Son of a Bastard Stout - [Master]

Son of a Bastard
I love the Bastard series of stouts from Nickelbrook in Hamilton, Ontario, so this is my tribute to it.

Malt

Basic idea here is a healthy helping of dark/black malts and dark crystal malts. Feel free to vary the actual specific malts.

It's a lot of malt! Do not overgrind the malt. I had a seriously stuck mash for STOUT03. Also, make sure the mash filter is properly clamped on. Don't fuck around!

I've set brewhouse efficiency to 55% for this recipe. That reflects results to date. It's still quite possible that the yield will be lower than expected. Have on hand at least a kilo each of DME and dextrose.

Mash

The mash pH that is calculated for this recipe is way too low. Ignore it! Stout03 came in consistently at 5.5. Eventually it dropped to 5.2. Don't leave out the acid malt!

Dough in 33L @ 168F ==> 153F strike temperature //set to 2.5L/Kg grist ratio to avoid troubles with overly thick mash Stout03
Add 10L to HLT after dough-in and fit HERMS
Let sit 60-90 minutes at 153F (with a gently drop over time)
Use HERMS to raise temp to 158F, hold 10 minutes
Use HERMS to raise temp to 170F and start to run off
Be gentle with the HERMS recirc to avoid a stuck mash
Consider using rice hulls for same reason.

Chocolate

Use cacao nibs roasted according to this schedule:

• 350 °F (177 °C) for 10 minutes
  
• 325 °F (163 °C) for 5 minutes
  
• 300 °F (150 °C) for 5 minutes
  
• 275 °F (135 °C) for 5-10 minutes or until done.
  When the roasting is right, there will an aroma of brownies. You could go longer too for deeper more complex flavors. I did not do that with STOUT02.
  
  Cacao nibs are added to the mash.
  
  Yeast
  
  I'm going to go with SAFALE S-04, my new favorite. No need to rehydrate it. Sprinkle two packs on the wort and stand back.
  
  Hops
  
  Not a lot of hops. Most straight-up stout recipes use a bunch more, but I want little noticeable hop flavor, so the chocolate and coffee flavors can shine.
  
  
• 240 alpha pts 60 minutes
  
• 75 alpha pts 30 minutes
  
• 75 alpha pts 0 minutes (stay close to 1/2 ounce)
  
  Coffee
  
  Add cold-brew coffee before bottling. Remove a liter of stout and do taste tests with the cold-brew coffee and an eye dropper for measuring small amounts. When you find the right level of cold-brew coffee, scale up the amount.
  
  Prepared 6 cups of cold-brew at a rate of 60g coarse coffee per cup. (You will use about 3 cups of cold-brew, probably, but anything left over makes nice iced coffee.)
  
• my previous reference rates were 120 ml / 16L
  
• The following "bottling schedule" modifies that rate.
  Bottle "Placido"
  
  1. Add 120 ml cold-brew coffee to 18L stout. (This is close to, but slightly below my reference rate of 120 ml / 16L.)
     
  2. Bottle 9L stout
     Bottle "Double Tap"
     
  3. Add 80 ml to remaining 9L stout. (You can double this number to imagine the impact if it had been added at the start. If you do, it comes to 120 + [2 x 80] or 280 / 16L, so well over twice the initial concentration.)
     
  4. Bottle 6L stout.
     Bottle "Diablo"
     
  5. Add what's left of the initial 3 cups of cold-brew. It looked like about 50 ml to me. So all I know is Diablo gonna be strong. Maybe stupidly strong. You'll know by the time you brew Stout #4 my son.
     
  6. Bottle 3L stout
     
     
     For STOUT02, I made cold-brew coffee with 60 g coffee added to 470 ml water, then added 120 ml of that to 19.5L and 60 ml to 3.8L. The latter concentration is about 3x the former, so the latter shall be called 'double-tap' or 'double-shot'. (I did try a sample amount that was about twice the double-shot, but it was a little too strong.)