American Old Guard Stout

DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 154°F (68°C) for 60 minutes, aiming for a mash pH of 5.5.

Raise to 168°F (76°C) for 10 minutes and mash out. Vorlauf until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge the grains and top up as necessary to obtain about 7 gallons (26.5 liters) of wort—or more, depending on your evaporation rate.

Boil for 60 minutes, following the hops schedule. After the boil, chill the wort to about 67°F (19°C), aerate well, and pitch the yeast.

Ferment at 67°F (19°C). Once fermentation is complete, cold-crash, package, and carbonate.

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Brewed 9/11/22. Used 15lb of pale malt in place of LME and DME. Did not read original recipe that has 10lb two row pale and 2 lb Munich, so will likely have a bigger beer!

Set strike temp to 161, but after mash in was 157. Lowered to 154 over 10 mins.

Mash out at 168 for 10 mins and 1 gallon of 168 sparse water. Boiled 60 mins and added yeast nutrient and whirfloc at 10 mins to go.

Pre boil gravity 1065 and post boil 1071. So hit 70% efficiency.

Fermented in plastic bucket. Temp free rose to 79 after 3 days, and gravity dropped to 1022 after 4 days and stayed there. Put into plastic keg after 7 days with 3.5 oz DME.

First sampled 10/1 after 2 weeks in keg. Garage had been warm, but flavor was amazing - as good as any American stout I’ve made. Rich, toasty malt flavor with notes of coffee and toffee. Very smooth with thick medium foam. I’d score it a solid 4.0 on untapped and thinking it’s likely to improve.

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Made 10/29/23. Added 1lb DME to hit a higher SG. Also added 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp gypsum and 1/2 tsp calcium chloride. Forgot to raise temp to 168, although used 168 sparge water at end of mash.

SG was 1075. Cooled to 67 and pitched yeast. Used chiller to keep temp at 67. It reached FG after 6 days. I then raised temp to 70 using fermerap and kept in fermenter for 10 days total. FG was 1020. Added 3.5 oz corn sugar and put into cask.


After 2 weeks in cask there’s light carbonation. Very dark color. Nose is creamy with slight coffee. Palate is very smooth, with sweetness and bitterness perfectly balanced. Good length. Solid 3.8 score.

Made 11/9/24

Strike temp at 156. Mashed in at 154 with 6.3 gallons of filtered water. Used 1 gallon for sparge. Added 1/2 tsp of gypsum and 1 tsp of baking soda to the water before mashing.

Started recirulating after 15 minutes. Lifted basket twice. Mashed for about 75 minutes total. The grains in the malt pipe didn't drain much on second lift. Added 1 gallon of 170 sparge water then left to drain while it came to the boil. Pre-boil gravity was 1065. Added 9 oz of DME rather than a full pound, as didn't want gravity to go too high.

Cooled quickly, 1 minute after I added the last 1 oz of Cascade. Cooled to 65 as water was cold then put into fermenter and added yeast from starter flask. Gravity on the tilt was 1074.

After 12 hours gravity was 1068, so a slow start to fermentation. After 24 hours is was 1054 and after 36 hours 1047.

Gravity continued to fall at a steady rate until it was 1020, then slowed down. Left it in the fermenter for 9 days, as temp was 65 degrees (room temp) so wanted to give yeast time to clean up. FG was 1018, so strong attenuation.