Trying something new this time. Using a 5-gallon recipe, and beefing it up a little to make for a 8 gallons of wort, and 13ish gallons of beer. We'll see if thin is in.
Shooting for an OG of 1030 / FG: 1002-1006:
* 8 oz. Black Patent
* 8 oz. Roast
* 30 oz. Oatmeal
* 4 lbs Amber DME
* 3 lbs Dark DME
* 5 lbs clover honey
* 2 oz. Fuggles (4.8)
* 2 oz. Cascade (6.1)
* 8 oz. Baker's Chocolate
* Struggle for Yeasty Supremacy: Part II: Using London, Windsor, and Nottingham slurry to see who can do the best with this batch, in the three 5 gallon corneys. May the best microorganism win!
Boil (Day 1):
Dropped the grains into 9 gallons at 140º and let them steep up to 160º for 35 mins. Stirred in the extracts and honey, and once the boil began (at 170mins), dropped in the first ounce of Fuggles bittering. Took that long to get a good running boil - hey, I can make good beer, but I can't afford a good system, okay? I'm also trying to heat the house by boiling on the stove... After 30 minutes of a good boil, added the chocolate and the second oz of Fuggles, and boiled for another good 50. Turned off the heat and let the brew keg cool slowly with the 2 oz of Cascade down to 140º, where we began. Evenly distributed the wort between 3 corneys; one laced with a packet of dry London, one with Windsor, and the third fresh off of a run with the last batch of American Brown Ale, slurried with second-generation Nottingham.
OG: 1042 at 70º before greedily and brainlessly cutting it into 5 gallon corneys with some Culligan water.
My prediction? Nottingham may be aggressive, but you can't beat a slurry of proven yeast. See you in a few to prove me right.
Fermentation (Day 6):
Wrong. Believe it or don't, the Windsor took right off, and was creating some good pressure in only 6 hours. Added some yeast nutrient to both the London and Nottinghams, and tapped in a packet of dry Nottingham, and at the 24 hour mark, the London was on a roll; the Nottingham of all things, hadn't. Got a little worried and added more nutirent to the Nottingham and another, new packet of dry. It took, but wasn't as aggressive as usual (maybe it's because there's more yeast than beer in that bucket).
Let 'em all run to the 5 day mark, when they all began to lose their fizz simultaneously. Dropped 'em into the fridge at 47º to arrest anymore fermentation.
Racking (Day 12):
Pulled yeast off the bottom of the corneys with a quick shot of CO2, and took a hydro of the mixture of all three types after the stuff settled: .1011. A little higher than I predicted, but a sweet beer probably won't be that bad... The chocolate might improve the density a bit, I imagine. Chilled to 40º, and will continue into conditioning, full steam ahead.
Second Guessing (Day 27):
Went in to rack a second , and what I thought would be a final, pull of yeast off the bottom of the corneys only to discover to my horror that the hydro had the gravity at .1012. I admit it. I got nervous. I got crazy. I got a screwdriver and heated the fridge up to 54º. I'll let it run for a week, then chill it back down and rack twice. Sigh.
Finally Happy.
Okay, it worked. This Porter turned out really nice, with no dramatic variation between yeasts. It's all good, baby.
Will add 10 vanilla beans during secondary. See you in a few days.
