The Big E

[Taylor-MadeAK]

<singing> Raindrops keep fallin' on my head... </singing>

You'll know what time I fire up the brewpot, because that's when the torrential downpour will begin.  This beer is so worth it, though. =)

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Brewing is done, save for final cleanup.  Darn tired, so taking ten to recover.

The sun is coming out now, so any more foul weather is your problem and cannot be blamed on me.

[Maize]

So what is the Big E, anyway? I get that it is a brew... but ale or lager? Light or dark?
Well, you get the idea.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

It's a stout.

Exactly what kind of stout...I guess you'll just have to show up at the E party at Oni's to find out. 

[Oni]

That will be an interesting party for sure.

[Maize]

I doubt that I will be able to make it.
My work commitments take up most of my time.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Didn't realize you live in Fairbanks, man.  I'll set aside a bottle to mail ya. =)

[Taylor-MadeAK]

I love watching beer ferment. 

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Update time.  It's as good an excuse as any to break in the new site.

Using my trusty refractometer, my eyes, and two sets of taste buds, I checked on the fermentation progress of this batch today. 

First, a little math.  All of these homebrewing yeasts have a known range of apparent attenuation - that is, how much of they will reduce the specific gravity of the beer they're used in.  For most ale strains, that number won't top 75% (there are exceptions, mostly in Belgian strains), so you can get a pretty good idea of where your beer will end up if you know its starting gravity just by subtracting 75% from that number.  The maximum apparent attenuation of this Irish ale yeast is actually 74%, so I know that (39 * 0.26 = 10.14) this stout will have a final gravity of around 1.010.

Back to checking on the fermenting stout.  Peek-in-the-fridge observation tells me that it's not spewing foam through the blowoff tube any more, so fermentation is winding down.  That's the marker that tells me it's time to get a better idea of how close to done it is.  That's where the refractometer comes in, and it tells me that the stout is currently at 5.4º Brix...but that's not an entirely accurate number because alcohol content also affects light refraction.  Fortunately, Promash is able to compensate for that when converting that number to specific gravity, which worked out to 1.011.  It still tastes pretty sweet, though, which means it still has a little fermenting left to do.

Translation: almost done.  I'll rack it into secondary this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, a little heads up: it's going to rain.  A lot.  I'll be brewing the hefeweizen Millie asked for on Saturday.  Hopefully I can still find some blood oranges, since the ones I bought a couple weeks ago spoiled before I could use them.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

This beer has been bottled.  There will be a few bottles of it at the next Kitsune party for those who feel brave enough to try it.

Final stats:

Original Gravity: 1.040 (undershot my OG by not sparging enough)
Final Gravity: 1.015 (seems high considering the OG, but this is actually what this beer normally finishes at because of all the crystal malt)
Alcohol Content: 3.28% ABV (yes, it's low...but only 1% lower than normal for this recipe)
Number of Bottles Filled: 31 (breakdown: 18x 16oz Grolsch bottles + 13x 22oz bottles)
Number of "Surprise!" Bottles: Every bottle is a surprise!  Muahahahahahahahaaaa!!!

Further explanation:

Did you read the post above this one?  Well, I'm a dumbass.  First, I failed to recall that this particular oatmeal stout contains a lot of crystal malt.  Crystal malt contributes caramelized sugar, which is unfermentable and serves to provide body and sweetness as well as flavor in a beer.  In my defense, it's been a long damn time since I've made this beer, but my records from those times (the last time I made this beer was 2003!) shows that the FG is always in the 1.015-1.016 range.

So...why did my refractometer tell me it was 1.011?  Simple: refractometers work by refracting light through a prism which you put a few drops of beer or wort (or juice, or whatever) on.  Stout is a dark, dark beer.  That skews the result.  To get an accurate reading, I had to use my precision hydrometer (precision because it only reads 0.990 - 1.020, a very narrow range).

Oops.

About that low alcohol content: even when everything goes right, this oatmeal stout only reaches 4.08% ABV.  It's supposed to be a relatively low alcohol beer, that's just the way it is.  In this case, I missed my target OG by 6 points, which dropped the final alcohol content by a percentage point.  No big deal, stouts aren't about alcohol content, they're about flavor...and this beer is full of flavor.

[Oni]

*purrs* I can't wait to try.

I always thought of myself as a rather Stouty feline.

[Derval]

Sad...I see the title and think "That should say "The Big O"

[Oni]

Do you mean

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Huh?

[Oni]

That's what the anime geek inside me see's when it hears "Big O"