34

Happy Birthday to me

For the second year in a row I spent my birthday leisurely brewing a big imperial stout. You may recall that a year ago I mentioned that I always try to take my birthday and spending it doing things I love, which for the past two years has meant brewing a beer.

The beer this year was a slight retool of the Kate the Great clone that I brewed last year. I had started to tool-up a monster of a beer in BeerSmith about 6 months ago but decided I wanted to give the recipe another shot after the fate that had befallen 33.  As you may recall from the "Barrel" Aged 33 post due to it's close vicinity to Halvtreds it caught a brett infection that somewhat diminished the final flavor of the beer.  This really bugged me as my in process tasting was reveling an incredible beer was developing.

Brewing of the beer went really well and considering that last year I had to sub in some DME to meet my targeted gravity I was quite pleased to have hit it without any this year.  The biggest cause of this was my focus on the efficiency of the system and the process I've been using for sparging. I've spent some time studying other brewer's processes and the flow rate while sparging does appear to be a big contributor to the system's efficiency.  The rule of thumb that Shawn has advised be to follow four oz in a quarter minute. (Note: I texted Shawn to confirm this and he replied - "Yes.  One pint per minute, but measuring 4oz in 15 second allows for quick adjustment and dialing in." He cautions - "Don't exceed 90 min total (per Noonan)")

The 521 Blend of "Barrel" Aged 33

Another big deal for the day was the birthday present from my wife and daughter of a Duda Diesel plate chiller.  I've had A LOT of issues with my immersion chiller leaking while cooling, which resulted in some severely missed gravities and no loss of frustration, and really wanted to follow Shawn in getting a plate chiller.  I'd been eying Duda Diesel as the cost effective solution after first hearing about them over at Chism Brewing Voyage.  I had originally planned on buying one direct however between first coming across them and my birthday I mentioned them to Eric at Addison Homebrew Provisions who then went on to start carrying them (which is where Bonnie bought mine).  I still have some set up work to do it get the temperature efficiencies to where I want it.  So far I've been able to drop the wort from boiling to 80 in about 5-6 minutes.  From there it give it an ice bath to reach pitching temp in the mid 60s.  Pretty damn good considering it was taking 30-45 minutes to get to 90 using the immersion chiller.

I'd made a big starter using WLP007 and my stir plate which resulted in active fermentation in about 3 hours.  In fact the fermentation was so strong that dispite keeping the temp in the 60s I experienced on of the worst blow off I'd seen in years!  oops

Cheers

-SNB

34
Imperial Stout
Type: All Grain Date: 12/29/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Brewer: Scott Bennett
Boil Size: 7.28 gal
Boil Time: 75 min
Equipment: SNB Brewhouse (Keggle and Cooler)
End of Boil Volume 5.72 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.25 gal

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.102 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.099 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 11.1 %
Bitterness: 79.8 IBUs
Est Color: 57.8 SRM 

Ingredients

Grain
16.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.90 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)
0.90 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)
0.90 lb Wheat Malt, Dark (9.0 SRM)
0.80 lb Carafa III (525.0 SRM)
0.70 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM)
0.60 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
0.60 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
0.30 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)
0.30 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)
0.30 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)

Hops
1.10 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - First Wort 75.0 min
0.70 oz Perle [8.00 %] - First Wort 75.0 min
0.70 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - First Wort 75.0 min
0.25 oz Perle [8.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
1.30 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Aroma Steep 3.0 min
1.00 oz Perle [8.00 %] - Aroma Steep 3.0 min

Yeast
1.0 pkg Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007)

Other
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins)
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins)

Mash Profile 
Mash In Add 7.22 gal of water at 158.7 F 148.0 F 75 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 3.77gal) of 168.0 F water

Notes
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/official-kate-great-russian-imperial-stout-clone-217674/
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/04/portsmouth-kate-great-clone-recipe.html

Pictures

I heat some water while setting up to pre-heat my mash tun

This beer takes a lot of grain

Filled to the top

Mashing with the paddle

New chill plate from my Wife and Daughter

Birthday card from my Mom

The cooling setup needs some work

A lot of work

The last beer in this bottle was 33

The next morning