Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Nekromyces

Something on the order of 7-8 weeks ago, I brewed my first Russian Imperial Stout. This is a point of interest for a few reasons:

1.) The beers that I typically brew tend not to hover in these higher echelons of OG (1.096 in this case), 2.) It was my first outdoor brew, 3.) my boil was done on a charcoal Weber grill. Yes, a Weber grill. Apparently the BTU output is sufficiently high to boil 7.5 gallons to 4.5 over the course of a few hours. How many? To be honest, I lost count. Anyway, it's kind of fun to look at, so here are some images from that day:































My 50 quart brewkettle straddled across the charcoal flames. Hot.


















Good old rectangular cooler used as the mashing & lautering tun. Plenty of room even with 19 lbs of grain and 4.75 gallons of water.

















Running hot wort into the kettle.


















Tasty looking grains, yes?

Finally, here's the recipe used (for ~4.5 gallons):

Grain Bill:
15 lbs. Marris Otter (~80%)
1 lb. British Dark Crystal 150L (~5%)
1 lb. Weyermann Carafa III Dehusked 488-563L (~5%)
1 lb. Weyermann Melanoidin 28-38L (~5%)
1/2 lb. Chocolate Rye 400-500L (~2.5%)
1/2 lb . Flaked Oats (~2.5%)

Hops:
2 oz. Simcoe for boiling
2 oz. Millenium last 15 minutes

Yeast(s)
1056 American Ale
Safale S-04
Safale T-58

OG: 1.096
FG: 1.021
Apparent Attenuation: 78%
ABV%: ~9.8%

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome pics Joe. I wouldn't think a charcoal grill would be able to boil that much water. I'm going to try something similar with this little electrical burner I have so I can brew in the basement. I think I'll test it on just water first though. If you name your beers, this one should have some sort of charcoal reference.

joe said...

Right on. I did name this beer. It in called Nekromyces. Here's the etymology of "necrosis":

Late Latin necrosis, a causing to die, killing, from Greek nekrosis, death, from nekroun, to make dead, from nekros, corpse.

The implication being that you should be careful as to how much of this beer you drink.