I've read through most of the post on this thread over the last few days. I am extremely interested and excited about making a batch or two of KtG.
My question to the group is, having not had KtG before (as a lot of people have stated before) is there a RIS on the market that you could somewhat compare it to?
I've had this on my "to brew" list for a while now too, and have been wondering the same regarding other comparable beers. Last weekend I was lucky enough to find that a local grill was serving Clown Shoes The Good The Bad and The Unidragon. It was thick, chewy and scrumptious! It does have a higher ABV (14%) but wondering if anyone has tried both and could provide a comparison?
Haven't had the clown shoes RIS, but they have a chocolate stout and a Pecan porter that are both very good. Some people buy beers with goofy names because it grabs their eye. Others avoid the goofy names because they assume the name is there because the beer sucks. Clown Shoes definitely should not be overlooked because of their name/bottles. They have a never nice lineup.
Haven't had the clown shoes RIS, but they have a chocolate stout and a Pecan porter that are both very good. Some people buy beers with goofy names because it grabs their eye. Others avoid the goofy names because they assume the name is there because the beer sucks. Clown Shoes definitely should not be overlooked because of their name/bottles. They have a never nice lineup.
Well, I brewed this last Saturday so last night, I started soaking the oak spirals. I started by weighing oak spiral to have 2 oz of oak and it slid nicely into my hydrometer tube. Added the tawny port (the only one the liquor store had) and the spirals started floating, so I sanitized an extra stainless steel threaded insert and dropped that on top, to weigh down the spirals.
The port tasted awesome so I cant wait to add it to the beer. I had considered adding another spiral soaked in bourbon but decided to rock the original recipe the first time.
I've done 4 batches of this so far. Each batch was bottle carbed with 1 tsp table sugar per 22 bottle. It was added directly to the bottle because I didn't want to introduce any more oxygen than necessary. I fully intend for some of these to be shelved for a long time. Here's my accounts of each run:
Batch #1: 5 gallons. WLP001 yeast. I assumed a 5% drop in efficiency (down from 75%). All that grain caused my mash tun to overflow (even using minimal water - 1.3 qt per pound). Missed my SG horribly. Only hit 1.088. Skipped any secondary treatments and just called this one a standard RIS. Glad I did. I cracked one a couple of weeks ago, and the hops were a bit much after missing the gravity by so much.
Batch #2: Scaled down to 3.5 gallon batches after the last fiasco. WLP001 in the fermentation chamber just below room temp (about 66 degrees). Not trying to control the esters, just the fusels. Overshot the SG on this one. 1.110. Put 2 tbls of cocoa powder into the boil on this one. Transferred to secondary at 3 weeks. 2 oz of cocoa nibs scalded in boiling water went into secondary with it. Aged on the nibs for 2 weeks then bottled. Cracked on a couple weeks ago. This beer is honestly a bit two complex for cocoa. The cocoa confuses it. Too many things going on. Also, have some carb issues with some of the bottles. No bottle bombs, no over carb, but some just have no carb at all. ABV is very high and I think I may have euthanized my yeast.
Batch #3: WLP001 again. SG 1.106 (nailed it!). Another 3.5 gallon batch. Three week ferment at 66 degrees. 2 weeks in secondary on 1 oz of heavy toasted French oak cubes soaked in tawny port. Only the cubes went into the carboy. We cracked open two last weekend. There was a soft hiss as the caps released and you could immediately hear angels singing. After the first taste, my friends and I just stared at each other with mouths agape. This is by far the best RIS I've ever had -and I've tried a good number. The Hungarian gives some very pronounced caramel notes that go deliciously with this beer. The port gives a hint of fruit and you feel almost like you're drinking a beer liquer or schnapps. Carb turned out a tad weak on this batch as well.
Batch #4: Just put it in the fermenter last weekend. Changed the yeast up to San Diego super. SG 1.104. This will be a redo of batch #3. Hoping for more consistent yeast action in the bottle. This should be the truth teller on whether it's my bottling or the yeast.
For those that have brewed this and pulled a parti-gyle batch.
Since the Kate Stout is so large Im considering doing a parti-gyle batch. According to Randy Moshers Brewing Techniques the second running should be approx. 1.050 and the color will drop from a 56 to 23 SRM.
Heres my thoughts:
Add 1lb of flaked oats and 4 ounces of the Black Prinz to get the Stout color back. Change styles to Oatmeal Stout and let it mash in the fly sparge water for an additional hour or 75 minutes while the first boil is going. Add the same chemicals to the second running sparge as I did to the original sparge. Fly sparge to get equivalent amount of pre-boil volume as the first batch. Hop with same types of hops to 39 IBUs and ferment at same time with same yeast.
What do you think?
What does your FG project on the second beer? I would think it would be a bit lower than desired because of the need to mash low on the full size beer.
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I partigyled this recipe and my numbers were 1.049-1.010 with wlp090. It was less SRM for sure, but flavor was awesome at bottling on Sunday!
I added nothing to the grain bill. Came to 5.2% abv and ibu's in the mid 30's.
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how many vol co2 is that atimmerman88? or how much dextrose for how many gal beer did you prime? I'm nervous to bottle mine. Bottled the left hand milk stout and it came out too little carbonation, no head if it's chilled, a finger if at room temp. Then bottled a bourbon porter with way too mcuh carbonation, came out like at a wheat beer level so it has way too much head/bite. I've been told 2.2 is perfect for this, but I'm still not sure.
I bottled it to 1.9v per tasty brew. 2.5 oz sugar for 5 gal
The beer itself wasn't overly crabed. I pulled it from the cellar and drank it 16hrs later so I don't think the co2 was fully dissolved back into the bottle. It's beer in bottles 7 weeks
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Thoroughly aggravated
KtG sat in primary for 6 weeks. Secondary for 6. Bottles 6 weeks
Primed them to 1.75v and I've got this on the bourbon version
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Well I went down to the basement tonight to put some labels on an buffalo sweat clone tonight, and heard what I thought was the sound of glass falling softly to the ground....low and behold it was, had 2 bottle bombs in my KtG in the last week or so I guess, the beer and boxes were all dry.
I guess this turd decided to drop a few more points in the bottles after sitting at FG for 2 months in secondary.
Not happy, going to try and sanitize all the bottles, and open in a bottling bucket and rebottle. I'll probably oxidize the hell out of them in the process but short of dumping I don't know what else to do. I don't think that they are infected since they taste great.
Any one ever done this with a batch? I doubt I can crack them without massive spewage of beer/foam
What are thoughts regarding my plan above? I'm mainly after getting the oat flavor and color back and if my pre-boil gravity is too high I could run additional sparge for a larger volume.
Well I went down to the basement tonight to put some labels on an buffalo sweat clone tonight, and heard what I thought was the sound of glass falling softly to the ground....low and behold it was, had 2 bottle bombs in my KtG in the last week or so I guess, the beer and boxes were all dry.
I guess this turd decided to drop a few more points in the bottles after sitting at FG for 2 months in secondary.
Not happy, going to try and sanitize all the bottles, and open in a bottling bucket and rebottle. I'll probably oxidize the hell out of them in the process but short of dumping I don't know what else to do. I don't think that they are infected since they taste great.
Any one ever done this with a batch? I doubt I can crack them without massive spewage of beer/foam
I like the additions for color and base malt. Personally I'd half the oats and wheat but try it your way first. It will boost the body and head, not to mention upping the OG but .005-007 points minimum (from the 2 row).
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what was FG and what yeast did you use? I've had a double batch aging since august, 5 gal in a secondary, 5 in a big 40L primary bucket. both went aprox 1100->1024ish with a huge US05 starter/slurry repitch. Planning on aging 60 bottles indefinitely and would hate to have bombs occur.
Never done the whole rebottling thing myself but would be super paranoid about oxidizing it all, especially while repouring into a bottling bucket. I guess if you purged it with co2, but even then...
Save your beer, don't open them. Take a look at the link and pasteurize the bottles.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/
I partigyled this recipe and my numbers were 1.049-1.010 with wlp090. It was less SRM for sure, but flavor was awesome at bottling on Sunday!
I added nothing to the grain bill. Came to 5.2% abv and ibu's in the mid 30's.
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I don't think I'm going to take the change of pasteurizing.
I've had 2 blow so putting them in 170ish water is only going to increase the pressure and drive more CO2 out of solution further making it worse IMO.
They are gushers when I open them making it almost impossible to drink
I would crack theology to vent the gas and then refasten them. Chill them first to drive more co2 into solution to prevent them from gushing while doing this.
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I would crack theology to vent the gas and then refasten them. Chill them first to drive more co2 into solution to prevent them from gushing while doing this.
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Exactly. Get them almost frozen, crack until they start to foam, then recap. A few options to remidy the crappy situation, but dumping them back into a bottling bucket is a guaranteed way to ruin them.
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