Roasted grains, Stone Brewing Co.'s Imperial Russian Stout clone and more

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Find Recipes Start your free trial Brew Day Bulletin Dear Homebrewer, We run through key characteristics of several of the more common roasted grains [Free] and how they may be applied in different beer styles. Then, two 2020 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) medalists share their preferences and techniques for brewing with roasted malts [Digital Members]. Stone Brewing Co.'s Imperial Russian Stout clone [Free] abounds with notes of chocolate, coffee, black currants, anise and roastiness. East End Brewing (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) brews its East End Brewing Co.'s Gratitude clone [Digital Members], an American-style barleywine, as an anniversary beer each November. Looking for a new homebrewing project? Try this stir plate [Free] or weldless boil kettle or mash tun [Digital Members].  Mr. Wizard talks American beers and Prohibition [Digital Members]. Then, can you use an Oxygen Concentrator for wort aeration? Get Mr. Wizard's answer [Free].  Cheers! Brad Ring Publisher Read & Brew: Free Content For All Recipe Stone Brewing Co.'s Imperial Russian Stout clone According to Stone's website, "This massive and intensely aromatic beer abounds with notes of chocolate, coffee, black currants, anise and roastiness, and its heavy palate is nothing to be trifled with." (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain) OG = 1.096 FG = 1.020 IBU = 65 SRM = 63 ABV = 10.7% Ingredients 16.5 lbs. (7.5 kg) 2-row pale malt 2 lbs. (0.91 kg) amber malt 1.25 lbs. (0.57 kg) roasted barley (500 °L) 1.25 lbs. (0.57 kg) black malt Read more Article Dark Secrets of Roasted Grains There are a lot of beer styles that call for some form of a roasted grain. Understanding the differences between them helps brewers decide which they should use for a recipe and at what proportions. The purpose of this piece is to run through key characteristics of several of the more common roasted grains and how they may be applied in different beer styles. Read more Don't miss the Brewery Financials Online Boot Camp this Friday, Jan. 15. Understand the Numbers Behind the Beer. Join craft brewery financial expert Audra Gaiziunas for four hours to learn the tools to better understand and manage a craft brewery's money needs. During this live and interactive online workshop, budgeting, inventory management, and standard operating procedures you should have in place will be discussed. Read more Ask Mr Wizard Oxygen Concentrator Aeration Q I have been trying to come up with an easy and cost-effective way to get good aeration in my fermentations. I recently came across a device called an Oxygen Concentrator, which takes regular air and concentrates the oxygen for use in the medical industry. There are models for home use priced in the $500-$1,200 range. Could these devices be used for wort aeration in place of buying the red welding bottles at home improvement stores or the medical-grade bottles? A The imagination of the homebrewer never ceases to amaze me. Using an oxygen concentrator to produce oxygen for wort aeration certainly is a creative way to tackle this particular brewing process. I must admit that I was not sure how these devices function. My guess was that the oxygen concentrator uses a membrane filter to separate nitrogen from oxygen, basically the opposite of how nitrogen generators operate, and did some reading to check my guess.   Read More Project Build a Stir Plate One of the most useful tools for making a yeast starter is a product called a stir plate. A stir plate is a device that contains a strong magnet just beneath its surface that spins in a circular motion. A container of liquid sits on top of the stir plate, and placed inside the liquid is a coated magnet called a stir-bar. The spinning magnet of the stir plate causes the stir-bar in the liquid to spin as well, providing a continual stirring of the liquid. When used for building yeast starters, the continual stirring of the stir-bar provides constant agitation and aeration of the yeast. The result is smaller starter sizes and less time needed to build more yeast cells. Read More For Digital Members Only Members get access to thousands of recipes, all new BYO issues and more. Try membership risk free for 14 days.* Brew Better. Try Membership, Free!* Recipe East End Brewing Co.'s Gratitude clone East End Brewing (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) brews this American-style barleywine as an anniversary beer each November, and then bottle conditions and hand packages them. (5 gallons/19 L, all-grain) OG = 1.110   FG = 1.024 IBU= 74   SRM = 18   ABV = 11% Ingredients 15 lbs. (6.8 kg) Canadian pale malt 2.25 lbs. (1 kg) light Munich malt (6 °L) 2.25 lbs. (1 kg) Franco-Belges aromatic malt (4 °L)   Read more Article Roasted Malts: Tips from the Pros For chocolate flavor we find chocolate rye gives us the best results and we use it in almost every one of our dark beers. We prefer chocolate rye and chocolate wheat over a classic chocolate malt from barley; we find they come off less acidic and with less of a harsh bitter aftertaste. We rely on a classic roasted barley for our coffee flavor and aroma. To balance out the bitterness that comes from roasted barley we like to use some Carafa® Special III that has been "debittered" but still adds a nice espresso aroma.   Read more Ask Mr. Wizard American Beers and Prohibition Q I know American beers are lighter today than before Prohibition, but are there records of the recipes used before all these changes? I look at labels on some of the bottles in my collection and see that some breweries claim to be more than 100 years old. I just wonder how much better the beer might have been, say when Pabst was first started in 1844. A There are some problems best solved by changing tools. The easiest way to add and remove hop bags to a carboy is to use the types with large openings. Just guessing that's not the reply you were seeking! Another approach is to put your hop pellets in an over-sized hop bag to allow plenty of room for expansion and movement within the bag; before putting the bag in your narrow-mouth carboy, tie a piece of fishing line to the bag so you can pull the bag out of the beer (and maybe out of the carboy) at the right time. If the bag is too large to easily pull from the carboy, simply tie your line to the neck of the carboy and let the hop bag hang above the beer level until you have racked your beer when it's easier to wrangle the bag out.   Read more Project Building a Weldless Boil Kettle or Mash Tun This month we'll tackle a couple of easy projects that will make your summer beer drinking easier and more pleasurable. First is a way to answer the burning question "Is my kegged beer carbonated? And is it carbonated to style?" Kegging is very cool, very easy and — once you've popped the bucks for kegs, regulator and CO2 tank — highly portable. But getting the right dispensing pressure can be tricky. We'll rescue you. Read more *Free Trial Terms and Conditions: For new members and subscribers only. Limit one per customer. Additional auto-renewal terms apply. See product checkout page for details.  Copyright © 2021 Brew Your Own, All rights reserved. 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