BIG Brew Today

Big brew day today…my buddy Jack is in from Spokane and we’re going to do a very large American Stout; a clone of Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout – one of my perennial favorites. Too bad Andy isn’t here…he used to be pretty good at this.

Here’s the grain bill:
15.5 lbs pale
1 lb chocolate
¾ lb white wheat
½ lb roasted black barley
¼ lb flaked wheat
3 oz black patent

That equates to 18 plus lbs of grain. Yeah baby! We’re looking for an OG of 1.090 plus! If I can bring her down to a target 1.023 FG, she should come in at 9% ABV with good attenuation.

I’m going to mash in at 154 degrees to get some extra sweetness and mouthfeel. This should be a very large beer suitable for drinking in January on these bitterly cold southwest Louisiana nights:)

Here’s the hops bill:
2 oz Kent Golding 60 min
½ oz Amarillo and ½ oz Kent Golding 15 min
½ oz Amarillo and ½ oz Glacier 5 min

The estimated IBU is 46. Did I ever mention that Garrett Oliver is one of my beer heroes?

I also made a yeast starter using Safale 05 dry yeast on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning to assure that there would be a sufficient quantity of the little buggers to address the high gravity wort head on!

Stay tuned for brew day details! There will also be stogies involved and endless college football. I only hope safety professional Jack can be of some assistance lifting these heavy containers…