Stout Bottled
We bottled the stout tonight and I took the Final Gravity reading.
For those of you who recall when I brewed this beer, it came out much darker than I had anticipated. And it also came out heavier - an Original Gravity reading of 1.066 instead of an expected 1.059, which means 6.6% more dense than water, and about 12% more dense than I had planned. Well, if the yeast had fermented 75% of the sugar, which is what this particular strain of yeast is supposedly capable of, I would have ended up with a Final Gravity of 1.018 (1.8% more dense than water, for those not picking up on the trend here), and 6% alcohol. [values corrected, thanks to skreidle]
Well, sports fans, again, there's a trend. And that is that this part didn't turn out as planned either. The Final Gravity reading was 1.026. So only about 60% of the sugars were fermented. In hindsight, I kind of saw this one coming (how's that for mixing your metaphors?). You see, I used a lot of dark extract in the base for this beer in addition to the black patent, chocolate, and roasted barley that I steeped. What all of this darkness means (in addition to making beer that is really stinkin' dark) is that most of the sugars are non-fermentable. This was partly by design, since you need non-fermentable sugars to give a stout its thick, chewy feel. But I clearly overshot the mark on this and ended up with much more unfermented sugar than I had planned.
This puts it in between beer styles, so I'm not winning any competitions with it. ;) It has the gravity of a Russian Imperial Stout, the bitterness of anything but an Imperial or American Stout, and the alcohol content of anything but an Imperial or a Foreign Extra Stout. So it's kind of a Bastard Stout. Which I guess could be in keeping with my intent to call it Norman Invasion Ale. I mean, you start with 1.066 and you end up with something that isn't like anything that came before it.
The pre-bottling taste test proves it to be predictably heavy, not too sweet, and you can definitely taste those roasted grains. I can't wait to see what kind of a head it develops and how it finally tastes. Speaking of head, I think I figured out why my last batch had several bottles that did not carbonate properly. I noticed that some of the bottle caps did not appear to be on straight, and I'm betting they just didn't keep the pressure and went flat. I think I have identified (and eliminated) the offending style of bottles, so hopefully this batch will be properly carbonated.
So there ya go. Check back after February 9th for the final verdict!
For those of you who recall when I brewed this beer, it came out much darker than I had anticipated. And it also came out heavier - an Original Gravity reading of 1.066 instead of an expected 1.059, which means 6.6% more dense than water, and about 12% more dense than I had planned. Well, if the yeast had fermented 75% of the sugar, which is what this particular strain of yeast is supposedly capable of, I would have ended up with a Final Gravity of 1.018 (1.8% more dense than water, for those not picking up on the trend here), and 6% alcohol. [values corrected, thanks to skreidle]
Well, sports fans, again, there's a trend. And that is that this part didn't turn out as planned either. The Final Gravity reading was 1.026. So only about 60% of the sugars were fermented. In hindsight, I kind of saw this one coming (how's that for mixing your metaphors?). You see, I used a lot of dark extract in the base for this beer in addition to the black patent, chocolate, and roasted barley that I steeped. What all of this darkness means (in addition to making beer that is really stinkin' dark) is that most of the sugars are non-fermentable. This was partly by design, since you need non-fermentable sugars to give a stout its thick, chewy feel. But I clearly overshot the mark on this and ended up with much more unfermented sugar than I had planned.
This puts it in between beer styles, so I'm not winning any competitions with it. ;) It has the gravity of a Russian Imperial Stout, the bitterness of anything but an Imperial or American Stout, and the alcohol content of anything but an Imperial or a Foreign Extra Stout. So it's kind of a Bastard Stout. Which I guess could be in keeping with my intent to call it Norman Invasion Ale. I mean, you start with 1.066 and you end up with something that isn't like anything that came before it.
The pre-bottling taste test proves it to be predictably heavy, not too sweet, and you can definitely taste those roasted grains. I can't wait to see what kind of a head it develops and how it finally tastes. Speaking of head, I think I figured out why my last batch had several bottles that did not carbonate properly. I noticed that some of the bottle caps did not appear to be on straight, and I'm betting they just didn't keep the pressure and went flat. I think I have identified (and eliminated) the offending style of bottles, so hopefully this batch will be properly carbonated.
So there ya go. Check back after February 9th for the final verdict!