#30, #31, #32 - Triple Brew Day for Barrel Project [All Grain]

The 10kg+/ bucket grain allocations for the 3 brews

The NHC recently acquired a bunch of old whiskey barrels from a friendly man in northern Ireland. These barrels had reached the end of their life and were several decades old. Most of the barrels were distributed to the brewing clubs around the country with each club brewing their own recipe. Each barrel took approximately 200L of beer to fill and most already had about 1L of 60% whiskey still in the barrels to keep them wet. Given that my location overlaps between two clubs I ended up contributing beer to two barrels. The first recipe with (South Dublin Brewers) is an imperial porter which has plenty of brown malt, to help make up the volume for the barrel and as I love porters, I volunteered to produce 40L of imperial porter for that barrel. The second barrel with (Capital Brewers) is going to be an imperial stout with a large emphasis on roasted malt and early hopping. Both recipes were light on late hop additions as hop aroma was expected to be non existent after ageing in the barrels.

The Mash tun at its absolute limit!

Paint strainer bag to for the pellet hops

The amount of grain used to make three 10% beers is like nothing I have ever dealt with before. I had anticipated this and bought an electric drill to aid the grinding process but even at that it took hours! I ground the grain the night before the brew day to reduce the workload. I mashed in one of the brews that night to speed the brewday the following morning but at that point I had not planned to do all 3 brews in the one day. My mash tun was push to its absolute limits, I even had to add pieces of wood beneath it to ensure it was level to get more water into it. I used a large paint strainer bag in an attempt to contain the pellet hops used for the brew. For the first boil I started heating the wort immediately after the first runnnigs but this turned out to be a mistake as the highly concentrated wort must have caramelised and eventually scorched on the element towards the end of the boil. Luckily my kettle has two elements so I was able to finish the boil but I didn't heat the wort for subsequent brews until all the wort was in the kettle.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: South Dublin Brewers - Imperial Porter
Brewer: Shane Phelan
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 28.13 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.88 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 18.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.108 SG
Estimated Color: 104.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 105.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.5 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
8000.00 g             Pale Ale Malt (4.9 EBC)                  Grain         1        71.1 %        
1000.00 g             Amber Malt (118.2 EBC)                   Grain         2        8.9 %         
1000.00 g             Brown Malt (114.3 EBC)                   Grain         3        8.9 %         
500.00 g              Chocolate Malt (738.8 EBC)               Grain         4        4.4 %         
500.00 g              Crystal 55 (108.3 EBC)                   Grain         5        4.4 %         
250.00 g              Black Malt (985.0 EBC)                   Grain         6        2.2 %         
40.00 g               Magnum [14.10 %] - Boil 90.0 min         Hop           7        50.8 IBUs     
150.00 g              East Kent Goldings [7.20 %] - Boil 20.0  Hop           8        55.1 IBUs     
2.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         9        -             


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]
Total Grain Weight: 11250.00 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash Step         Add 26.13 l of water at 166. 150.0 F                60 min          

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 13.70l, 2.07l) of 168.1 F water
Notes:
------


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Capital Brewers - Imperial Stout
Brewer: Shane Phelan
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 28.13 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.88 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 18.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.103 SG
Estimated Color: 225.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 115.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.5 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
8000.00 g             Pale Ale Malt (9.7 EBC)                  Grain         1        74.8 %        
1000.00 g             Amber Malt (232.9 EBC)                   Grain         2        9.3 %         
700.00 g              Roasted Barley (1765.8 EBC)              Grain         3        6.5 %         
500.00 g              Chocolate Malt (1455.3 EBC)              Grain         4        4.7 %         
300.00 g              Black Malt (1940.5 EBC)                  Grain         5        2.8 %         
200.00 g              Crystal 55 (213.4 EBC)                   Grain         6        1.9 %         
30.00 g               Magnum [14.10 %] - Boil 90.0 min         Hop           7        39.5 IBUs     
150.00 g              East Kent Goldings [7.20 %] - Boil 20.0  Hop           8        57.0 IBUs     
150.00 g              East Kent Goldings [7.20 %] - Boil 5.0 m Hop           9        18.8 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004)     Yeast         10       -             


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]
Total Grain Weight: 10699.99 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash Step         Add 24.97 l of water at 163. 150.0 F                60 min          

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 14.61l, 1.77l) of 168.1 F water
Notes:
------


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#28 - Coffin Ship Survivor Imperial Stout [All Grain]

I was really happy with how my previous imperial stout turned out despite its below average marks (31/50) in a recent brewing competition. I am down to my last two bottles so I decided it was time to make a new version to try out a few different things. The new version is going to use different hops, contain alterations to the malt bill and also will have oak chips added after the initial fermentation as ceased. I'm calling this one the "Coffin Ship Survivor" in reference to the coffin ships that would have brought Irish immigrants to America. The boat that would have brought them there would have been made of oak and the ancestors of those that would have survived the journey would have drank beer made with the Columbus and Cascade hops which give this beer its flavour.

Chocolate & Pale Malt

The 11kg Grain Bill

The malt bill is quite large for this brew as when I was originally making the recipe my efficiency was consistently in the 50% region or so I thought. Realising my errors in calculation I calculated my efficiency today to be 63%, I guess it would have been higher only I had to make a thicker mash so that I could fit all the grain into my mash tun.

Hop Bill

In the previous imperial stout I put in over 100g of hops at flame-out and dry hopped with another 100g.  Given that imperial stouts are meant to be aged for a while, this action is a bit of a waste of hops as the aroma would have diminished significantly in the several months that the beer would have been ageing. Instead I am putting in the hop additions earlier at 10 and 5 minutes with a small amount at flame-out to use up anything I had lying around. 

The Boil

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Oak Aged Imperial Stout 
Brewer: Shane Phelan
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 25.34 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.71 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 17.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.092 SG
Estimated Color: 105.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 79.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 50.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 57.5 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
7000.00 g             Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         1        60.9 %        
900.00 g              Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC)                   Grain         2        7.8 %         
900.00 g              Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)                Grain         3        7.8 %         
750.00 g              Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L (30.0 EBC)    Grain         4        6.5 %         
750.00 g              Vienna Malt (6.9 EBC)                    Grain         5        6.5 %         
500.00 g              Barley, Flaked (3.3 EBC)                 Grain         6        4.3 %         
500.00 g              Black Malt (Stout) (1333.0 EBC)          Grain         7        4.3 %         
200.00 g              Chocolate Malt (1050.5 EBC)              Grain         8        1.7 %         
60.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [10.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop           9        48.4 IBUs     
30.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [10.00 %] - Boil 30. Hop           10       18.6 IBUs     
60.00 g               Cascade [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop           11       7.9 IBUs      
60.00 g               Cascade [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           12       4.8 IBUs      
10.00 g               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min      Hop           13       0.0 IBUs      
10.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 Hop           14       0.0 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004)     Yeast         15       -             
50.00 g               Oak Chips (Primary 7.0 days)             Flavor        16       -             


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]
Total Grain Weight: 11500.00 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash Step         Add 22.05 l of water at 169. 152.0 F                60 min          

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 13.29l, 4.02l) of 168.1 F water
Notes:
------
Columbus hops adjusted to 10% Alpha from 14% as they are more than a year old. 
Cascade hops adjusted to 4.5% Alpha from 5.5% as they are more than 5 months old.

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#23 - Cajunga Imperial Stout [All Grain]

I have not been blown away by any of the imperial stouts that I have had to date with each drink either being too syrupy or too watery. I wanted something that was somewhere in between in terms of body and flavour. 

I Made this beer with the intention of entering it in a local brewing competition but only got it bottled the week before and thought it was probably too young to be entering it. I tried it after a couple of weeks and it was surprisingly drinkable. I had never made an imperial stout before and had assumed that they took several months to become drinkable. This didn't seem to be the case as it was a bit 'ugh' after 1 week in the bottle but after 3 weeks it tasted really good! 

The recipe originally started off as an imperial porter as I love the additional emphasis on chocolate flavours that seem to be one of the few differences that I can identify between porters and stouts. The one issue is that imperial porters doesn't exist as a BJCP style and thus an imperial porter doesn't really fit in anywhere in brewing software. To make it fit I decided to put it into the imperial stout style but of course I wanted to make the "software indicators" fit within the style guidelines which caused me to increase the base grains and the roasted grain to compensate. I added the crystal malts as they were crushed and I didn't want to leave them lying around for too long. I would regard these as optional but given how well the final beer tastes I would be reluctant to leave them out in future in case the flavour suffered as a result. 

More hops were added than intended as I wanted to use up the full 100g bags (I hate having 10g of hops left over!). Also I have been recently paranoid that I haven't been getting good utilisation from my hops as the software thinks they are fresh when in fact they could be up to 2 years old, this also influenced the increased hopping rate. I saw Junga Hops on my local brewing supplier website and thought the name sounded cool so used them. They are a Polish Hop and are related to the Saaz hop variety. This is probably the wrong style of beer to showcase these hops as there is so much other stuff going on. The Junga hops were leaf and the cascade were in pellet form. The girlfriend had to give me a hand grinding the grain as my flimsy arms were incapable of grinding constantly. 

Grinding

I made a 1L starter with 3 days on a stir plate and pitched it at a warm 27 degrees. I have pitched at this temperature the last 2 or 3 brews and I haven't noticed any adverse affects. I mashed low at 150-151F to get a lighter body as I am not a fan of syrupy stouts. This was an all-day mash as I didn't have time to do everything in one day. I mashed in before I went to work and did the boil when I came home. 

Original gravity was 1088, final gravity 1016.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com

Recipe: Imperial Cajunga Stout 

Brewer: Shane Phelan

Asst Brewer: 

Style: Imperial Stout

TYPE: All Grain

Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Boil Size: 25.34 l

Post Boil Volume: 22.71 l

Batch Size (fermenter): 19.00 l   

Bottling Volume: 17.00 l

Estimated OG: 1.083 SG

Estimated Color: 116.5 EBC

Estimated IBU: 67.2 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %

Est Mash Efficiency: 69.0 %

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:

------------

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

6000.00 g             Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         1        69.0 %        

1000.00 g             Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC)               Grain         2        11.5 %        

600.00 g              Black Malt (Stout) (1333.0 EBC)          Grain         3        6.9 %         

500.00 g              Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)    Grain         4        5.7 %         

500.00 g              Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC)   Grain         5        5.7 %         

100.00 g              Chocolate Malt (1050.5 EBC)              Grain         6        1.1 %         

40.00 g               Junga [12.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min          Hop           7        42.6 IBUs     

30.00 g               Junga [12.30 %] - Boil 30.0 min          Hop           8        24.6 IBUs     

95.00 g               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min          Hop           9        0.0 IBUs      

25.00 g               Junga [12.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min           Hop           10       0.0 IBUs      

1.0 pkg               California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast         11       -             

115.00 g              Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days      Hop           12       0.0 IBUs      

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Single Batch Sparge [Shanes AG]

Total Grain Weight: 8700.00 g

----------------------------

Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       

Mash Step         Add 19.50 l of water at 166. 152.0 F                60 min          

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 17.05l) of 168.1 F water