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Taste Notes

Description: This recipe was made to explore the trend of high abv / high final gravity pastry stouts in demand now. Loads of dark grains create a very dark color with rich roasted, earthy, and chocolate flavor base. A long boil creates a condensed and thickened beer with lactose and maltodextrin added to further enhance the body and raise the FG. The combination of vanilla, lactose light Belgian candied syrup, and molasses provide the base flavor profile for the cheesecake flavor profile, with cacao nibs creating additional flavor depth and complexity. In the end, this is a rich tuxedo cheesecake stout. Aging on bourbon soaked staves or cubes will further enhance the final beer. Brewday: 5/21 - Holy mother of sweetness. Thick and viscous, coats the entire tongue. Caramel is dominating. Vanilla, chocolate are there as well. Hop bite is significant at this point burning the throat, but I suspect that will fade. Some other earthy notes are present as well. Aftertaste is largely molasses caramel and vanilla. Aroma is caramel and vanilla primarily. 5/24 - The yeast is throwing all sorts of esters during fermentation, however the 5 ml sample pulled has a strong odor of chocolate, vanilla, burnt earthy notes, some light creaminess, definite sweetness. Flavor has an almost liquor quality to it. There is a lot of harshness and bitterness present. Definitely some heavy caramels and nice sweetness. Dark fruit around the back and edges. Chocolate and vanilla aren't readily apparent on the taste yet. Bite in the middle of the tongue. Definitely a cheesecake type quality if you will to this beer amazingly. Already pretty boozy. 5/31 - Thick, earthy, sharpness on the middle-back tongue, caramel, chocolate, more earthiness in the aftertaste. Decent amount of nuttiness. Sweetness balances nice. Booziness isn't too much with everything else. Vanilla is present but not a major player. That is nice, but still a bit harsh. Age will do wonders. 6/7 - Thick, sweet, chocolate, a bit of caramel sharpness. Very nice! 6/15 - Thick, viscous, chewy (though some of this may be from the yeast), and the right amount of booziness. Flavor is rich, sweet bittersweet chocolate layered on top of a traditional stout base. Loads of creaminess. The backend brings a bit of bite and a thick caramel flavor with vanilla layered on top. Overall, a very good stout at this point. 6/26 - Thick, viscous, chewy, gritty almost with a hint of booziness. Flavor is rich with some caramel sharpness on the backend. Layers of vanilla, cream, caramel, and chocolate fill out the beer. There are some light hints of bourbon and oak notes hiding behind the rest of the intense flavors. This will be a very interesting beer as it gains some age on the oak and after it is carbonated.

Notes

Brewday: 21 May 2018 Prep: 5/19/2018 - Boiled oak cubes for a couple minutes then placed them in a Mason jar with enough Bowman's bourbon to cover the cubes. Will shake regularly. - Roasted cacao nibs in the oven at 325 deg F for 10 minutes (taste is definitely a lot more earthy and bakers chocolate) 5/21 - Ground all grains twice per usual process (ground Buckwheat at 0.063" before grinding it a second time at 0.012" Mash: - Started cereal mash for quinoa while grinding other grains, added into initial mash - Mashed in with about 5.5 gallons of liquor. Initial temps were reading 180-190 deg F - Added 5 ml of HTL enzyme before adding hot liquor - Will do a 2 step mash, one at 175 deg F and one at 130 deg F - Second mash step ended up at 135 deg F - Initial running collected nearly 5 gallons at 1.052 - Batch sparged with about 1.5 gallons - Second running yeild wort at 1.040 - Final was 6.5 gallons at 1.050 Boil: - Added hop shot right after boil took off - Added 20ish minutes to the boil to account for the additional wort - Added sugars incrementally, starting with the maltodextrin about 15 minutes out, followed by the golden syrup, then lactose, then molasses, then the hops, vanilla, and cacao nibs Fermentaion: - FG measured at 1.131 via hydrometer (refractometer showed over 31 Brix which would put us north of 1.132) - Cooled down to 80deg F - Transferred to fermenter (3.33 gallons) - Oxygenated for 2 minutes - Pitched yeast - Moved into kegerator set at 66 deg F for primary, reduced after a day to 63 deg F 5/22: - Fermentation was active by the time I woke up this morning 5/24 - Moved temp back to 66 deg F after activity started to slow down at end of day 5/27 - Took a gravity reading and measured at 1.060. There was still some activity but most of the krausen had fallen away exposing the top of the beer. 5/28 - Beer is exhibiting odd appearance. There are large bubble on the top and I am concerned it may be infect...I am pitching some US-05, yeast nutrient, and beta enzymes to hopefully avert a disaster. - Pitched yeast, nutrient into beer after about an hour of rehydrating. Upon impact, fine bubbles drastically increased 6/7 - Beer is still fermenting at a low level. ABV is about 14%. 6/15 -Transferred to secondary - Gravity reading at 1.035-36 - Added 2 oz of bourbon with 2 vanilla beans soaking for 1 day - 4 oz of roasted (10 minutes) cacao nibs (did not crush... :( ) - 2 oz of oak cubes - Will let stand for another month - ABV will increase 0.15% for each 2 oz of bourbon