Ingredients
Video 3: Mash
Video 4: Time To Sparge
Video 5: Boiling Wort
Video 6: Chilling Wort
Video 7: Fermentation & Gravity
Fermentation lasted three weeks, instead of the planned, two weeks as I couldn’t find time to rack the beer and bottle it. This was the first time I was able to actually fill 48 bottles, unfortunately, due to capping I lost one. Before bottling, I poured a sample into the graduated cylinder and took a hydrometer measurement. Much like the O.G. measurement, I did not record the temperature, thus causing a some discrepancy in the gravity readings and ABV. The look, feel and taste were quite good, as you can see in the video I originally created for the #FPLBeerClub in my First Sip video
Recipe
Fermentables
12.0 lbs. 2-Row Pale
2.0 lbs. Light DME
Specialty Grains
1.0 lb. Crystal 120°L
1.0 lb. Carastan
8 oz. English Brown Malt
8 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Roasted Barley
Hops
Bittering
* 1 oz. Apollo [60 min]
* 1 oz. Northern Brewer [45 min]
* 1 oz. Willamette [15 min]
Yeast
Yeast 1098 British Ale #1
Water
Not Available
Brew Timeline
Tasting Notes
Ok big. Lasting, creamy head not too much lacing. Not motor oil thick in texture and color. Medium body with mild carbonation. I burped so there’s carbonation. Smells of coffee vanilla bitter chocolate toasted grains/malt. All in the taste is so well balanced. I get coffee burnt caramel bitter chocolate and root beer float. There’s some sweetness but on the light side which I love. I get some hazelnut when I exhale during the finish. You’re right. The best so far! What more can I say?