Author: Andy

Double Chocolate Espresso Stout

So a month ago I finally tried the Stout that I made in December, and I thought it was great. I was a little worried that the flavor of the beer would be over powered by the espresso, so I let it sit in secondary longer than usual to mellow the taste. I bottle conditioned it and after about 4 weeks in the bottle I thought it tasted great. I got the recipe from BYO and made a few modifications but kept it pretty close to that recipe. Here it is:

  • 8 # Dark malt extract
  • 0.5 # Crystal malt 20L
  • 0.5 # Chocolate malt
  • 0.5 # Roasted Barley
  • 1 # Ghirardelli Premium Sweet Ground Chocolate
  • 2 oz Northern Brewer 7.4% AA
    • 1.5 oz @ 60 min
    • 0.5 oz @ 15 min
  • 0.5 # espresso ground espresso beans
  • 1 pkg. White Labs Irish Ale Yeast WLP004
  • 1 tsp heading powder (for head retention when bottle conditioning)

Procedure:

  1. Steap grains @ 150F for 30 min.
  2. Heat to 17F and add extract
  3. Add hops at designated times and add chocolate at begining of boil
  4. Add yeast and ferment and water to make 4 gallons in primary.
  5. At secondary add espresso that has been brewed to a gallon of coffee

OG-1.072, FG-1.020, ABV-5%, IBU-56

Battle of the Beers

Last year realbeer.com had a battle of the beers where anyone could log on and vote daily on one of two beers. Out of 32 beers from 32 different breweries, Alaskan Smoked Porter won. Well their doing in again this year but with 64 different beers. The tournament starts around mid Feb, but right now you can go to the sight to nominate which beers you would like to see on the list.
I nominated Bridgeport IPA, Grant’s Scottish, and Rogue’s Shakespeare Stout.

Maudite

I tried the famous Maudite trappist style beer from Quebec two weekends ago. I can see why people who enjoy trappist style beers would like, but I don’t like trappists and thus did not really enjoy it. Its very strong flavored and has a good body, but it has the typical fruitiness of a lambic beer. Maybe some day I will like lambic/trappist beers but until then I will have to stay away from them.

Chocolate Stout

Last weekend I moved the chocolate stout to secondary, and like I expeted the gravity was at about 1.020 after adding the extra gallon of espresso. A little high but thats ok because I want it to be sweet since the espresso obviously will add some bitterness. I think that I am going to let it mature a little longer than usual before bottling. This will help reduce the strong bite of the espresso. I want to esspresso taste to be there but right now its a little to much.

Double Chocolate Espresso

This weekend I brewed a stout that I think I am going to call Hells Bells Stout, but I’ll wait until its done to make that decision. Its a double chocolate espresso stout that I found the recipe for in last months Brew Your Own magazine (byo.com). I changed the recipe slightly (different yeast) but for the most part I held true to the recipe in the mag. The wort tasted very good (it had a pound of Ghiradelli chocolate powder in it, mmmm…), so I hope it turns out well. Next weekend I will move to secondary and add the espresso. I will let you know how it turns out.

~posted by Scott Dunlap

Fire Station 5

So this weekend I tried a porter from the brewing compony Fire Station 5 that is located here in Portland. It was ok but I wasn’t that impressed. It had the typical color and after taste of a porter, but the flavor and smell were a little off. Its smelled sweet almost “like my wort” as Andy stated. Plus it tasted like a porter wort, too sweet for my tastes. The taste was very mild, not like the typical porter that explodes with flavor upon tasting. Basically, I would drink it again but I wouldn’t go to the store looking to buy this beer.