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.