Looking back and forward with John Palmer

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Hello everyone! It is good to be back with Beer & Brewer. I have greatly enjoyed writing this column over the years and frankly was surprised to realise that I have been doing it since 2010! I like this column because it helps me maintain my home brewing roots, writing about the simple and practical techniques and recipes that produce such wonderful beverages. I’m sure many of you have brewed before, but if you haven’t, today’s article will start you off on the right foot.

I have been home brewing for some 35 years now and while the equipment has evolved tremendously, the basic process has not. But it has been refined to a large degree. We used to think that we had to emulate the large commercial brewers with separate vessels for the mash, lauter, and boil, and the pursuit of high efficiency and large volumes. What we have learned though is that the best beer can be made with much simpler equipment, and correspondingly, less effort.

I used to brew on a three-tier 10-gallon system that was highly efficient, but a real chore to clean at the end of an eight-hour brew day. I added pumps to automate some of the work, but after 10 years, I moved to a five-gallon system that only used two vessels and that saved me some time in cleaning up. A decade later and I moved to a 2.5 gallon or 10 litre all-in-one (i.e., Grainfather™) system. But there is an even easier way to brew, and that is brew in a bag (BIAB). This method consists of a 20-litre kettle, a large nylon or polyester mesh bag, and a big spoon. You are essentially using a large tea bag to make the wort.

So many of the techniques and practices that we have learned are based on large scale brewing economics that we lose sight of the actual goal – making a great wort that will ferment into a great beer. We have often been focused on the shiny equipment and how well it worked rather than the quality of the wort it actually produced. This is where the simplicity of a 10-litre, no-sparge BIAB batch size really shines. The brewing water is heated in the kettle on the stove, the grain bag is immersed and stirred to fully wet the grain, and then it is left to sit and convert for an hour. After conversion the grain bag is lifted and drained, and you are ready to begin the boil. No sparging required. This method produces 12 litres of rich wort, which is easy to boil on an electric stove or hotplate. This wort is richer and maltier tasting that a corresponding wort of the same original gravity that was sparged. (Sparging is the rinsing of the grain with water to extract more sugar.) As home brewers, we want the best wort with a minimum of fuss and bother, and that is what this method delivers.

So, today I am going to walk you through the brewing of a rich American Style Stout. American Stout is stronger than Irish Dry Stout, more on par with a Foreign Extra Stout, at 5-7 per cent ABV. American Stout is dominated by its full roasty flavour and body, whereas Foreign Extra often uses sugar adjuncts to boost the alcohol while lightening the body. American Stout has more hop character than a Foreign Extra, although not as much hops as a Black IPA. The best description I can think of is adding a spoonful of hop pellets to your morning pot of coffee. (My wife was not best pleased with my spirit of innovation.)

American Stout Recipe

Original gravity: 1.065
Final gravity: 1.015
BU: 45
ABV: 6.7%

Grain bill                                 Gravity points
3 kg Pale Ale malt                    44
300 g Roast Barley                  4
300 g C80 malt                        4
200 g Chocolate malt              2.5
Boil gravity for 12 L                  1.055

Mash schedule
Strike Water Volume                 15 Litres
Strike Water Temperature          70°C

Hop schedule                                                   Boil time          IBUs
15g Nugget                               12% AA           60                    40
15g Cascade                             7% AA             Steep 15           5

Yeast strain                             Pitch                Fermentation temp.
Irish Ale yeast                           1 pkg                66°F (18°C)

Brewing Water: 15 litres distilled water plus 3 g CaSO₄, 3 g CaCl₂, 4 g NaHCO₃, or tap water, treated appropriately to achieve a calcium concentration near 100 ppm (as Ca⁺⁺) and a residual alkalinity near 85-100 ppm as CaCO₃.

Procedure:

1. Heat 15 litres of water in the 20 litre kettle to 70°C.
2. Immerse the grain bag and drape the top over the sides of the kettle. Use the spoon to open it up fully. Pour in the crushed grain and stir thoroughly to break up any lumps. See Figure 1.
3. Check the temperature, the mash temperature should settle at about 67°C. Anywhere from 65-68°C is fine. Cover the mash with the lid and let it sit for a half hour.
4. After a half hour, stir the mash a couple times and check the temperature. If it has fallen below 60°C, then lift the grain bag off the bottom and turn off the heat for a couple minutes. Turn the heat off, stir, and check the temperature again. Cover and let sit for another half hour.
5. At the end of the hour, lift the grain bag clear of the wort and let it fully drain. You may want to stick a colander or strainer underneath the bag to support it or draft your children to hold it for you.
6. You now should have 12 litres of wort at your boil gravity of 1.055. Begin the boil and add your first hop addition. After boiling for an hour, you should be down to about 10.3 litres of wort, and you can turn off the heat. Add your last hop addition and let it steep in the hot wort for 15 minutes before cooling.
7. Cool the wort using an immersion chiller or by covering and letting cool overnight. Pour the chilled wort through a sanitized strainer to filter out the hops and into your fermenter.
8. Pitch 1 package (~10 g) of Irish or California Ale yeast and let it ferment at 18-20°C for two weeks. It will probably be done bubbling after week but give it another week to maturate and for the yeast to settle before bottling. Best wishes!