Stimulus Package Stout

In honor of all the federal cheese that has recently been poured over GMC and GMAC in the recent months, I thought I'd brew up a giant Imperial Stout. Since they just got another check for 7.5 billion to save 'em from their self inflicted doom, I thought I'd make this beer as big and dark as possible. Rather than save me from death, this thing just may induce it. We're shooting for an OG of 1.113! Shazam.

here's the rundown:

Batch size 6 gallons Boil size 12 gallons Boil time 300 minutes Grain weight 24 pounds Efficiency 75%	Est. OG 1.113 Est. FG 1.027 Est. ABV 11.3% Est. IBU 88 Est. SRM 36.4 Est. Color
Yeast 5 liquid packs White Labs California Ale WLP001 Grains 24 pounds 2 Row Base 37ppg, 1.5°L 15 pounds Munich (Light) 34ppg, 10°L 5 pounds Cane Sugar 45ppg, °L 2 pounds Chocolate 29ppg, 350°L 1 pounds Special B 30ppg, 150°L 0.5 pounds Barley (Roasted) 28ppg, 500°L 0.25 pounds Crystal 40L 34ppg, 40°L 0.25 pounds Notes:	Mash 60 minutes Strike Target 148°F 7.8 gallons 160°F 60 minutes Sparge 8.8 gallons 165°F Hops & Boil 300 minutes Magnum hops 14%, Pellet 2 ounces 60 minutes (+240) Columbus hops 13%, Pellet 2 ounces 30 minutes (+270) Columbus hops 13%, Pellet 1 ounces 0 minutes (+300) Ferment 14 days+

In order to dry out the beer as much as possible, I add the corn sugar at the peak of fermentation. For some reason, the yeast like to poop out early if there's too much sucrose in the wort at the beginning of fermentation. But, if they start chewing on the maltose from the beginning, then they'll eat everything to full attenuation.

Also, I'm pitching this thing on the yeast cake generated from my pale ale. That way there's no need to buy 5 vials of yeast.

By the way, I just started using BrewPal on my iphone to compose recipes. So far, I love it. It beats the pants off of any other mac application out there and it's much easier to use than promash. Plus, it sends me these nifty html formatted printouts of my recipes so I can post them on the blog.

UPDATE July 25, 2009:
I added a healthy portion of Peet's Garuda Espresso to taste. I'm going to let it settle for a few weeks before tasting it again. I have a feeling that the coffee aroma and flavor will fade a little over time. We'll see, but it tastes great now.

Simcoe Pale (Part Deux)

I loved the last pale I brewed. The only minor complaint I had was that the finishing gravity was a little high (1.016). So I decided to brew this one again, mash a little colder and throw in some corn sugar to dry it out a little more. We'll see how it turns out.
Grain:
85% Pale American Malt (9.35 lb)
4% Crystal 10 (0.44 lb)
4% Crystal 40 (0.44 lb)
4% Munich Malt (0.44 lb)
3% Carapils (0.33 lb)

1/2 lb corn sugar added at the peak of fermentation.

Single Infusion Mash:
Saccharification rest at 153 degrees for 45 minutes.
Sparge at 165 degrees.

Boil:
90 min. boil

Hops:
0.3 oz Columbus added at 60 minutes.
0.5 oz Simcoe added at 30 minutes.
0.5 oz Simcoe added at knockout.
1 oz Simcoe dry added after primary fermentation.
1 oz Amarillo dry added after primary fermentation.

Yeast:
2 liters, 1 day starter of 1 vial of White Labs (WLP001) Cal Ale Yeast.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.054
I actually only hit 1.048 this time :/ The corn sugar should sort that out :)

Notes:
Ferment at 65 Degrees for one week or until primary fermentation dies down, bump the temperature slowly up to 68 for another two days and let it finish off. Then add the dry hops and crash the temp down to 45 for another week to let things settle before kegging.